Author: Stephen G Brooks
ISBN No: 9780 691226590
Review date: 14/02/2026
No of pages: 241
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publisher URL:
https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691226590/the-political-economy-of-security
Year of publication: 03/03/2026
Brief:
price
£28, paperback
In a most erudite book, Stephen G Brooks argues for ‘a greater focus on how economic structure influences security affairs’ (page 186). Security for this scholar is more in terms of national security than asset protection. For instance, he contrasts North Korea and Germany as two extremes – one has chosen ‘the pursuit of security at the expense of economic goals’, while Germany – understandably after its second world war, let its military become ‘under-sized’. The author, drawing largely on the British 18th century economist Adam Smith, addresses 16 ‘pathways’ whereby economic issues might affect security, questions such as whether ‘economic factors’ such as a nation seeking to trade globally might lead to particular security outcomes, such as peace or international conflict. Brooks sees no reason why such economic factors should head a country in the direction of peace or conflict. Globalisation of production, for example, might lead to proliferation of weapons. His overall conclusion; he came to no simple conclusion, because economic affairs are complicated, and have complicated effects, which at least calls into doubt both the beliefs of Marxists (that capitalist trade causes wars; indeed, makes war inevitable, as countries compete for markets) and of Enlightenment thinkers who argued that commerce was good for peace.
Brooks touches on arguably the most pressing issue for Britain in its foreign policy during the second term of US President Donald Trump. The head of state of Britain’s powerful and long-standing ally makes so much of whether allies don’t share the ‘burden’ of defence. Brooks notes that the economic costs of war are little studied, which he finds surprising given that America’s recent wars have been ‘incredibly costly’ – the US’ wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are reckoned to have cost six trillion dollars.
A chapter does cover terrorism and ‘civil conflict’, at worst civil war. The author suggests a divide is between two camps – optimists and pessimists; the optimists regard globalisation as a force for good, the pessimists see it as a ‘disruptive force’, making ‘social cleavages’. Whether poverty or someone’s socio-economic standing makes them more likely to turn to terrorism was naturally enormously important to Americans after the 9-11 terror attacks on the United States. Most studies, as Brooks goes over, don’t see a relationship between economic development and terrorism. The author offers the idea that if there is a relationship, it’s not when countries are poor (they don’t have many attractive targets for terrorists to attack) nor when they become wealthy (the state has more resources to deter and prevent terrorism, for example by hardening targets) but in a ‘middle stage of development’.
