Economic war

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An economic war is colloquially an intensive dispute between companies , different or identical states , conducted with economic instruments , whereby legal , political and / or secret service instruments are often used in addition to economic ones. Economic war is to be distinguished from a military war waged for economic reasons (see trade war ); it can be a complementary element of a state's warfare.

The historian Sönke Neitzel uses a very broad definition of economic wars as

“Conflicts that are mainly carried out by economic means, target the economy or the outcome of which is dominated by economic factors. Economic wars can thus be part of a 'hot war', but can also be fought in peacetime [...] It is crucial that economic aspects determine a war or - in peacetime - the character of bilateral relations. "

Historical view

Early economic wars have been associated with the colonization of foreign countries since antiquity and had the primary goal of conquering foreign resources without leading a protracted armed conflict. With often limited military means, but far-reaching unilateral trade agreements, raw materials and the labor performance of the colonized country could often be exploited in the further course without the use of weapons, as the local population initially did not recognize the scope of their promises. If the exploitation was noticed, the aggressive economic partner had already gained extensive influence over the legislature and / or the executive . Only after long negotiations and numerous wars were nearly all colonies given up in the 20th century (see decolonization ).

Modern times

The Second World War clearly showed how important certain raw materials can be for a country's economy. Hitler's campaigns of conquest also aimed to secure access to raw material deposits and to deny his opponents access. For example, the German Reich secured itself

  • the iron ore deposits near Kiruna by the Weser Exercise company - the occupation of the neutral states Denmark and Norway in May 1940. According to British estimates, the German Reich would not have been able to hold out the war for more than twelve months without the Scandinavian ores required for war economics - iron ore and steel refining metals ; and
  • the Romanian Ploieşti oil fields (see also Operation Tidal Wave ).

Other scarce resources - including raw materials - were also considered 'vital to the war effort' in Germany.

The 'Enterprise Weser Exercise' just got ahead of a British action, Plan R 4 . One of the goals of this action was to cut off the German Empire from Kiruna.

After the end of the war, the Cold War soon began ; the industrial espionage as a means of strategic warfare between nations and business enterprises continued to develop; favored by great advances in communications technology , the film technology and satellite technology .

The Russian economy struggled to switch back to 'peace production' after the end of World War II. Many western industrialized countries did not sell the Soviet Union any dual-use goods in order not to support their armaments potential (see also export restrictions ). Eastern secret services tried to obtain Western know-how through industrial espionage in the west and with this to reduce the technological backwardness of the Comecon .

By specifically spying on state or business secrets with the help of secret service methods, an attempt is made to acquire certain key competencies. The focus here is on damaging or destroying the competitor or parts of the opposing economy. The successful destruction or defense of jobs as well as the established infrastructure is characterized in this context by the warring parties as a “victory” or “defeat”, just like a lost or won battle of conventional warfare.

Between 1948 and the 1990s there was an institutionalized boycott of Israel by the Arab League on numerous levels , through which the Arab states attempted to weaken their declared enemy economically. The aim was to prevent Israel from having any economic contacts with the outside world. Due to the support of Israel by Western states, this strategy did not work.

options

Trade barriers

Another form of economic war between nations is represented by the use of trade barriers . If tariffs , import regulations or the interruption of communication links to the economic blockade and isolation of an entire economy are used in a compressed manner, industrial production, if available, comes to a standstill, the supply of the population becomes more difficult, if necessary, funds can no longer be allocated to international accounts and private ones as well as commercial internet traffic comes to a standstill. An economy attacked in this way is isolated, resulting in impoverishment and extreme damage to the domestic economy (example from 2001: Somalia was disconnected from the Internet under pressure from the USA and all foreign accounts of the Somali bank Al-Barakaat were frozen that the transfer of money into the country was obstructed, for example by Somalis who worked abroad and sent money to their families - see web links).

Financial war

An economic war can be waged with the resources of the financial market ("financial warfare"). Since around 80 percent of international trade and 90 percent of all foreign exchange transactions are settled in American currency, the US government can selectively eliminate private individuals, companies or entire economic sectors, make international trade of a country and its access to the international capital market more difficult by connecting the Banks to SWIFT cuts or forces credit institutions to paralyze transfers and credit card payments and to cease their business relationships with certain countries. In this way, a special department of the American Treasury Department secured economic sanctions against North Korea, Iran and Russia, for example .

Furthermore, the national debt ratio of a country can be controlled by international institutions representing the interests of the creditors and used to eliminate the economic and budgetary sovereignty of a national government. Example: Conditioning of Greece's money supply by the Eurogroup , ECB and IMF .

International financial organizations instrumentalize currency and financial crises for the technocratic restructuring of national economic systems according to the Chilean model of the " Chicago Boys ".

Military facilities

Espionage facilities that were directed against hostile states during the Cold War can now also be used against commercial enterprises of friendly states in order to carry out industrial espionage. Dan Smith, who was a military attaché at the London embassy until 1993 , told the BBC that the NSA did not spy on behalf of individual US companies. It was admitted, however, that the targets were chosen so broadly that one "inevitably" recorded communication that was not militarily relevant. In Upper Bavaria Bad Aibling one was until 2004 Echelon -Station, the second largest monitoring system of the United States abroad. According to former NSA director William Studeman, around two million messages are recorded in one hour with what is probably the world's largest electronic surveillance system, consisting of 120 listening posts that monitor telecommunication satellites and mobile radio transmitters around the clock as well as tap subsea telephone cables and mail servers . The knowledge gained in this way can be used in the form of patent applications against competitors or be useful for pricing .

Patent portfolio

If property rights are used on a large scale to force a competitor to give up or merge , the attacking company uses them aggressively. Above all, financially strong companies also use patents that they have not developed themselves, but rather buy up (see also: patent portfolio ), in order to exploit the innovation potential in a targeted manner .

The most recent example of this debate is shown in the discussion on the European Union's draft harmonization for software patents on software-based technology. Although there is no legal basis for such patents in Europe, international and European companies have already obtained around 30,000 such software patents as a precaution. With the entry into force of the harmonization resolution in the version launched by US companies ( JURI draft), suddenly an immense number of computer programs would suddenly become illegal under patent law .

A future-oriented question in this context concerns the planned possibility of making human genetic material tradable with the help of patents . The prospect of using genetic engineering to monopolize the vital supply interests of a health care economy would, according to all experience, based on the observation of important economic players, not be used primarily for the benefit of man, but to gain economic power, also as a weapon against nations and Company against the background of profit-oriented interests of shareholders and other stakeholders .

Hostile takeover

One possible form of economic war between companies is hostile takeover . H. the broad purchase of shares with the aim of gaining a majority of the capital of the competitor , even against the express rejection of the attacked company management .

Parallels to conventional warfare

The redistribution of resources is planned in the economic war. Planning parallels can be:

  • strategic planning of combined measures with time and regional reference
  • high financial outlay for spying and infiltration
  • combined strategic and operational use of weapons
  • Execution of diversionary maneuvers and multi-front conflicts
  • Acceptance of considerable destruction on an economic level

See also

literature

  • Paul Krugman : The Myth of the Global Economic War. A settlement with the pop economists . Campus, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-593-36147-7 (essay collection).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sönke Neitzel: From economic wars and the economy in war. in: Wolfram Dornik / Johannes Gießauf / Walter M.Iber (eds.): War and economy. From antiquity to the 21st century. Studien Verlag, Innsbruck-Wien-Bozen 2010 ISBN 978-3-7065-4949-3 pp. 59–66, here p. 50.
  2. ↑ Kerstin Kohlenberg and Mark Schieritz: “The super weapon of Mr. Glaser. How American tax officials become economic warriors ", in: DIE ZEIT 44/2014 of October 23, 2014 [1]
  3. ↑ "Juncker: The sovereignty of the Greeks is restricted", in: FOCUS Online, July 3, 2011 [2]
  4. ↑ Erhard Stackl: "Pinochet's spirit is around in Europe" in: Der Standard, December 22, 2011 [3]

Web links