Trade and Security : Empiricism, Change, Emotion & Relevancy

This chapter appears in a book published by the American Society of International Law as part of their Studies in Transnational Legal Policy series, Trade as the Guarantor of Peace, Liberty, and Security? Critical, Historical, and Empirical Perspectives (American Society of International Law Press, Studies in Transnational Legal Policy: A Series of Books) (2006) (Padideh Alai, Tomer Broude, & Colin B. Picker eds). This chapter concerns the utility of employing trade to reduce armed conflict. The chapter, as an initial matter, examines empirical studies that have considered the relationship of trade to armed conflict and suggests that the studies overall are inconclusive. The Chapter then explores why trade might not have much of an impact on armed conflict. The Chapter suggests that as armed conflict is usually driven by passion and emotion, the cold promise of trade will typically have little to no impact on those emotions and passions. The Chapter then concludes by briefly considering the consequences of pursuing doomed policies that try to employ trade to reduce armed conflict - consequences ranging from perpetuating economic inefficiencies to distracting policy makers from more suitable strategies to reduce armed conflict