War and the World Economy

This book offers a deep-dive analysis of the period of globalization from the late 1980s to the present through the lens of long wave theory. It traces how the end of the Cold War transformed the base of the global economy, doubling the working-class producing profits, and its superstructure, reestablishing US monopolar dominance. It explores how the ‘hyper-globalization’ of the period up to 2008 has transitioned into a new long wave of de-globalization, stagnation and multi-polar conflict. The book focuses particularly on the looming and actual wars – in trade, tech, and military terms –intertwined with world economics as the twenty-first century progresses.

The book addresses three overarching themes: globalization versus de-globalization, great power conflict versus cooperation, and trade/tech integration versus competition. It examines the shift from stagnating conditions in the late 1970s to the resurgent hyper-global capitalism of the 2000s after the integration of the former Centrally Planned Economies (CPEs) into the world market, leading to, but not ending with, the 2008 Great Financial Recession. Globalization is analysed in depth at both a national and global level, with insights on the diverging paths of US and China forming a central focus of the chapters. The book provides a comparative analysis of US and Chinese economic development and discusses how globalization inevitably produced de-globalization: reversing trends towards the integration of production, trade and finance that have defined the world economy over the last three decades. This book will be of interest to scholars and students in areas including political economy, macroeconomics, war studies, international relations and more.

William Jefferies completed his PhD at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2014, which was subsequently published as Measuring National Income in the Centrally Planned Economies: Why the West Underestimated the Transition to Capitalism . He has written widely on issues of value theory and the political economy of globalisation. He is an Associate Professor at Ravensbourne University London, and a Senior Lecturer at SOAS University of London.