Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Stephen G. Brooks is Assistant Professor of Government at Dartmouth College. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University, where his dissertation received the American Political Science Association's Helen Dwight Reid Award.

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"This is not only one of the three best books in international political economy in the last ten years, it is one of the most important recent books in the entire field of international relations. Brooks integrates security studies and international political economy with skill and wisdom. Focusing sharply on the globalization of production, the author explores its implications for national security, international politics, and international economic relations. In addition, he links the discussion to various theories of international relations."--David Baldwin, Princeton University

"Stephen Brooks has quickly emerged as an original and persuasive voice among international security experts. One reason for this rapid ascent is his sophisticated understanding of international economics and its effects on global politics. This remarkable book breaks outside the confines of the longstanding does-trade-promote-peace? debate to explore the impact of the rise of multinational firms on security affairs--arguably the most important facet of contemporary globalization. Brooks comes to powerful and provocative conclusions about the end of the cold war, great power stability, and security relations among developing countries. Scholars and policymakers alike will be influenced by Brooks' approach and will have to contend with his arguments for years to come."--Geoffrey Garrett, University of California, Berkeley

"Brooks has produced a significant and well-crafted book that addresses an age-old debate in international relations and succeeds in saying something new."--G. John Ikenberry, Princeton University

"A path-breaking work on the globalization of production and international conflict. While other writers have been content to manipulate the black boxes of trade and conflict or international production and conflict, Brooks has opened up the boxes and looked inside."--Richard Rosecrance, University of California, Los Angeles

"Producing Security will transform how we understand the age-old question of the impact of international commerce on international security and war. Brooks argues persuasively that the globalization of production is the key feature of the current international economy and, therefore, the traditional focus on international trade is outdated. Brooks then develops a comprehensive theory of how the globalization of production could influence security, exploring whether states can still maintain autarkic security policies and whether the economic benefits of expansion have been reduced. His conclusions, supported by thorough empirical analysis, are optimistic--the globalization of production is a force for stability among the great powers."--Charles Glaser, University of Chicago

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"Stephen Brooks has quickly emerged as an original and persuasive voice among international security experts. One reason for this rapid ascent is his sophisticated understanding of international economics and its effects on global politics. This remarkable book breaks outside the confines of the longstanding does-trade-promote-peace? debate to explore the impact of the rise of multinational firms on security affairs--arguably the most important facet of contemporary globalization. Brooks comes to powerful and provocative conclusions about the end of the cold war, great power stability, and security relations among developing countries. Scholars and policymakers alike will be influenced by Brooks' approach and will have to contend with his arguments for years to come."--Geoffrey Garrett, University of California, Berkeley

"This is not only one of the three best books in international political economy in the last ten years, it is one of the most important recent books in the entire field of international relations. Brooks integrates security studies and international political economy with skill and wisdom. Focusing sharply on the globalization of production, the author explores its implications for national security, international politics, and international economic relations. In addition, he links the discussion to various theories of international relations."--David Baldwin, Princeton University

"Brooks has produced a significant and well-crafted book that addresses an age-old debate in international relations and succeeds in saying something new."--G. John Ikenberry, Princeton University

"A path-breaking work on the globalization of production and international conflict.While other writers have been content to manipulate the black boxes of trade and conflict or international production and conflict, Brooks has opened up the boxes and looked inside."--Richard Rosecrance, University of California, Los Angeles

""Producing Security" will transform how we understand the age-old question of the impact of international commerce on international security and war. Brooks argues persuasively that the globalization of production is the key feature of the current international economy and, therefore, the traditional focus on international trade is outdated. Brooks then develops a comprehensive theory of how the globalization of production could influence security, exploring whether states can still maintain autarkic security policies and whether the economic benefits of expansion have been reduced. His conclusions, supported by thorough empirical analysis, are optimistic--the globalization of production is a force for stability among the great powers."--Charles Glaser, University of Chicago

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Producing Security

Princeton University Press

Chapter One

SCHOLARS AND STATESMEN have debated the influence of international commerce on war and peace for thousands of years. Around A.D. 100, Plutarch maintained that international commerce brought about "cooperation and friendship" and that the cessation of commercial exchange would cause the life of man to be "savage and destitute." This line of reasoning became particularly prominent in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with the writings of philosophers such as Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham, Immanuel Kant, Thomas Paine, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Montesquieu, and John Stuart Mill. These men were united in their belief that enhanced international commerce made war among states more costly and, thus, that "the natural effect of commerce is to lead to peace," as Montesquieu maintained in 1748. Many of them also believed that commerce was a dynamic force having a progressively stronger stabilizing effect over time. In the eyes of Kant, "the spirit of commerce, which is incompatible with war, sooner or later gains the upper hand in every state."

This sanguine view of commerce as having a strong, positive effect on interstate relations has not been universally embraced. Indeed, many have argued the opposite is true. Perhaps the most prominent early pessimistic statement in this regard was advanced by Alexander Hamilton. Writing in 1787, he devotes most of Federalist 6 to critiquing the notion that the "spirit of commerce has a tendency to soften the manners of men and to extinguish those inflammable humors which have so often kindled into wars." After running through a series of historical examples, Hamilton ultimately concludes that numerous wars were "founded upon commercial motives" and that "spirit of commerce in many instances administered new incentives" for conflict. Another prominent early pessimist is Frederick List, who argued during the middle of the nineteenth century that reducing participation in international commerce is, in the absence of a universal republic, the surest route to enhancing a state's security. At the dawn of the twentieth century, John Hobson famously maintained that the business activities of firms led to imperialism; a few years later, Lenin then took one step further, emphasizing that not just imperialism but eventually war among capitalist states would be the inevitable result of capitalism.

The belief that international commerce can strongly shape security relations is reflected not just in the writings of scholars over the centuries, but in policy discussions and governmental decisions. Over the years, the optimistic perspective on commerce and security has most strongly and directly shaped policy. David Lloyd George, Cordell Hull, Woodrow Wilson, Richard Cobden, William Gladstone, and Bill Clinton are prominent examples of politicians who have advanced policies premised on the notion that international commerce can promote peace. As we move into the twenty-first century, this view continues to significantly influence important aspects of policy. In the United States, the decision to push for China's entry into the World Trade Organization is the most prominent recent example. In his 28 January 2000 State of Union Address, President Bill Clinton exhorted: "Congress should support the agreement we negotiated to bring China into the WTO, by passing Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China as soon as possible ... [because] it will plainly advance the cause of peace in Asia." While the foreign policy approaches of the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations differ greatly on many issues, a key common theme is the notion that promoting economic globalization throughout the world can foster a stable security environment.

Despite the prominence of the view among scholars and policymakers that international commerce significantly influences security relations, up until the 1990s essentially no empirical analysis of this issue existed. In the final phase of the Cold War, prominent scholars such as Richard Rosecrance and Kenneth Waltz continued the centuries-old debate on the effects of commerce on peace, but this discussion was confined to the level of theory. The rapidly growing scope of international economic integration, termed "globalization," has over the past decade led international relations scholars to renew their attention to how shifts in the international economy affect states' security behavior. Unlike almost all previous scholarship on this general subject, the most recent wave of investigations was empirically focused. The general finding emerging from this literature-that trade linkages between states reduce the likelihood of conflict-is important in its own right and, more generally, indicates that the centuries-old contention that the business activities of firms can significantly shape security affairs is, in fact, valid.

BRINGING IN THE GLOBALIZATION OF PRODUCTION

Given the great importance of economic globalization in the international environment, it is crucial to carefully evaluate its influence on security. The recent literature examining how the international economy influences security has produced important new insights, but it suffers from a major limitation: it neglects the most significant feature of today's global economy. Over the centuries, scholars have generally treated the questions "Does international commerce influence security?" and "Do trade flows influence security?" as synonymous. Not surprisingly, virtually all studies in this recent wave of scholarship examine the security repercussions of international trade flows. In the past, such an overarching focus on the security implications of trade made sense. It no longer does. Until recently, trade was "the primary means of organizing international economic transactions." Today, however, trade is a second-order phenomenon: where and how multinational corporations (MNCs) organize their production activities is now the key integrating force in global commerce.

MNC international production strategies have changed in a variety of fundamental ways over the past three decades. These new strategies are characterized by an increased cross-border dispersion of production. For this reason, analysts commonly use the short-hand term globalization of production as a descriptor of these recent changes in MNC production-a practice I will also adopt here. As will be shown in chapter 2, MNCs are geographically dispersing production activities both internally and externally-that is, within the firm itself as well as through the development of more extensive interfirm linkages across borders. More specifically, MNCs have greatly enhanced the intrafirm international division of the production process through a new role for foreign affiliates; at the same time, they have pursued deeper relationships with foreign suppliers and cooperative partners located abroad through international subcontracting and international interfirm alliances.

Although analysts use the language of globalization in describing these shifts, the geographic dispersion of MNC production activities is not truly global in scope. These shifts in MNC production have had powerful effects on some states, but have largely bypassed many others. Specifically, it is among the economically most advanced states that the geographic dispersion of MNC production has been most prominent; the rise of...