The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War
A Foreign Affairs and The Economist Best Book of 2022
Winner of the 2023 Stuart L. Bernath Book Prize of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR)
Published by Yale University Press (2022)
You can order it here via:
Bookshop (the best for US delivery)
Blackwell’s (best for UK delivery)
Translations with Nikkei BP (Japanese), Acropolis (Traditional Chinese), China Science & Technology Press (Simplified Chinese), Einaudi (Italian), and Suthat Publishing House (Vietnamese).
Reviews of The Economic Weapon:
“Valuable . . . offers many lessons for Western policy makers today.”—Paul Kennedy, Wall Street Journal
“Lucidly written, scholarly and thought-provoking.”—Gideon Rachman, Financial Times
“A fascinating new book. . . . Taken as a superbly researched work of history, it lights up key aspects of the twentieth century in a deeply thought-provoking way.”—Noel Malcolm, Daily Telegraph
“Original and persuasive analysis. . . . For those who see economic sanctions as a relatively mild way of expressing displeasure at a country’s behavior, this book, charting how they first emerged as a potential coercive instrument during the first decades of the twentieth century, will come as something of a revelation.”—Lawrence D. Freedman, Foreign Affairs
“Terrifyingly relevant.”— New York Times’s “The Ezra Klein Show”
“Nicholas Mulder has succeeded admirably here in rescuing the historical origins of sanctions from relative obscurity. . . . Mulder’s thoroughly researched and intelligent assessment of the history of sanctions should be required reading for anyone contemplating Russia’s new aggression.”—Richard Overy
“The Economic Weapon is a superb account of the history of sanctions, and their profound impact on international politics. Although sanctions were once heralded as a force for peace, Mulder shows they often fail and sometimes make war more likely or even produce a humanitarian nightmare.&rdquot;—John Mearsheimer, author of The Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams and International Realities
“This is a tour de force of historical research and argument. With great subtlety and richness, Nicholas Mulder transforms our understanding of twentieth-century global and international history.”—David Edgerton, King’s College London
“Mulder reveals the history of liberalism’s ultimate weapon. An essential contribution both to scholarship and to the present-day debate on economic sanctions.”—Adam Tooze, author of Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World’s Economy
The Age of Confiscation: Making and Taking Property in the Creation of the Modern World
Forthcoming in October 2026 with Allen Lane (UK) and Little, Brown (US).
Pre-order here:
