Free Trade and War

International trade has a certain reputation: Many an historical war was fought for reasons of trade and commerce.

The Opium Wars, in which England sought to open Chinese markets to international trade through the barrel of a gun, is one example, and the colonial era is another.

Europe sought to colonize the "New World" in an effort to gain the raw materials necessary to fuel the industrial revolution at home. In the process, European powers fought not only the inhabitants of that world--who did not take kindly to their subjugation--but also each other as they struggled to establish dominion over trade routes across the oceans.

At some point in human history, the nations of the world got just a little bit smarter.

After calculating the high price of these economic wars, they began to understand the numbers just did not add up. Going to war was simply not a cost-effective way to establish or maintain trading relationships. In an effort to avoid these wars, countries began creating rules to regulate these relationships.

In the case of sub-Saharan Africa, for example, the European powers grew frustrated with the never-ending wars fought among themselves over nearly every square inch of land on the Continent. In 1884, they met in a palace in Berlin (with America in the wings) and divided up Africa.

They established boundaries around African territories--boundaries that would eventually give rise to modern African states--so that each European signatory nation would know exactly what piece of land it "owned." These ownership rights were to be respected by the other countries who signed the treaty.

In addition to treaties establishing "ownership" of contested land, the nations of the world adopted legal principles like non-discrimination (often called "most favored nation treatment") to create a peaceful environment for trade and commerce.

With rules come institutions to enforce them. And thus, institutions like the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and the World Trade Organization were created to police international trade agreements.

In these essays, I explore the intersection of international trade rules with war. Even in times of active combat, civilized nations abide by certain rules of conduct (despite what Bush would have us believe). But what happens to trade rules when nations go to war? It raises some key questions:

• What are the WTO rules on trade and war?


• Do national security concerns always trump trade obligations?


• How has the War on Terror changed the rules of the game on trade?