Trading on Preconceptions: Why World War I Was Not a Failure of Economic Interdependence

Abstract

The relationship between economic interdependence and military conºict is among the most studied and debated in the international relations literature. Scholars who argue that economic ties reduce the likelihood of conºict have struggled to reconcile this view with the outbreak of World War I. The conventional wisdom among political scientists is that World War I constituted a failure of economic integration to maintain peace. 1 Even prominent advocates of liberal theory view World War I as an unfortunate contradiction to the general argument that trade inhibits conºict. 2 These arguments are important for several reasons. First, they bear on scholars' understanding of the causes of war and peace and on more pragmatic issues of policy in an increasingly globalized, but still fractious, world. Whether interdependence encourages states to resolve differences diplomatically or not Trading on Preconceptions Trading on Preconceptions