The Political Economy of National Security: A Global Perspective

Rating:
Summary: A pseudo-economic interpretation of National Security
Review: Kapstein presents a work on a topic much neglected in IR theory -- namely the nexus between political economy and security studies. Seemingly an exciting exploration of the field, it leaves the reader much disappointed by the poor economic analysis used. He cites studies without any analysis. For example, studies on Korean military spending suggesting that military spending and high growth can occur simulataneously. His analysis misses the point or this misses the point, Korean growth can occur in spite of high military spending not because of it. Moreover, what would the Korean economy have down without the military burden? In another instance he remarks that social spending is not crowded out by defense spending, rather taxes and deficits have increased. He misses the obvious point that taxes hurt the economy and may necessitate higher social spending. Overall the analysis is poor like these examples suggest, and demonstrate why people who special in security studies stay away from economics -- because they don't understand it.