The Economics Show Economic warfare: lessons from history, with Mark Harrison
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Apr 2, 2026 Mark Harrison, emeritus economics professor at Warwick and co-author of Economic Warfare and Sanctions Since 1688, explores centuries of economic conflict. He discusses blockades, sanctions and supply-chain attacks. He compares WWI blockade effects, Iran’s Strait of Hormuz signaling, and how states adapt with diversion and substitution.
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Blockade Helped Break Germany In 1918
- Economic warfare can be decisive when it collapses an enemy home front, as Allied blockade-induced shortages helped force Germany's 1918 surrender.
- Mark Harrison stresses the blockade's effect combined with wartime strain and mobilization, making its marginal contribution hard to isolate.
Hormuz Siege Signals A War Of Attrition
- Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz is economic warfare aimed at importers of oil and fertilizer, signaling willingness for a long war of attrition.
- Harrison interprets Iran's move as forcing a prolonged conflict that the US and allies may be unprepared to sustain.
Economic Warfare Shifted From Money To Supply
- Historical economic warfare evolved from denying enemy revenue to denying critical supplies for weapon production.
- Harrison traces the shift from cutting exports (gold/revenue) to blocking imports of microchips, nitrates and other inputs for modern arms.
