Conflict, Militarism and Global Markets (YorkU, GS6230 3.0, Graduate)

Does capitalism require peace and stability? Is armed conflict alien to markets? Do capitalists suffer from militarism and war? With the cold war over and liberalism being triumphant, many believe the answer is yes. Capitalism, so it seems, thrives on, and therefore promotes peace and stability. This view, though, stands in sharp contrast to the history of capitalism. In fact, over the past several centuries, the expansion of markets and capitalism was accompanied by an exponential increase, not decrease, in armed conflict and militarism. Have we now passed the peak of this process? Is the end of the cold war the beginning of true ‘capitalist peace’? Are ‘peace dividends’ here to stay? Perhaps. But it is also possible that conflict and militarism are not antithetical to capitalism, and that under certain circumstances, they may even be essential for its survival.

The seminar tackles these questions within a broader analysis of capitalist development, focusing primarily (though not exclusively) on the twentieth century. Drawing on various examples from around the world, it covers issues such as the connection between capitalism and war, political economy of military spending, socio-political aspects of militarism and institutionalized waste, peace and war as phases of accumulation, militarization and ruling-class formation, and the international political economy of the arms trade.

Views on these issues can be delineated along ideological lines. Mainstream approaches, geared primarily toward prediction and decision making, tend to follow the realist framework, separating economics from politics and accentuating the significance of formal structures and state officials. Critical theories of political economy, on the other hand, view the tension between markets on the one hand, and conflict and militarism on the other, as part of wider social context. The seminar traces the evolution of such theories from the early Marxist and institutionalist writings, through the post-war emergence of the Monopoly Capital school and Military Keynesianism, to research on the Military Industrial Complex and ‘peace dividends.’ The globalization of military industries, the arms trade and prospects for disarmament are assessed in light of theoretical debates.