ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the extent to which negative economic sanctions can be used to further the core national interests of states. It emphasizes the potential of economic inducements/positive economic sanctions, to be a key national security instrument. The chapter explores the intervening variables that link economic interdependence to the existence of peace or military conflict among major powers. The study of negative economic sanctions/economic coercion has long been crucial to any understanding of the relationship between economic interdependence and national security. Economic sanctions typically involve the application of economic pressure to produce some type of political result that is a change in the current or future behavior of a target government, or future behavior of a target government, or perhaps a change in the target government itself. High levels of interdependence can lead to either peace or war, depending on whether future expectations are optimistic or pessimistic.
