ABSTRACT
Modern interpretations of the origins of war in 1914 emphasise the struggle for position in a global economy, rather than the 'European civil war' which was how the conflict was routinely viewed in the mid-twentieth century. The global economy acquired its own regulatory institutions and practices: the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. The impact of global economic change on the evenness of economic development across the world: the welfare consequences of globalisation. Much of the discussion of the impact of globalisation has centred on its propensity to weaken or damage the nation state or to provoke conflict between nation states. Two long-run perspectives on the emergence of the nation state have become established among historians, neither of which seriously acknowledges the positioning of the nation state in a world economy. Many nation states sought to develop particular industries or areas of manufacturing capability, or protect those whose decline threatened social stability.
