THE NEW SECURITY DILEMMA UNDER INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC INTERDEPENDENCE

The impact of international economic interdependence on recent debates over the redefinition of 'national security' is explored in this article. The author examines how interdependence reduces threats because it weakens incentives for military conquest and how it increases vulnerabilities and weakens the state because military resources are increasingly found in global commercial markets over which states have little control. The article then goes on to examine policy responses which are focused on reducing vulnerabilities and strengthening the state through strategies of market control. Illustrations of the argument are drawn from Cold War East-West trade and post-Cold War economic security dilemmas in the Third World, the former Soviet Union, and Western Europe.