Description
Book Synopsis
Armies fight battles, states fight wars. To focus solely on armies is to neglect the broader story of victory and defeat. Military power stems from an economic base, and without wealth, soldiers cannot be paid, weapons cannot be procured, and food cannot be bought. War finance is among the most consequential decisions any state makes: how a state finances a war affects not only its success on the battlefield but also its economic stability and its leadership tenure. In How States Pay for Wars, Rosella Cappella Zielinski clarifies several critical dynamics lying at the nexus of financial and military policy.Cappella Zielinski has built a custom database on war funding over the past two centuries, and she combines those data with qualitative analyses of Truman''s financing of the Korean War, Johnson's financing of the Vietnam War, British financing of World War II and the Crimean War, and Russian and Japanese financing of the Russo-Japanese War. She argues that leaders wh
Trade Review
A promising first book... that addresses a significant gap in the market and should find its way onto reading lists for advanced undergraduate and graduate students.
-- Mark Harrison * Governance *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Making Money, Making War
1. How States Pay for Wars
2. Truman and the Korean War
3. Johnson and the Vietnam War
4. Britain and Currency Reserves during World War II and the Crimean War
5. Taxation and Currency Reserves during the Russo-Japanese War
6. Confronting the Costs of War, 1823–2003
Conclusion: Long War Finance in Perspective
