Political Economy of War

Modern political economy is largely concerned with how political power affects the production and distribution of goods in a nation’s economy. The political economy of war focuses on the impact of military spending and how the military obtains funding. In his classic 1981 study, The Iron Triangle, political scientist Gordon Adams looks at the complex connections between the armaments industry, politicians, and government agencies. U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower introduced political economy into societal discourse in 1953 and later in 1961 with his speeches about the military-industrial complex. Various social scientists and journalists, such as Hedrick Smith, Joseph Stiglitz, and Carl Bernstein, have broadened the traditional focus on military spending to include the media’s interactions with the military-industrial complex. Political communications scholar Jens Maesse analyzes ...