Online ISSN 2286-0266
Print ISSN 1223-0685
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Alexandru GEORGESCU
Cercetător independent
Throughout human history, polities have found it necessary to devote resources towards maintaining security from other polities or to prosecute a war against them. This was done through various means, related both to the technological level of the combatants, as well as the structure of the economy and society in question. The Industrial Revolution and the advent of the American Civil War gave rise to the concept of total war, where the whole of society needed to be mobilized for contribution, in treasure or blood, to conflicts that explored the rising potential for technologically-augmented destruction. The two World Wars were the bloody apogee of the total war concept and saw the development of new organizational, social and economic means of directing a society’s resources towards the war effort. Afterwards, further technological advances, as well as rapid economic development made it possible for states to gradually shield their populations from the costs of war, or just mask them better, with unexpected consequences, including in the political process. New economic instruments as well as systems have emerged, which have enabled the global military hegemon, the United States, to outstrip the next 26 countries, of which the vast majority are its allies, in terms of military spending and with limited impact on its society, in ordinary circumstances. This paper explores the evolution of the war economy, as well as the circumstances which mandated and instruments which allowed the rapid transformations of the relationship between society and conventional warfare.

ŒCONOMICA no. 3/2012
Keywords: war economy, total war, mobilization, price controls, rationing, military industrial complex, deficit financing
JEL: D45, D72, D73, F51, F52, H56, H63, P11, O25
Economia de război: concepte, evoluţie şi instrumente