Geoeconomics as an instrument of geopolitics? A comparative analysis of the cases of the United States and China

Abstract

Since Antiquity, so-called “economic instruments”, such as commercial embargoes and financial sanctions, have been used by several nations in their geopolitical struggles aiming to expand the territories in which they enjoy advantages in material accumulation and exert privileged power positions. Recently, authors such as Robert Blackwill and Jennifer Harris have been supporting the hypothesis that so-called “geoeconomics” has returned to the core of international relations, defining and delimiting this object and debating its relations with geopolitics. In this sense, this paper aims to analyze the employment of such instruments by the United States and China over the last decades, as well as their objectives and results. However, the elements raised in such exercise gave rise to an epistemological question concerning the supposedly “economic” nature of such instruments, allowing us to present a hypothesis to be explored in future research: is there, in fact, a “geoeconomics” as an autonomous phenomena in international relations?

Keywords

• geoeconomia, geopolítica, relações internacionais