On the genealogy of geoeconomics

Abstract

This commentary on Felix Mallin and James Sidaway's (2023) article on ‘Critical geoeconomics’ returns to the German Historical School of economics to recall their emphasis on geography, history and culture, but also their frequent advocacy for imperial expansion and colonial annexation. It revisits the divide between the Historical School's vision of the world economy and that of Austrian School marginalists and suggests that we can understand geoeconomics as the expression of a desire for sovereignty in an era of mutual interdependence.