ChinaTalk | 8 March 2023 | 1h 03m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Part 2 of an interview with Nick Mulder about his book The Economic Weapon. Discusses why the Great Depression made importing commodities cheaper, and how that affected Germany’s and Japan’s protectionism; the difference between autarky and autarchy; whether Kim Jong-un’s North Korea could survive a full-on fuel embargo today by using Nazi-era technology; “temporal claustrophobia” and what it has to do with Japan siding with the Axis; parallels between the “ABCD circle” (America, Britain, China, Dutch East Indies) and the semiconductor export controls today; why having an empire was a liability for Britain; what sanctions had to do with the Czechoslovaks – even with a larger army – falling to the Nazis; how the blockades of WWI differed from WWII; and what lessons pro-decouplers should learn from this history of sanctions.

ChinaTalk | 3 March 2023 | 1h 20m | Listen Later | Podcasts | Spotify
Part 1 of a podcast with Nick Mulder about his book The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War. Discusses the recent advent of the use of sanctions; why Europeans were reluctant to employ blockades and sanctions in the early 20C, and how their thinking evolved through two world wars; how Wilson’s notion of “moral sanctions” and decision to keep blockades in place after the war were important to the development of sanctions, especially during the interwar period; the League of Nations’ efforts to establish a “positive sanctions” fund, and why the concept never took off; why Hoover is underrated; and when and why Italy almost fought a war against Germany over Austria.