Starting from the key concept of geo-economics, this book investigates the new power politics and argues that the changing structural features of the contemporary international system are recasting the strategic imperatives of foreign policy practice.

States increasingly practice power politics by economic means. Whether it is about Iran’s nuclear programme or Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Western states prefer economic sanctions to military force. Most rising powers have also become cunning agents of economic statecraft. China, for instance, is using finance, investment and trade as means to gain strategic influence and embed its global rise. Yet the way states use economic power to pursue strategic aims remains an understudied topic in International Political Economy and International Relations. The contributions to this volume assess geo-economics as a form of power politics. They show how power and security are no longer simply coupled to the physical control of territory by military means, but also to commanding and manipulating the economic binds that are decisive in today’s globalised and highly interconnected world. Indeed, as the volume shows, the ability to wield economic power forms an essential means in the foreign policies of major powers. In so doing, the book challenges simplistic accounts of a return to traditional, military-driven geopolitics, while not succumbing to any unfounded idealism based on the supposedly stabilising effects of interdependence on international relations. As such, it advances our understanding of geo-economics as a strategic practice and as an innovative and timely analytical approach.

This book will be of much interest to students of security studies, international political economy, foreign policy and International Relations in general.

本书从地缘经济学的关键概念入手，对新大国政治进行了调查，并认为当代国际体系不断变化的结构特征正在重塑外交政策实践的战略要务。

各国越来越多地通过经济手段实行强权政治。无论是关于伊朗的核计划还是俄罗斯对克里米亚的吞并，西方国家都更倾向于经济制裁而不是军事力量。大多数新兴大国也已成为经济治国之道的狡猾代理人。例如，中国正在利用金融、投资和贸易作为获得战略影响力并嵌入其全球崛起的手段。但是，国家利用经济力量实现战略目标的方式仍然是国际政治经济学和国际关系中一个尚未被研究的话题。本书的贡献是将地缘经济学评估为一种权力政治形式。它们表明，权力和安全不再仅仅是通过军事手段对领土进行物理控制，而是如何指挥和操纵在当今全球化和高度互连的世界中具有决定性作用的经济纽带。实际上，正如本书所显示的那样，行使经济权力的能力是大国外交政策中的一种必不可少的手段。与此同时，本书挑战了回归传统的、由军事主导的地缘政治的简单说法，同时又不屈服于任何相互依存的、对国际关系具有稳定作用的毫无根据的理想主义。因此，它提高了我们对地缘经济学作为一种战略实践以及一种创新的及时分析方法的理解。

本书将对安全研究、国际政治经济学、外交政策和国际关系的一般学生产生极大的兴趣。