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The Political Economy of EU Ties with Iraq and Iran pp 19–33Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

The Trade-Peace Theory

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Part of the book series: The Political Economy of the Middle East ((PEME))

Abstract

The EU’s confidence in and practice of the peace-through-trade policy originates from the theory that an increase in trade leads to universal benefits (which expands to include peace). This notion was first mentioned at around AD 100, when Plutarch wrote about how sea trade allowed man to cooperate and “redress defects” in their relationship with one another through mutual exchange.1 This ideal was given more attention in the 1700s when Montesquieu specified that peace is a “natural” consequence of trade,2 it then gained momentum into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This chapter focuses on the theory concerned with the EU’s belief in the peace-through-trade policy. Indeed, it is this belief that led Brussels to implement its peacethrough-trade policy when dealing with foreign states.

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Notes

  1. Plutarch (ca. AD 100). Quoted in Douglas A. Irwin, Against the Tide: An Intellectual History of Free Trade (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996). 11.

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  1. Amir M. Kamel
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© 2015 Amir M. Kamel

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Kamel, A.M. (2015). The Trade-Peace Theory. In: The Political Economy of EU Ties with Iraq and Iran. The Political Economy of the Middle East. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137439802_2

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