Composite Containment: Military-Economic Countermeasures of a Reigning Power Against a Challenging Power

When does a great reigning power of the international system complement the military containment of a challenging power by restricting its economic exchanges with that state? Scholars of great power politics have traditionally focused on examining a reigning power's military containment of a challenging power. In direct contrast, Compound Containment demonstrates that these conventional studies are flawed without a solid understanding of the multilayered aspects of containment strategy in great power politics. Since economic capacity and military power are inextricably linked, countering a challenging power requires addressing both the economic and military dimensions. However, this nexus of security and economics in the response of a ruling power to a challenging power cannot be explained by the traditional theories that dominate international security research. Author Dong Jung Kim fills a gap in scholarship on great power competition by investigating when a reigning power will "fix" its military containment of a challenging power by simultaneously using restrictive economic measures. Its main theoretical claims are corroborated by an analysis of key historical cases of power competition challenging ruling power. This book also offers policy prescriptions for the United States by examining whether the United States is in a position to complement military containment of China with restrictive economic measures.
[2022]

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