Abstract
War by Other Means: Geoeconomics and Statecraft is an assessment of geo-economics directly aimed at the policy makers and academia. The primary focus of the book is China’s use of geo-economics as a tool of statecraft, and how this tool has been neglected by the US to achieve its foreign policy and national security objectives. The opening of the book is an investigation to find a precise definition of the term ‘geo-economics,’ a term extensively used in the US foreign policy circles. However, the authors do offer a definition on page 20. A part of the chapter one is dedicated to how the debate over geo-economics have been neglected by the scholarly circles over the years. As recognised by Susan Strange, political issue received more focus as compared to economics in international relations till 1970. The authors argue that the economic dimensions of the grand strategy have been abandoned altogether by the US. The US has been constrained by a self-constructed maxim of neo-liberalism. Consequently, the very diversified and substantial resources of the US have remained underutilised as grand strategy tools. However, its competitors such as China and Russia are effective practitioners of economic statecraft. In the upcoming future, the US needs to learn how to balance and use its economic resources to achieve its geopolitical goals, otherwise, its competitor states’ actions and policies might undermine American security and prosperity continually.