Rebuilding the Mills of Sea Power: Interwar British Planning for Economic Warfare against Japan

Abstract

Throughout the interwar period the British government viewed economic warfare as one of its most important strategic weapons, particularly in the event of war with Japan. This article explores the detailed steps taken to ensure that Britain would be able to deploy economic warfare tools in any future conflict. In doing so it reveals how a defence organisation with detailed practical knowledge of economic warfare planned to convert global naval power into meaningful strategic effect in the face of a major regional adversary.