War and the Global Economy

 In this day and age, the economy really has become global. The concept of a global economy really has come to pass. In this regard, one event that really does have a major effect on the world economy is war. Through this article, you are provided with an overview of how war effects the global economy in this day and age.

Tracing back over the course of the past 100 years, the act of war has been very disruptive to the overall global economy. For example, with the outbreak of hostilities in World War One and World War Two, the entire global economy essentially was shattered. On many different levels, the entire global economy actually nearly ground to a halt. In fact, in the aftermath of both of these major wars, a significant time had to pass before a sounder sense of order was established in regard to the global economy.

More recently, during the Korean and Viet Nam conflicts, the impact of these “wars” on the global economy was not particular significant. Of course, these conflicts had a major role as far as the regional economy was concerned in Asia. However, even with that said, even the impact on the region's economy -- except within the countries directly involved in the conflicts -- was not particularly significant or extensive when all was said and done.

When looking at some of the other regional conflicts that have erupted in different parts of the world in recent years, for the most part the economic impact of these conflicts has been minimal when the global economy is considered. There has been one exception to this: the conflicts in the Middle East during the 1970s and 1980s tended to have amore significant impact on the global economy. These conflicts tended to disrupt the oil supply. And, a reliable oil supply is very important to the overall health and wellbeing of the global economy.

More recently, with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the impact of these conflicts on the global economy is unclear. While there may be some disruption in oil supplies as the result of these conflicts -- particular the conflict in Iraq -- it really is not clear that even these disruptions (if there really have been any disruptions of any consequence) has impacted the overall global economy in any significant manner.

Of course, if the conflicts of the Middle East begin to expand, it is nearly universally agreed by experts who monitor the global economy that these conflicts will adversely effect the global economy. Thus, most of these experts argue for the importance of containing the conflict in the Middle East as much as possible.