A Century after the Publication of The Economic Consequences of the Peace. Considerations on the Challenges of the Global Geoeconomics in the Third Decade of the 21st Century

Abstract

A hundred years after The Economic Consequences of the Peace (Keynes, 1919), this article proposes, on the one hand, to revisit some chapters of the work, emphasizing the premonitory character that it acquired when anticipating the fateful consequences that the imposition of peace under disadvantageous conditions for the vanquished would bring for the regional and global stability. On the other hand, even though there are many differences between the current situation and the first postwar period, the purpose of this work is not to carry out a comparative study but to extract from the rereading of Keynes’s work some contributions to understanding global geoeconomics at the dawn of the third decade of the 21st century. A brief analysis of the current world geoeconomic situation is presented, emphasizing recurrent international crises, the tripolar distribution of economic-military power, and the effects of the Russian-Ukrainian war. This study concludes that Keynes’ work is evidence that the geoeconomic decisions of the leaders of the great powers are fundamental to the maintenance of world stability.