‘We have a strong tendency to separate elements of national security into manageable bits in order to fit our existing structures or our preconceived view of the world. In this important book, Rebecca Harding demonstrates that everything is linked to geopolitics, supply chain disruption and frictions caused by crumbling or failing infrastructure. Rebecca Harding has placed economic security at the heart of defence and security thinking, where it needs to be. She calls out the failings in defence finance, provides a comprehensive analysis of how supply chains are being disrupted, and argues that we need to move from economic statecraft to a focus on economic security if we are to resolve all of these existential issues. Passive to active, this is not a call for more discussion, it is a call to action. I commend it.’ ― Air Chief Marshal The Lord Peach KG GBE KCB DL

‘The World at Economic War is a tour de force of the threats that we face to our civil society through frequent and pervasive attacks on our economic infrastructures. It is a study in the realpolitik of our current era and provides a pragmatic and surprisingly upbeat solution by reorienting our thinking around economic security. This is a must read for economists, business leaders and policy makers alike.' ― Paul Mason, author of How To Stop Fascism and columnist at The New World

‘The World at Economic War is obligatory reading for all those who need to understand the role that economics plays in modern warfare. Rebecca Harding does not pull her punches. From a starting point that many political leaders still find painful to acknowledge – that the era of the international rules-based order is over – she takes the reader on a journey through the inadequacies of our current institutional structures, which are legacies of that era, created to deal with the then threats to Nato allies and now in urgent need of transformation. In so doing, she lays bare the most pressing challenge of the new age in its starkest possible terms. Her forensic examination of the problem makes a major contribution not just to the debate about the need for drastic change, but also to identifying potential solutions.’ ― Chris Donnelly, Principal Counsellor, Earendel Associates Ltd

★ New book by highly respected international trade advisor and strategic trade thought leader Dr. Rebecca Harding! She is the former chief economist of the British Bankers' Association and the Labour Foundation, a senior research fellow at the London Business School, and the creator of the world's first automated sustainability scoring system for trade finance.
★ Selected as 'Financial Times Best Books of 2025: Economics'!
★ This book has been included in the "Perspective" series edited by renowned economist, former UK Treasury advisor, Cambridge University Public Policy professor, and recipient of the Order of the British Empire, Diane Coyle. She is also the vice-chair of the BBC Trust (the regulatory body of the BBC), a fellow of the British Academy, and a member of the Royal Economic Society.
★ The era of rule-based order is undergoing a profound transformation, and a radically different future economic system is taking shape. This book is an urgently needed economic study for our current political reality - the era of "economic weaponization".
★ This book aims to reshape our thinking and understanding of economic security, providing practical and unexpected positive solutions, and exploring the levers and tools for shaping a new economic governance strategy. It is a must-read for all readers who wish to gain a deeper understanding of the role of economics in modern warfare.
★ Simplified Chinese rights sold.

The World at Economic War is a timely and thought-provoking reminder of the role that economics plays in modern warfare. It argues that economics itself is at war – the institutions of the post-war economic order are riven with challenges to their legitimacy, rendering the old certainties of market-based economics at best contested and at worst irrelevant. It shows how, through the interdependencies of globalization, the market system itself has become a means of ‘great power conflict’, accelerated by the rapid pace of financial services digitalization. This economic conflict seeps into the way international trade operates, into the way cross-border payments are made, into supply chains, and even into how financial markets control the capacity of governments to manage macroeconomic policy.

The institutions that were constructed to deal with a peacetime economy are no longer adequate against a backdrop of military conflict in Europe and the Middle East and heightened tensions in the Asia Pacific region. Spending on defence and security seemed unimportant against a backdrop of globalization, but because the world is now at economic war, there is limited capacity either to build capacity or to fund our defence and security. Military and economic security are two sides of the same coin: both are a means of power projection; both are deeply political; and both are our means of deterrence, defence, coercion and resilience.

Rebecca Harding
Dr. Rebecca Harding is the CEO of the Centre for Economic Security (CES) and a highly respected international trade economist, commentator and public speaker. She is an expert in the operation of trade and trade finance, digital and sustainable trade and supply chains.
She created the world's first automated sustainability scoring system for trade finance, defined the trade attributes of modern conflicts, and developed the world's first integrated data platform for assessing the resilience of trade supply chains. She and her teams have been providing thought leadership and insights to many of the world's largest financial institutions.
Her strategic consulting firm, Rebeccanomics, provides international trade services, including sustainable trade finance for the International Trade Finance Association (ITFA) and the Sustainable Trade Forum. She also serves as the Chief Economic Advisor to the Defence Security and Resilience Bank, a partner at Earendel Associates, and a Deputy Partner at the T3i Partner Network. She is a member of the Alphen Group, the World Trade Board, and an advisor to the Council of the Society of Professional Economists.
She is the CEO of Coriolis Technologies Ltd., which provides big data services for trade. In this role, she was nominated for the "Women in FinTech Powerlist 2017".
She has also held senior positions at various international business and academic institutions, including:
Chief Economist of the British Bankers' Association;
Expert Advisor to the Treasury Select Committee;
CEO of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), a world-renowned entrepreneurship research project;
Senior Research Fellow at the Foreign Policy Group;
Head of Corporate Research at Deloitte;
Founder and CEO of Delta Economics;
Chief Economist of the Work Foundation;
Chief Economist of UK Finance;
Senior Lecturer at the Science Policy Research Unit;
Senior Research Scholar at the London Business School.
Rebecca frequently appears on Sky News, BBC World and BBC Radio, and her articles are often featured in The Financial Times, The Telegraph, City AM, The Times and The Economist.
Her works include "The Trade War: Political and Economic Imbalances" and "The Trade Game: Winning Strategies in the Digital Age".