War and Peace in Keynes' Thought

Giovanni Battista Pittaluga
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Giovanni Battista Pittaluga: Department of Political Science, University of Genoa, Italy

Economia Internazionale / International Economics, 2022, vol. 75, issue 4, 577-600

Abstract: Despite an extensive literature devoted to Keynes’s thought, there are still few analyzes of his thinking on international relations. Keynes traced the causes of wars above all to economic factors, first of all to the impoverishment of populations. A stable peace could only be established by removing the causes of this impoverishment. Hence his profound criticisms of the Treaty of Versailles, because it imposed unsustainable reparations on Germany; hence the main motivations of the Keynes Plan on the new international monetary order to be established after WWII which, while favoring the development of international trade, would have allowed individual countries to pursue economic policies aimed at maintaining full employment. Guerra e pace nel pensiero di Keynes Nonostante l’ampia letteratura dedicata al pensiero di Keynes, sono tuttora poche le analisi del suo pensiero sulle relazioni internazionali. Keynes riconduceva le cause delle guerre soprattutto a fattori economici, in primis all’impoverimento delle popolazioni. Una pace stabile poteva instaurarsi solo rimuovendo le cause di tale impoverimento. Di qui le sue profonde critiche al Trattato di Versailles, perché imponeva alla Germania riparazioni insostenibili; di qui le motivazioni principali del Piano Keynes sul nuovo ordine monetario internazionale da instaurare dopo la WWII che, pur favorendo uno sviluppo del commercio internazionale, avrebbe consentito ai singoli paesi di perseguire politiche economiche volte a conservare la piena occupazione.

Keywords: John Maynard Keynes; International Relations; War; Peace (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B31 B41 F02 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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