FERGUSON (Niall).
The Cash Nexus: Money and Power in the Modern World, 1700-2000.
Niall Ferguson’s historical analysis of the relationship between war and economic development.
Following Douglas North, Fergusson places institutions at the heart of his analysis. Strong institutions, he explains, have the dual effect of permitting rapid economic development and enabling the state to finance the assertion of its power through war. Adjacently, he argues for the mobilisation of American hegemony towards international programmes of democratisation and liberalisation, warning against the complacency of those such as Francis Fukuyama. This latter argument would be justified by the 9/11 attacks which would shock American power several months after the publication of Ferguson’s book.
