The coronavirus pandemic very often has been framed as an economic security problem. For example, lack of access to medical equipment (see Chapter 20) or the disruption of supply networks (see Chapter 17) have been issues of major concern. However, the pandemic also raises further security issues, with regard to the conventional military, to armed domestic groups and to domestic surveillance. The core question then is whether post-coronavirus capitalism will provide more or less protection from security threats. Given that contagious diseases have spread more easily with the development of economic globalization, the security dimensions of pandemics are becoming more and more prominent over the years, from HIV/AIDS via SARS to Ebola (O’Brien and Williams, 2016: 296–8).

Security issues in International Political Economy

Security Studies and International Political Economy developed as institutionally separate fields in International Relations/Political Science. Still, there are important fields where economy and security intersect. Simplified, we can distinguish between the classical discussion on military aspects of interstate security (particularly important during the Cold War), a modernized version of this discussion (‘new security studies’) that also takes non-military threats to state security (such as environmental issues or digital disinformation) into account and a fairly radical departure from traditional security concerns that focus on the security of the individual (human security), pointing to the fact that starvation is killing more people than war (O’Brien and Williams, 2016: 279–82).

All three understandings of security share an important role for economic factors. The latter may be least relevant for traditional interstate security, but even here a powerful economy is precondition for a powerful military, at least in a long-term perspective. Economic issues become even more important within the new security studies, where threats may stem from economic dependencies; for example, upon cross-border infrastructures such as the SWIFT payment system (where Iran has been excluded). Arguably, the growing complexity of the financial sector makes it particularly vulnerable to security threats (LeBaron et al, 2021: 289). Economic dimensions even move centre stage in discussions about human security. Civil wars or ethnic disputes often focus on the control over economic resources and they very often are connected to transnational organized crime, as armed groups smuggle drugs, natural resources, people or weapons in order to finance their operations.