Economic Warfare: Are We Vulnerable?

Previous research had shown how economic and financial warfare tools, such as sanctions and trade were used at international level in order to achieve a political goal of a certain country or a group of countries. However, there were very few in-depth studies done on the vulnerability of Malaysian economy to economic warfare and its potential impact on the decisions made by our government. It is therefore the aim of this study to determine the degree of vulnerability in Malaysian economy and various tools that could be used by other countries to launch an economic warfare against Malaysia. The study aims to establish the connection between economic warfare and political decisions in the country. Simply put, it tried to find the answer to this question: Canthe economic warfare launched in Malaysia influence decisions and policies made by the government? This exploratory study used qualitative approach to accomplish its objectives by looking into previous research and conducting interviews with experts in the field. The Asian financial crisis in 1997/1998 was used as a referral point or a case study for this research. The study found that Malaysia is indeed vulnerable to economic warfare due to several imperfections in economic and national policies. The study also identified various means of economic tools that could be used as a weapon against Malaysia including trade, foreign labour, and sanctions. More importantly, the study also looks at how some of Malaysian’s policies were applied due to economic pressure by other countries, whether or not the Malaysian government realise it. This paper also presented some suggestions laid out by experts who were interviewed for the study to better safeguard Malaysian economy. Recommendations for future studies were also outlined at the end of this study.