Security and Risk: Challenges for Economy and Business in the Global 20th Century

Dr. Marie Huber; Jun.-Prof. Dr. Nina Kleinöder; Prof. Dr. Christian Kleinschmidt

doi:10.5771/9783748966364

Summary

The volume addresses issues of security and risk in economic and business history. A focus lies on the study of security in order to highlight the central role of preventive measures, corresponding corporate strategies, (public) demands for measures to promote security, and the conscious avoidance of actions considered risky. It is less on questions of risk avoidance and more on the analysis of decisions and strategies for creating stability and averting potential threats. The book aims at understanding how these security-oriented interventions and forward-looking approaches have shaped economy and businesses.
With contributions by Dolly Afoumba | Anna Corsten | Marie Huber | Nina Kleinöder | Christian Kleinschmidt | Andreas Langenohl | Christian Marx | Cornelia Sahling | Tim Salzer | Tonio Schwertner This title is also available as open access.

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Bibliographic data

Edition: 1/2026
Copyright year: 2026
ISBN-Print: 978-3-7560-3577-9
ISBN-Online: 978-3-7489-6636-4
Publisher: Nomos, Baden-Baden
Series: Wirtschafts- und Sozialgeschichte des modernen Europa. Economic and Social History of Modern Europe
Volume: 11
Language: English
Pages: 321
Product type: Edited Book

PrefacePages 1 - 6 Download chapter (PDF)
Marie Huber, Nina Kleinöder, Christian Kleinschmidt Download chapter (PDF)
1. Methodology and Theoretical Background
2. 1. Phase 1 (2014–2017): HERMES Export Credit Insurance and Post-War Economic Security
  2. Phase 2 (2018–2021): Historical Perspectives and International Comparisons
  3. Phase 3 (2021–2025): European Integration and Decolonisation
3. Contributions to this Volume
4. Acknowledgments
5. Bibliography
Anna Corsten Download chapter (PDF)
1. “To protect the greater economic interest” – Positions of Industry
2. “The Deadly Waters” – Demands for Greater Water Security
3. Balancing Acts: The State as Mediator between Contested Evaluations of Safety and Risk
4. Contested Waters: Risk, Security and the Politics of Expertise
5. Bibliography
Nina Kleinöder Download chapter (PDF)
1. Economic and Military Security: Colonial Jetty-Building in the Shadow of Imperial Competition and Colonial Warfare
2. 1. Early Securitisation Processes and the Swakopmund Jetty
  2. The Global Business Context
3. 1. Staffing and Recruitment
  2. Organisational and Financial Risk
4. The Return of Political Risk: The End of the Construction Works in 1914
5. Conclusion
6. Bibliography
Tim Salzer Download chapter (PDF)
1. Statistics and Economic Diplomacy in Republican China
2. Numbers to Confront the Fiscal Crisis
3. The Political Economy of Valuation
4. Building New Networks of Economic Expertise
5. Institutionalising Economic Expertise in the Administration
6. Conclusion
7. Bibliography
Andreas Langenohl Download chapter (PDF)
1. Introduction
2. Transactions: The Inconspicuous Core of Finance
3. The Inconspicuousness of Financial Transactions, Challenged
4. Methodology
5. Analysis and Findings
6. Conclusion: The Historic Specificities of a Ubiquitous Financial Form
7. Bibliography
Christian Kleinschmidt Download chapter (PDF)
1. Introduction
2. 1. Occupation (1945–1949)
  2. 1950s
  3. 1960s
3. 1. Occupation (1945–1949)
  2. 1950s
  3. 1960s
4. Conclusion
5. Bibliography
Tonio Schwertner Download chapter (PDF)
1. Introduction
2. 1. A Step Back – How Rubber Became a European Colonial Project
  2. Securitising the Emergency
3. 1. Rubber and the German War Effort
  2. Securitising the Transition
4. 1. European Rubber Companies and American FDIs
  2. Securitising American Investments
5. Concluding Thoughts
6. Bibliography
Dolly Afoumba Download chapter (PDF)
1. Cameroon – A Transimperial Territory
2. Securitisation in the Transition Period: The Trade Agreement to Circumvent Uncertainty during the Systemic Transition in Southern Cameroon from 1961 to 1962
3. The British Colonial Administration and the Currency Changeover in Cameroon
4. Conclusion
5. Bibliography
Marie Huber Download chapter (PDF)
1. The Architecture of Economic Securitisation
2. The Stage: How German Development Policy Emerged from Export Dreams
3. The Securitisation Process 1963–1967
4. The Paradox: When Reality Refused to Cooperate
5. Conclusion: The Enduring Paradox of Economic Securitisation
6. Bibliography
Christian Marx Download chapter (PDF)
1. 1. Cultural Differences: Hoechst’s Failure in the United States in the 1980s
  2. Nationalisation in France (1981–1993)
  3. Foreign Subsidiaries in the Islamic Revolution (1979–1982)
  4. Loss of Control in India?
2. Conclusion
3. Bibliography
Cornelia Sahling Download chapter (PDF)
1. In Economic Interdependence We Trust: Debates on the Oil Trade
2. Economic Realities: Oil Consumption, Pricing and Pipelines
3. Discussion: Oil Dependence or Finlandisation
4. Conclusion
5. Bibliography
Author informationPages 319 - 321 Download chapter (PDF)