19Jun

The Financial History of War and Peace

Hosted by The Financial History Group of the Department of Economic History

SAL G03, Sir Arthur Lewis Building, LSE

Friday 19 June 2026 9am - 6pm

How are wars financed, and how do wartime fiscal arrangements shape post-war political and economic orders? Recent geopolitical developments and rising tensions between global powers have put these questions back at the forefront of the policy agenda.

These questions have also long been central to economic and financial history. From the rise of the military-fiscal state in the early modern period to the financing of the World Wars, reparations, and the financial reconstruction of postwar economies, scholars have shown that war and peace both shape and are shaped by fiscal systems, public debt, monetary regimes, and international financial arrangements. In the current geopolitical context, there is a need to revisit these questions and to develop new historically grounded perspectives on the financial dimensions of war and peace and their long-term political and economic consequences.

This workshop, organised by the LSE Financial History Group, brings together researchers working on the financial history of war and peace to examine how fiscal systems and debt operate under conditions of conflict, coercion, and transition, and how they structure political and economic orders.

We welcome contributions addressing any aspect of the relationship between war finance, political order, and long-term economic change, across all historical periods and geographical contexts. We particularly encourage work that bridges eras, questions conventional periodisations of war and peace, or engages perspectives from multiple disciplines, including economic history, history, political science, finance, and economics. Contributions employing a wide range of methodological and theoretical approaches – including both qualitative and quantitative research – are equally welcome.

Proposed papers and presentations may address one or more of the following themese (though submissions are not limited to these topics):

· Military-fiscal states and war finance – Taxation, debt, monetary regimes, and mobilisation in wartime economies; the limits and capacities of states under conditions of war.

· From war to peace – Reparations, fiscal transition, reconstruction finance, debt restructuring, aid, and the reconfiguration of revenue systems, debt regimes, and financial institutions after conflict.

· Colonial and postcolonial fiscal legacies – Imperial war finance, colonial taxation, and the persistence of wartime fiscal structures in postcolonial states.

· Cold War and post-Cold War transformations – Changes in the financing of war and peace across the mid- to late-twentieth century, including the role of international financial institutions, external lending, and new forms of intervention.

· Non-state and hybrid fiscal-military orders – Armed groups, rebel governance, extraction, humanitarian finance, and other forms of war finance that challenge our understanding of fiscal capacity and sovereignty.

· Comparative and global perspectives – Contributions that move beyond single cases to explore broader patterns, divergences, and continuities across regions and periods,

Participants are expected to cover their own travel and accommodation costs where possible, using available research funds. Subject to available funding, we anticipate offering travel bursaries to support UK-based and international PhD students and early career researchers. Further details will be provided to successful applicants. Please indicate in your application whether you require financial support to attend the workshop.

Organisers: Matthew Benson-Strohmayer, LSE; Olivier Accominotti, LSE; Pamfili Antipa, LSE; Albrecht Ritschl, LSE; and Max-Stefan Schulze, LSE

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The Financial History of War and Peace

Themes and questions

Format

Funding

Submissions