Economic Diplomacy in National Security

The goal of this article is to contribute to R. Gilpin's theory about how states use their economic diplomacy in order to provide their national security. According to Gilpin, Realists are right when they consider "security" as a main objective in order to achieve others, but state, in order to achieve prosperity, is willing to sacrifice financial resources. The main argument here is that states in conflict, invest in their armed forces but, although, they use their financial resources through economic diplomacy, in order to raise their security levels, they remain insecure. To examine that, we focus on case-study between states in conflict, at this paper, U.K. and Spain, by using determinants, such as trade, relative gains and alliance. The conclusion is that although economic diplomacy enhance the state's influence, cannot deter a conflict or war. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.