Program overview
Defense economics may sound 'hardcore', but it's essentially about viewing national security through an economic lens. In simple terms, it studies how a country can spend its defense budget most efficiently—whether to build aircraft carriers or buy missiles, how to allocate military funds, how to manage defense industries, and the economic impact of wars. Core courses include Principles of Defense Economics, Defense Budgeting and Finance, Defense Industrial Economics, Military Economic Analysis, and National Security Economics. If you're interested in international relations, public policy, and economic analysis, but don't want to just crunch numbers in an office, this major is a great fit. Chinese universities have unique advantages in this field—for example, Central University of Finance and Economics and National Defense University offer courses that integrate China's civil-military integration strategy and defense industry reform cases, showing you how theory is applied in practice.