The Age of Economic Warfare: Superpowers and the New Global Chokepoints
Dr. Edward Fishman analyzes the shift from globalization to economic warfare, where superpowers weaponize supply chains, currencies, and technology, requiring a strategic shift toward coordinated defense.
The globalized era of mutual economic cooperation has been replaced by an age of economic warfare, where trade, technology, currencies, and supply chains serve as strategic weapons. In this newly fragmented world, superpowers and smaller nations alike face growing vulnerability and are forced to engage in a dual race of rearmament and self-defense. According to Dr. Edward Fishman, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, the United States and its rivals are constantly seeking leverage while desperately attempting to insulate themselves from foreign coercion.
The Anatomy of a Chokepoint
The primary task in modern geoeconomics is mapping chokepoints—areas in the global economy most vulnerable to weaponization. True economic chokepoints share three distinct characteristics: a dominant, concentrated market share held by a single nation or coalition, a lack of short-term substitutes, and the ability to wield asymmetric pressure causing significant damage to a target while incurring minimal costs. While U.S. financial sanctions leverage the dominance of the U.S. dollar, and export controls target advanced semiconductors, nations like China maintain a near-monopoly on refined critical minerals.
The great powers have begun to use economic integration as a weapon, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as a tool of coercion, and supply chains as exploitable vulnerabilities.
The Limits of Unilateral Pressure
When a nation lacks absolute concentration, its ability to exert pressure remains severely limited. Past American tariffs, for instance, frequently fell short of compelling foreign compliance because global markets adapted, shifting exports elsewhere. Furthermore, the aggressive weaponization of trade and financial systems risks sparking a feedback loop. As Washington repeatedly turns chokepoints into weapons, other nations accelerate their efforts to de-dollarize and build parallel payment infrastructures, such as China's Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS).
A Strategy for Coordinated Security
Economic security and global prosperity are not inherently contradictory, but they clash when nations pursue security unilaterally. To preserve its strategic edge, Washington must transition from undisciplined, reactive economic measures to a disciplined, coordinated defense alongside its allies. Establishing robust minilateral frameworks, securing critical supply chains, and exercising strategic restraint will determine whether the United States successfully navigates the turbulent economic order of the twenty-first century.
