In This Story
Nations are increasingly wielding economic power as an instrument of foreign policy and national security, using trade, sanctions, investment, and finance to advance strategic interests and reshape relationships across the global economy. And while major powers command the greatest economic leverage, smaller nations are finding ways to exert influence of their own.
That growing reliance on economic tools—and its implications for an increasingly fractured international order—was the focus of a panel discussion held Friday, September 18, at George Mason University’s Van Metre Hall in at Mason Square in Arlington, Virginia. “Economic Statecraft in a World of Conflict” brought together experts from the Schar School of Policy and Government and special guest Alex Capri of the National University of Singapore.
The program, attended by more than 80 spectators, was one of a series of special presentations marking the Schar School’s 10th anniversary.
Moderated by Professor of Public Policy Kenneth A. Reinert, director of the Global Commerce and Policy Program, the panel included Associate Professor of International Security Ketian Zhang, director of the International Relations Policy Task Force learning community, and Professor Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, codirector of the Schar School’s Corruption, Networks, and Transnational Crime (CONTRA) Research Center.
The disruption in global interconnectedness was a recurring theme, including the suggestion that the world is now in a “hybrid Cold War” in which trading partners are now enemies.
“There’s been a great reorganization of the world economy,” Capri said, adding that economic forces “are the absolute essence of power now.”
And as for one of the present administration’s most used economic statecraft tools—tariffs—Capri dismissed them.
“Tariffs have had a negligible effect on economies anywhere,” he said, “except to the people living in this country.”