Geoeconomic Statecraft & Weaponized Interdependence

Is the U.S. trying to keep a rules-based system attractive (hegemonic), or is it converting network power into explicit asymmetric extraction/constraint (imperial-ish)?

Many recent actions sit in the middle: they’re justified as national security and resilience, but they also tighten dependency loops and widen asymmetry—classic great-power behavior under fragmentation.

When global trade and finance networks fragment, states lean harder on tools that convert network position into leverage:

export controls,

sanctions, tariffs,

industrial policy,

investment screening,

alliance-based supply chains (“friend-shoring”),

and control of key chokepoints (payments, chips, data, shipping, standards).

It creates weaponized interdependence : sitting at crucial nodes of global networks, one can coerce or shape outcomes with or without occupying territory.