A U.S. Economic Security “Latency Fund”

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With pretty much no news out of this Xi-Trump trip, how about checking out another economic security contest winner? This one comes from Guy Ward-Jackson, a Senior Policy Analyst at the Tony Blair Institute. You can reach him at Guy.Ward-Jackson@institute.global or read more of his writing on his Substack. Views are his own.Economic Deterrence Without AutarkyThe Cold War sparked an entire academic and policy discipline on nuclear deterrence and statecraft. It is time that the sphere of economic security received its fair share of attention. But we do not have to start entirely from scratch; there is much to learn from our “Cold War Warrior” predecessors. This essay suggests borrowing from the theory of “nuclear latency” — the notion not of having a bomb, but of having the capacity to build it in a coercive or crisis context — and applying it to vulnerable but non-critical elements of U.S. economic security.The combination of rapidly emerging dual-use technologies like AI and quantum, the hyper-interdependence produced by globalisation, and U.S.-China geopolitical rivalry all mean that economic security is having a moment. However, as the lines between technology, economic and national security blur the likelihood of confused policymaking increases dramatically.1 The question for the United States then becomes not ‘should we prioritise economic security?’ but ‘how do we prioritise within economic security?’.Prioritisation matters for two reasons. First, because economic security — even for the United States — is not free. Attempting to insure against every vulnerability prod…