Introduction For decades following World War II, the United States served as the chief architect and guarantor of the global free trade system. Institutions like the GATT and the WTO were built to foster economic interdependence under the assumption that open markets would yield both prosperity and geopolitical stability. However, beginning with the Trump administration…

When people think about studying national security, they often picture military enthusiasts flipping through specialized defense magazines. It is easy to assume that security is entirely made up of dense, clinical metrics—the maximum range of a ballistic missile, the technical specifications of a stealth fighter, or the exact number of divisions deployed along a frontline.…

"The economy is the bedrock of national security." This is a stale, clichéd slogan we have heard countless times in school textbooks and on the news. However, having witnessed the jungle of the 2020s—where Trump shatters the multilateral trading framework and global empires weaponize technology supply chains to wage war—this old phrase carries a completely…

"Isn’t it enough to simply track the internal signals of superpowers?" This question cuts straight to the core of international politics while touching upon the deepest dilemma faced by national security experts. In reality, the massive tremors of the world do originate within the internal balance sheets of giants like the United States and China.…

When historians record the initial unraveling of vast empires, they look at the financial ledgers inside the palace walls long before they examine defeats on the battlefield. This is because the titanic storms that have historically upended international orders rarely began with a powerful foreign invader; rather, they started with the desperate screams of a…