The Uses and Abuses of Weaponized Interdependence

How globalized information networks can be used for strategic advantage

Until recently, globalization was viewed, on balance, as an inherently good thing that would benefit people and societies nearly everywhere. Now there is growing concern that some countries will use their position in globalized networks to gain undue influence over other societies through their dominance of information and financial networks, a concept known as "weaponized interdependence."

In exploring the conditions under which China, Russia, and the United States might be expected to weaponize control of information and manipulate the global economy, the contributors to this volume challenge scholars and practitioners to think differently about foreign economic policy, national security, and statecraft for the twenty-first century. The book addresses such questions as: What areas of the global economy are most vulnerable to unilateral control of information and financial networks? How sustainable is the use of weaponized interdependence? What are the possible responses from targeted actors? And how sustainable is the open global economy if weaponized interdependence becomes a default tool for managing international relations?

Daniel W. Drezner is professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Henry Farrell is the SNF Agora Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Abraham L. Newman is a professor in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and Government Department, Georgetown University, and director of the Mortara Center for International Studies.