Governments and the private sector as economic-security actors

Abstract

The dramatic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, US–China strategic competition and subsequent shocks have brought economic security to the forefront of international politics. Western governments now seek to reduce strategic vulnerabilities and strengthen economic resilience as a defence against economic coercion. They are shielding their economies through a greater use of economic statecraft: more sweeping restrictive measures, more assertive regulatory instruments and more muscular industrial policies. In this Adelphi book, Maria Shagina offers a comprehensive analysis of the forces, dynamics and policies behind the proliferation and innovation of economic tools and economic-security strategies in the West. Drawing on policy approaches and innovations across countries, she identifies the key emerging features of the new economic statecraft, from deeper state intervention and broader defensive tools to profound transformations in institutional structures. The book also contrasts Western approaches with the evolution of non-Western economic statecraft as practised by China and Russia. It provides a timely examination of the rise of economic statecraft and its implications for governments and the private sector.