Economic Security: Conceptual and Operational Intersection of Trade Policy and National Security

Abstract

Globalization in the twenty-first century is represented by a strengthening economically and technologically driven links that develop an interconnectedness between nations around the world, creating a complex network impacting security, economics, and geopolitics. The age of intelligent warfare has created a fully integrated cyber, economic, and information state of adversarial capabilities within an emergent threat landscape. The landscape is shaped by multidimensional strategic interactions of globalization, vis-à-vis foreign direct investment (FDI), that are framed by the traditional guidelines of collaborative game theory.

However, a modernized pure-conflict game theory model has emerged to secure the interests of the United States. The pure-conflict model is utilized within the context of interactions where “power” is the scarce resource which has created the competition between nations, resulting in a zero-sum resource challenge ((Chung H, J Am Philos Assoc 1:485–508, 2015)). Foreign ownership, control, or influence over critical US assets, whether physical or virtual, presents new and evolved threats in an increasingly complex world of non-traditional warfare. The investment activity provides for entry to – and influence over – the defense industrial base, domestic intelligence strategy, global technological superiority, as well as access and control of data as the world’s most valuable resource. At this convergence of FDI, trade policy, and national security are the reviews conducted by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS, subsequently also referred to as the Committee). CFIUS is an interagency committee tasked to evaluate the US national security risk posed by foreign investment. The Committee evaluates transactions and provides recommendations to the President of the United States, who has the authority to block foreign investment transactions on national security grounds.