From Spies To Stocks, National Security Is Everywhere

“To solve many national security concerns, governments are turning to allies or looking inward, focusing on solutions formed in safe or sovereign environments.”

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During a recent interview, India’s external affairs minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, speaking on the changing global outlook on China, made a remark that shows how complicated geopolitics is becoming.

As the world redesigns trade with China, Jaishankar raised an important question. When it comes to limiting reliance on China for goods critical to national security, how does one differentiate between what constitutes national security and what doesn’t?

Disruptive events, like the Ukraine-Russia war, have redefined national security and reasserted its importance.

Increasingly, governments are realizing that today’s geopolitics has unleashed new threats. And these threats go beyond terrorism or border crisis, the main national security concerns of the past. Now, from raw materials to AI systems, threats are everywhere, sometimes hiding in plain sight. Is a foreign acquisition a risk because it comes from a particular country? Is reliance on another nation for resources critical to high-tech goods a vulnerability?