1 Introduction

The early twenty-first century is marked by a profound reconfiguration of the global order in which economic relations have re-emerged as central instruments of power. After several decades during which globalization was predominantly interpreted through the lenses of efficiency, comparative advantage, and market self-regulation, economic interdependence is now widely understood as a source of vulnerability, leverage, and strategic contestation. Trade flows, financial networks, technological standards, supply chains, and data infrastructures no longer function merely as neutral channels of exchange. They have become arenas in which states, firms, and institutions deliberately pursue political and strategic objectives. This transformation signals the consolidation of geoeconomics as a dominant framework for interpreting contemporary international economic relations.

Geoeconomics departs both from classical geopolitics and from orthodox economic theory. Unlike traditional geopolitics, which emphasized territorial control, military capability, and physical proximity, geoeconomics foregrounds the strategic manipulation of economic instruments within highly interconnected systems. Unlike orthodox economics, which abstracts from power and often treats markets as politically neutral coordination mechanisms, geoeconomics explicitly recognizes that markets are embedded in institutional, legal, and technological structures that can be shaped and exploited. As Edward Luttwak famously observed, the logic of conflict has progressively colonized the grammar of commerce (Luttwak (1990)). What distinguishes the current phase is not the novelty of economic statecraft per se, but the unprecedented density, scale, and complexity of the global economic networks through which such statecraft now operates.

The depth of contemporary interdependence has fundamentally altered the modalities through which power is exercised. In a world characterized by tightly coupled production systems, globally integrated financial markets, and digitally mediated flows of information, influence is increasingly exerted through control over access rather than through direct coercion. Regulatory authority, technological standards, payment systems, and logistical chokepoints have become strategic assets. As argued by Blackwill and Harris, economic tools now operate alongside, and sometimes in place of, traditional military instruments as means of statecraft (Blackwill and Harris (2016)). Crucially, these tools derive their effectiveness not from isolation, but from asymmetry within interdependence. Power emerges from network position, from the ability to deny, condition, or restructure access to critical nodes.

Recent developments have rendered these dynamics unmistakable. Strategic rivalry between major powers has unfolded primarily through economic and technological channels rather than through direct military confrontation. Export controls on advanced semiconductors, investment screening regimes targeting sensitive technologies, large-scale industrial policies, and selective supply-chain reconfiguration illustrate how economic openness is increasingly subordinated to security and strategic considerations. At the same time, the extensive use of financial sanctions—particularly those leveraging the centrality of dollar-denominated clearing and settlement systems—has demonstrated how structural power embedded in global networks can be mobilized coercively. Farrell and Newman conceptualize this phenomenon as “weaponized interdependence,” emphasizing that network centrality enables states to transform economic connectivity into geopolitical leverage (Farrell and Newman (2019)).

From a longer historical perspective, the current moment appears less as a rupture than as an inflection point. Previous waves of globalization have repeatedly encountered political limits once economic openness collided with security concerns or domestic distributional pressures. Hirschman’s analysis of the interwar period demonstrated how trade dependence could be deliberately structured to create political influence and constraint (Hirschman (1945)). The post-1945 international economic order sought to mitigate such dynamics through multilateral institutions designed to reconcile openness with domestic stability, a compromise famously described as “embedded liberalism” (Ruggie (1982)). The neoliberal turn of the late twentieth century, by contrast, rested on the presumption that markets could be progressively insulated from political intervention. From a geoeconomic perspective, this insulation was always partial and contingent. The contemporary re-politicization of economic relations thus reflects the reassertion of a structural tension between efficiency and control that has never been fully resolved.

This book advances two central propositions. First, contemporary global competition is increasingly organized around economic networks—global supply chains, financial systems, technological ecosystems, and data infrastructures—whose structure determines both vulnerability and influence. Economic power today is less a function of aggregate size than of position within these networks. Second, understanding and navigating this landscape requires analytical tools capable of capturing complexity, scale, and interdependence. Qualitative and interpretive approaches remain indispensable, but they are no longer sufficient on their own. The availability of large-scale, high-frequency, and spatially explicit data calls for methodological frameworks that can systematically analyze network structures, identify chokepoints, and model the propagation of shocks across interconnected systems.

It is in this context that data science becomes analytically consequential for geoeconomics. Network analysis provides a formal language for describing economic connectivity, revealing patterns of centrality, clustering, and dependence that are invisible in bilateral or aggregate statistics. Geospatial analysis anchors these networks in physical space, linking abstract flows to ports, corridors, production clusters, and territorial constraints. Predictive modeling and simulation allow analysts to formalize scenario-based reasoning under uncertainty, particularly when outcomes depend on interacting risks such as demographic change, resource scarcity, institutional fragility, and climate stress. The relevance of such approaches is underscored by work demonstrating how network structures can amplify or dampen aggregate shocks (Acemoglu et al. (2012)), as well as by analyses of how digital technologies have reshaped the geography of production and trade (Baldwin (2016)).

The contribution of this book is therefore both conceptual and methodological. Conceptually, it synthesizes insights from international political economy, strategic studies, and economic geography to articulate a geoeconomic framework centered on power, interdependence, and resilience. Methodologically, it demonstrates how data-driven approaches can operationalize these concepts, transforming abstract notions of leverage and exposure into measurable and replicable indicators. Data science is not treated as a technical appendix, but as an integral component of contemporary geoeconomic reasoning, reshaping how strategic questions are formulated and answered.

The structure of the book reflects this ambition. The first part introduces the principal actors and evolving configurations of power, moving beyond a purely state-centric view to incorporate firms, platforms, and new economic hubs. The second part examines the structural landscapes—political, demographic, religious, and resource-based—that condition strategic behavior and constrain economic choice. The third part focuses on major domains of contestation, including inequality, digital infrastructures, climate change, global health, and conflict, each analyzed as a site where economic instruments and political objectives intersect. The fourth part turns to strategic responses, addressing resilience in global supply chains, the geoeconomics of space, the economics of war and peace, and the role of regional trade agreements. The final part grounds the analysis in contemporary economic geography, with particular attention to the United States and to the spatial reorganization of global production.

By combining theoretical rigor with empirical depth, Geoeconomics: Navigating the New Global Landscape with a Data Science Twist aims to equip scholars, policymakers, and practitioners with a framework for interpreting a world in which markets and power are inseparable. The central argument is not that globalization has ended, but that it has entered a phase in which economic openness is strategically managed, vulnerabilities are actively assessed, and political choices increasingly hinge on data, networks, and computational insight.

# Introduction The early twenty-first century is marked by a profound reconfiguration of the global order in which economic relations have re-emerged as central instruments of power. After several decades during which globalization was predominantly interpreted through the lenses of efficiency, comparative advantage, and market self-regulation, economic interdependence is now widely understood as a source of vulnerability, leverage, and strategic contestation. Trade flows, financial networks, technological standards, supply chains, and data infrastructures no longer function merely as neutral channels of exchange. They have become arenas in which states, firms, and institutions deliberately pursue political and strategic objectives. This transformation signals the consolidation of geoeconomics as a dominant framework for interpreting contemporary international economic relations. Geoeconomics departs both from classical geopolitics and from orthodox economic theory. Unlike traditional geopolitics, which emphasized territorial control, military capability, and physical proximity, geoeconomics foregrounds the strategic manipulation of economic instruments within highly interconnected systems. Unlike orthodox economics, which abstracts from power and often treats markets as politically neutral coordination mechanisms, geoeconomics explicitly recognizes that markets are embedded in institutional, legal, and technological structures that can be shaped and exploited. As Edward Luttwak famously observed, the logic of conflict has progressively colonized the grammar of commerce (@luttwak1990). What distinguishes the current phase is not the novelty of economic statecraft per se, but the unprecedented density, scale, and complexity of the global economic networks through which such statecraft now operates. The depth of contemporary interdependence has fundamentally altered the modalities through which power is exercised. In a world characterized by tightly coupled production systems, globally integrated financial markets, and digitally mediated flows of information, influence is increasingly exerted through control over access rather than through direct coercion. Regulatory authority, technological standards, payment systems, and logistical chokepoints have become strategic assets. As argued by Blackwill and Harris, economic tools now operate alongside, and sometimes in place of, traditional military instruments as means of statecraft (@blackwill_harris2016). Crucially, these tools derive their effectiveness not from isolation, but from asymmetry within interdependence. Power emerges from network position, from the ability to deny, condition, or restructure access to critical nodes. Recent developments have rendered these dynamics unmistakable. Strategic rivalry between major powers has unfolded primarily through economic and technological channels rather than through direct military confrontation. Export controls on advanced semiconductors, investment screening regimes targeting sensitive technologies, large-scale industrial policies, and selective supply-chain reconfiguration illustrate how economic openness is increasingly subordinated to security and strategic considerations. At the same time, the extensive use of financial sanctions—particularly those leveraging the centrality of dollar-denominated clearing and settlement systems—has demonstrated how structural power embedded in global networks can be mobilized coercively. Farrell and Newman conceptualize this phenomenon as “weaponized interdependence,” emphasizing that network centrality enables states to transform economic connectivity into geopolitical leverage (@farrell_newman2019). From a longer historical perspective, the current moment appears less as a rupture than as an inflection point. Previous waves of globalization have repeatedly encountered political limits once economic openness collided with security concerns or domestic distributional pressures. Hirschman’s analysis of the interwar period demonstrated how trade dependence could be deliberately structured to create political influence and constraint (@hirschman1945). The post-1945 international economic order sought to mitigate such dynamics through multilateral institutions designed to reconcile openness with domestic stability, a compromise famously described as “embedded liberalism” (@ruggie1982). The neoliberal turn of the late twentieth century, by contrast, rested on the presumption that markets could be progressively insulated from political intervention. From a geoeconomic perspective, this insulation was always partial and contingent. The contemporary re-politicization of economic relations thus reflects the reassertion of a structural tension between efficiency and control that has never been fully resolved. This book advances two central propositions. First, contemporary global competition is increasingly organized around economic networks—global supply chains, financial systems, technological ecosystems, and data infrastructures—whose structure determines both vulnerability and influence. Economic power today is less a function of aggregate size than of position within these networks. Second, understanding and navigating this landscape requires analytical tools capable of capturing complexity, scale, and interdependence. Qualitative and interpretive approaches remain indispensable, but they are no longer sufficient on their own. The availability of large-scale, high-frequency, and spatially explicit data calls for methodological frameworks that can systematically analyze network structures, identify chokepoints, and model the propagation of shocks across interconnected systems. It is in this context that data science becomes analytically consequential for geoeconomics. Network analysis provides a formal language for describing economic connectivity, revealing patterns of centrality, clustering, and dependence that are invisible in bilateral or aggregate statistics. Geospatial analysis anchors these networks in physical space, linking abstract flows to ports, corridors, production clusters, and territorial constraints. Predictive modeling and simulation allow analysts to formalize scenario-based reasoning under uncertainty, particularly when outcomes depend on interacting risks such as demographic change, resource scarcity, institutional fragility, and climate stress. The relevance of such approaches is underscored by work demonstrating how network structures can amplify or dampen aggregate shocks (@acemoglu_carvalho_ozdaglar_tahbazsalehi2012), as well as by analyses of how digital technologies have reshaped the geography of production and trade (@baldwin2016). The contribution of this book is therefore both conceptual and methodological. Conceptually, it synthesizes insights from international political economy, strategic studies, and economic geography to articulate a geoeconomic framework centered on power, interdependence, and resilience. Methodologically, it demonstrates how data-driven approaches can operationalize these concepts, transforming abstract notions of leverage and exposure into measurable and replicable indicators. Data science is not treated as a technical appendix, but as an integral component of contemporary geoeconomic reasoning, reshaping how strategic questions are formulated and answered. The structure of the book reflects this ambition. The first part introduces the principal actors and evolving configurations of power, moving beyond a purely state-centric view to incorporate firms, platforms, and new economic hubs. The second part examines the structural landscapes—political, demographic, religious, and resource-based—that condition strategic behavior and constrain economic choice. The third part focuses on major domains of contestation, including inequality, digital infrastructures, climate change, global health, and conflict, each analyzed as a site where economic instruments and political objectives intersect. The fourth part turns to strategic responses, addressing resilience in global supply chains, the geoeconomics of space, the economics of war and peace, and the role of regional trade agreements. The final part grounds the analysis in contemporary economic geography, with particular attention to the United States and to the spatial reorganization of global production. By combining theoretical rigor with empirical depth, *Geoeconomics: Navigating the New Global Landscape with a Data Science Twist* aims to equip scholars, policymakers, and practitioners with a framework for interpreting a world in which markets and power are inseparable. The central argument is not that globalization has ended, but that it has entered a phase in which economic openness is strategically managed, vulnerabilities are actively assessed, and political choices increasingly hinge on data, networks, and computational insight.