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Economic lens
Power
7 questions that expose connected mechanisms beneath this part of the world.
All lensesDoes peace require everyone to want peace?
No. Wanting war and choosing war are different things. Rules, defensive capability, information, and credible collective commitments can make aggression costlier and less likely to succeed, so even a hostile actor may prefer restraint or bargaining. But deterrence is conditional: threats that lack credibility may fail, while threatening preparations can make opponents feel less safe and produce escalation instead.
5 min LeverHow do international sanctions work?
Sanctions work by making selected trade, finance, technology or travel illegal for people under the sender's jurisdiction. Their reach grows when banks and firms need access to the sender's currency and markets. Pressure can be large without guaranteeing political compliance.
5 min LeverWhy can export controls reach products made abroad?
Some export-control rules follow specified technology or software into products manufactured abroad. If a foreign product is the direct product of controlled technology, or comes from certain plants using it, jurisdiction can attach under defined conditions.
5 min LeverWhy does freezing central-bank reserves create financial power?
Foreign reserves are often deposits and securities held through institutions in other jurisdictions. Governments controlling those legal and settlement systems can immobilize access, revealing that reserve safety includes political jurisdiction as well as credit and liquidity risk.
5 min LeverWhy do countries use capital controls?
Capital controls can limit selected inflows or outflows when rapid movements threaten financial stability. They may buy time or reduce currency mismatches, but they also create distortions, avoidance incentives and cannot replace necessary economic adjustment.
5 min LeverWhy are payment systems geopolitical infrastructure?
Payments depend on rules, networks, intermediaries and settlement assets. Concentration can lower costs, but dependence on foreign or private rails exposes an economy to outages, pricing decisions, data access and geopolitical restrictions.
5 min LeverHow can shipping insurance enforce sanctions?
Ocean trade depends on insurance, finance, classification and other services. When major service providers operate under sanctioning jurisdictions, access can be conditioned on a cargo, buyer or price, extending enforcement through commercial infrastructure.