Geoeconomics is redefining global strategy, experts warn

Geoeconomics is redefining global strategy. Strategic minerals, infrastructure and trade have become instruments of statecraft, making economic power as consequential as military power in shaping international relations, said Ambassador Jorge Heine, Honorary Professor at the Institute of International Studies, University of Chile, and Non-Resident Fellow at the Quincy Institute.

He recently addressed a webinar of CUTS International's Global Strategies in the Age of Geoeconomics (G-SAGE) Monograph Series.

CUTS International convened the third webinar of its Geoeconomic Monograph Series, bringing together leading diplomats, scholars and policy experts from Chile, Ghana, Russia, Singapore and India to examine the evolving contours of geoeconomic competition and its implications for global governance, strategic autonomy, technology, connectivity and regional development. The discussion explored how states are increasingly deploying trade, infrastructure, technology, critical minerals and digital ecosystems as instruments of national strategy amid intensifying geopolitical rivalry.


The event was moderated by Divya Murali, Research Associate at the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), National University of Singapore.

Delivering the presentation, Heine traced the evolution from dependency theory and the Washington Consensus to the present era of strategic competition, arguing that economic policy can no longer be separated from geopolitical reality.

Geoeconomic competition today is no longer simply about building infrastructure; it is about shaping the governance of connectivity, said Priyam Gandhi-Mody, Executive Director of the Future Economic Cooperation Council. Presenting jointly with her co-authors, she examined the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) as an emerging geoeconomic architecture capable of reshaping global trade.

Comparing IMEC with China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), she argued that its future will hinge less on infrastructure investment than on governance models resilient to disruption, drawing lessons from the Red Sea crisis to propose a permanent corridor authority, deeper integration of Oman's ports, risk-pooling mechanisms and phased rollout of commercially viable transport nodes.

Beatrice Chaytor, an international trade lawyer from Ghana, turned the discussion to Africa's evolving geoeconomic landscape, exploring how the continent is navigating resource nationalism, mounting debt pressures and accelerating digital transformation. Noting that Africa holds nearly one-third of the world's mineral reserves.

She argued that sustainable development depends on moving beyond resource extraction towards domestic value addition, technological capability and digital sovereignty, pointing to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the African Union's Digital Transformation Strategy as vehicles for turning Africa into a producer rather than merely a supplier within global value chains.

"The current geoeconomic phase is contested interdependence, centred on technologies that determine future economic productivity, military capability and geopolitical influence," said Purushendra Singh, Visiting Fellow at CUTS International, presenting research co-authored with Ambassador Anil Wadhwa on the intensifying technology competition between the United States and China.

He argued that this competition has expanded well beyond tariffs into advanced technologies such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, biotechnology and critical minerals, with export controls, industrial policy and supply-chain diversification now central instruments of statecraft

Leonid Savin, Editor-in-Chief of Geopolitika, Moscow, closed the panel with a Eurasian perspective on the growing strategic significance of Central Asia. He argued that infrastructure, energy networks and transport corridors have become central instruments through which states project influence across the region, pointing to the International North-South Transport Corridor, regional energy cooperation and critical mineral supply chains as evidence of Central Asia's role as a bridge connecting East and West as well as North and South, shaped by sanctions, trade diversification and competing connectivity initiatives.

"As geopolitical competition intensifies, Central Asia is emerging as a strategic geoeconomic bridge where energy, connectivity and critical resources will shape the future of Eurasian integration," Savin noted.

Participants converged on the view that economics and geopolitics have become inseparable, with trade corridors, critical technologies, digital infrastructure, strategic minerals and resilient supply chains increasingly serving as instruments of national power rather than mere drivers of growth. Speakers underscored that middle powers and developing countries must strengthen domestic capabilities, diversify partnerships and adopt flexible policy frameworks to safeguard strategic autonomy in an increasingly contested global environment.

The G-SAGE initiative continues to provide a platform for rigorous policy dialogue on the evolving relationship between geopolitics and economics, bringing together leading scholars, diplomats and practitioners from across the world. Through its ongoing webinar series and forthcoming monograph publications, it seeks to deepen understanding of how countries can navigate the emerging geoeconomic landscape while advancing resilient, inclusive and strategically informed development pathways.