“Americans will always do the right thing, after they have tried everything else.” Indeed! The United States has turned the global economy into a battleground, with monetary policy wielded like a weapon.
Today, the world faces a geopolitical crisis following the recent US intervention in Iran, which has triggered a global energy shortage. Edward Fishman, leveraging his insider experience at the State Department, details how the US and its allies have manipulated key economic chokepoints—such as the US dollar, microchip technology, and energy supply chains—to counter adversaries. This marks the emergence of economic warfare as a central aspect of 21st-century geopolitics.
The author argues that control over global economic levers has become the principal determinant of US economic and foreign policy. Sanctions, tariffs, export controls, and other tools have become the primary instruments of 21st-century statecraft used by the US to confront rivals and to interfere with or acquire control over other countries’ resources.
Chokepoints refers to critical geographical bottlenecks in military strategy. In a modern geopolitical context, the term describes economic chokepoints that the US weaponizes to exert power and influence the policies of target countries. The author warns that their overuse is driving adversaries to build alternatives, leading to a fracturing global economy and a new economic arms race. Earlier, ravaging another country’s economy required blockading its ports and laying siege to its cities. Now all it takes is a statement posted online by the 47th POTUS.
The book demystifies the complex strategies the US uses to harness the power of Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Big Oil against enemies. Economic warfare has become the primary way the US confronts international crises and counters rivals. They pioneered the method in 1973 when the US economy was in the dumps, and the new system of floating rate exchange rates had caused the dollar to plunge. The book reveals the untold history of the “mavericks” within the US government who built this arsenal of economic weapons over the last two decades.
From the Book
“the result we live with today is a new world order: an economic arms race among great powers and a fracturing global economy. Chokepoints is the definitive account of how America pioneered this new, hard-hitting style of economic war — and how it’s changing the world.”
“in July 1974, Simon boarded a plane and headed for Jeddah. …Simon was no Kissinger; he was not schooled in the art of diplomacy. But he was a damn good bond salesman, and he left the desert kingdom with a deal in hand: In exchange for American military assistance and continued oil purchases, the Saudis would funnel their oil money into U.S. Treasury bonds — and the petrodollar was born.”
“the Obama administration targeted the Central Bank of Iran in 2012, a move that served as the foundation for the critical oil sanctions that cratered the country’s economy and pushed Tehran to the nuclear negotiating table.”
“the greatest threat to the dollar’s supremacy and, in turn, the U.S. economic arsenal may emanate not from China but from America’s own political system.”
“petrostates need to invest all the oil money that flows into their coffers, and US capital markets provide far more depth and liquidity than Chinese alternatives…The path of least resistance is to stick to the petrodollar, a system that has worked reasonably well for half a century.”
“sanctions, export controls, and other economic weapons are not magic bullets — but no instrument of statecraft is. It’s no accident that the rise of economic warfare in US foreign policy came on the heels of two costly and ultimately failed wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Washington’s heightened interest in sanctions was driven as much by confidence in their efficacy as by disillusionment with the main alternative, military force.”
The book concludes by examining the erosion of these chokepoints and the resulting fragmentation of the global economy, warning that the overuse of economic weapons is driving adversaries to build alternatives.
