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Geopolitics Drives the New US Economic and Industrial Strategy
The “New Washington Consensus” is not really new as the greatly magnified role and influence of the huge transnational corporations, especially the military–industrial complex that drives both the economics and foreign policy of the United States, remains untouched. Further, there is no consensus on its anti-China thrust either as the majority of countries searching for strategic autonomy, including many of the US’s own allies, would not risk breaking economic relations with China.
The United States (US) is planning major shifts in its economic and industrial strategy. The Joe Biden administration’s stamp on this shift was revealed in a speech by the US National Security Advisor (NSA), Jake Sullivan, a key member of the Biden team. It is indeed unusual for an NSA to move out of their core competence of security into the complex realm of economic strategy. This indicates that the US economic policy will be dominated by geostrategic rather than economic considerations, in keeping with President Biden’s election promise of a foreign policy for the
middle class.
It is clear from the words of the NSA that the US is stepping back from globalisation and neo-liberal policies that have been at the core of US economic practice since the 1990s.1 The reason for the shift is an acknowledgement that neo-liberalism has failed the US, and China is on a fast track of catching up with US economic capacity, which the US finds hard to accept or even tolerate.
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