How to Win a Trade War | Chad Bown

Modern trade wars have shifted from simple economic disputes to complex geostrategic conflicts, fundamentally altering the global trading system. Chad Bown, a trade economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and co-author of *How to Win a Trade War*, examines how the weaponization of supply chains—particularly regarding China—has replaced the post-war neoliberal focus on market integration. While international trade historically promoted peace through economic interdependence, concentrated dependencies in critical sectors like semiconductors and rare earths now create severe national security vulnerabilities. Domestic political failures to address the distributional costs of globalization have further accelerated this protectionist turn. Ultimately, nations are moving toward a paradigm where economic policy serves as a tool for statecraft, forcing governments to prioritize resilience and strategic autonomy over the traditional pursuit of efficiency and expanded global trade.