How to Fight an Economic War: A Field Manual for a Ruptured World | Edward Fishman | May/June 2026 | Foreign Affairs

"The first rule of economic warfare is simple: don’t weaponize false chokepoints."

" The United States ushered in the age of economic warfare by learning to weaponize chokepoints. Now, other countries have learned to do the same. Its advantages have eroded not only because others have built competing forms of leverage but also because Washington has too often used its own advantages carelessly."

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Snippets

This article by Edward Fishman, written from the vantage point of 2026, outlines a new doctrine for geoeconomics. He argues that the era of "win-win" globalization has been replaced by a "ruptured world" where economic integration is weaponized. For the United States to maintain its lead, it must transition from a strategy of pure offense to one that balances leverage with defensive resilience and allied coordination.

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1. The Anatomy of a True Chokepoint

Fishman defines a "chokepoint" not merely as an economic dependency, but as a strategic lever that meets three specific criteria: