The 21st century demonstrates again the direct power of weapons and the indirect power of trade. In 2026-10 we experience the use of both as a force in international politics. Big as well as smaller powers push for the weaponization of trade as part of the overall arsenal of weapons. Rare earths, microchips, oil again, all serve to coerce nations into more lenient behavior. Welcome to the era of behavioral strategies in international politics. The revival of game theories and multiple applications in those markets or policy domains seems inevitable. Only the rational part of the behavioral strategies has changed to include higher stakes into the loss function of loosing a (repeated) game. States gamble not only in specific policy domains, but they raise the stakes even to their own survival. Populations of such states become hostage to the ruling elite and have hardly any exit possibilities from disaster. As nutrition and public infrastructures have become targets and weaponized as well. Modern warfare has entered an even more harmful phase on the global level. (blog entry inspired by Victor d. Cha, China’s weaponization of trade, 2026).
