International Social Science Journal (Chinese Edition)

No.1, 2023

The global network economy and strategic competition: the emergence of complex geoeconomics

(Abstract)

Seungjoo Lee

Since the rise of China reinvigorated academic and policy-oriented interests in the “return of geopolitics,” the networked nature of the world economy and strategic competition paved the way to the emergence of “complex geoeconomics” in the 21st century. Strategic competition, the spread of protectionism, and nationalism have fundamentally reshaped the strategic implications of geoeconomics. This article posits that complex geoeconomics has emerged as a core means of linking economy and security in the context of the networked nature of the world economy and strategic competition. First, the networked of the world economy generated profound changes in geoeconomics as the economic and political costs of implementing traditional means of geoeconomics have increased exponentially in the networked world economy. Second, the strategic competition between major countries demonstrates a new dimension of complex geoeconomics in that major countries resort to economic means, not military means, while mobilizing alternative means of geoeconomics such as network sanctions, smart sanctions, and targeted sanctions. Third, the global value chains (GVCs) revealed the structural vulnerabilities due to the global spread of the COVID -19, major countries engaged in complex geoeconomic competition by closely linking economy and security in the process of the restructuring of the GVCs.