War on the Rocks

This article is the third in an 11-part series examining how the United States should organize, lead, and integrate economic statecraft into strategy, defense practice, and the broader national security ecosystem. This special series is brought to you by the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies and War on the Rocks. Prior installments can be found at the War by Other Ledgers page. 

In a corporate boardroom reviewing a high-stakes multinational deal, every financial risk was dissected ­— but no one in the room could see the classified intelligence that might have changed the decision entirely.

Right now, the United States is fighting an economic war without organizing itself for one.

While adversaries deliberately weaponize supply chains, capital flows, technology access, and industrial dependencies, the United States continues to operate its economic and national security systems along largely separate lines — managed through distinct authorities, processes, and intelligence channels. The result is a structural information gap between what the government knows and what private-sector decision-makers need to know. Closing that gap requires integrating national security intelligence with business intelligence in a disciplined, continuous way — before vulnerabilities harden into strategic disadvantage.

Read the full article at War on the Rocks.

Karyn Eliot is a retired senior CIA executive with more than two decades of experience in intelligence leadership, interagency coordination, commercial partnerships, and allied engagement. She now works at the nexus of national security and economic decision-making, including as a strategic account executive at Rohirrim and as a partner at Five Eyes Group.

Jennifer Buss, PhD, is the chief executive officer of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies. She has worked across industry and government facilitating information sharing to advance national security.

Special thanks are due to Bradley Olson of George Mason University for providing research and administrative support for this publication.