States (or administrations) can deliberately use force posture and public military signaling—carrier strikes, troop movements, public warnings—to shape commodity prices and domestic political narratives. That practice blurs foreign policy and macroeconomic management and creates channels where warlike displays substitute for diplomatic or market instruments.
— If true, it forces oversight of when and how military assets are used to influence markets and votes, not just for security, raising legal, ethical, and fiscal questions.
Chris Bray
2025.12.03
45% relevant
Both pieces document a growing tendency to use force or visible military means outside conventional warfighting to pursue non‑military policy ends; here the Navy’s lethal strikes supplement (not replace) law‑enforcement interdiction to pursue counternarcotics goals, analogous to using posture as a lever in economic policy.
Matthew Yglesias
2025.12.01
100% relevant
Treasury Secretary comment linking a Venezuela event to lower oil prices and the U.S. deployment of the USS Gerald Ford and Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group off Venezuela’s coast.
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