Drawing on his NY Times–bestselling book Chokepoints, Edward Fishman will discuss how globalization gave rise to an age of economic warfare

From sanctions on Russia and Iran to the U.S.-China struggle over semiconductors and rare earths to the shock waves caused by the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, economic warfare is reshaping global power and the international order. Drawing on his New York Times–bestselling book Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/726149/chokepoints-by-edward-fishman/), Edward Fishman will discuss with Gillian Tett, Provost of King’s College Cambridge, how globalization gave rise to an age of economic warfare. As governments increasingly weaponize finance, technology, energy, and supply chains, the world is in the midst of what Fishman calls an "economic arms race” and a "scramble for economic security." Chokepoints was named a best book of 2025 by The Economist, the Financial Times, Bloomberg, and NPR and was a finalist for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award. His writing and analysis are regularly featured by outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Politico, and NPR.

Edward Fishman is director of the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomics at the Council on Foreign Relations and an adjunct professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University. Previously, Fishman served at the U.S. State Department as a member of the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff and as Russia and Europe Sanctions Lead, at the Pentagon as an advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and at the U.S. Treasury Department as special assistant to the Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.

Dr Gillian Tett became the 45th Provost of King's in October 2023. She studied anthropology at Clare College before becoming a journalist, editor and columnist in a career spanning 30 years at the Financial Times. She remains a member of the FT Editorial Board.

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