The United Kingdom currently lacks a comprehensive economic security strategy, contrasting sharply with the robust approaches adopted by the United States and Europe. While Britain historically professionalized economic coercion, developing plans to paralyze the German economy before WWI, it now operates with an outdated 'just-in-time' attitude to supply chains and energy.
The US has built an "all-of-government" economic security apparatus, utilizing institutions like the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), and implementing industrial policies such as the CHIPS Act to protect strategic technologies. Similarly, the European Commission is developing a parallel architecture, including an Anti-Coercion Instrument and tightened foreign investment screening, alongside structural measures like the EU CHIPS Act and Critical Raw Materials Act, primarily to de-risk from China and reduce vulnerabilities. Britain's fragmented toolkit, scattered responsibilities, and abolition of the National Security Council's Economic Sub-Committee highlight its "uniquely relaxed approach," leaving it highly vulnerable to economic coercion in a multipolar global environment.
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