Global Supply Chains and Geopolitical Dynamics

Abstract This chapter examines the evolving entanglement of global supply chains with geopolitical and geoeconomic dynamics in the 21st century, emphasizing the strategic implications of recent systemic shocks. Historically designed to enhance efficiency and economic interdependence, global supply chains have become increasingly exposed to geopolitical disruptions, revealing their dual role as both enablers of globalization and instruments of statecraft. Drawing on historical analysis, policy case studies, and contemporary empirical developments, the chapter traces the transformation of global supply chains from early trade routes to modern logistics systems shaped by industrialization, digitization, and liberal international order. Contemporary disruptions have collectively underscored vulnerabilities in globally integrated production networks. Through interdependence theory, the chapter examines how asymmetric dependencies and chokepoint exposures have generated new strategic risks, prompting shifts in national security thinking and trade policy. Particular attention is given to the securitization of critical supply chains in semiconductors and rare earth elements, the strategic repositioning of maritime trade corridors, and the proliferation of counter-geoeconomic initiatives such as China’s Belt and Road Initiative and US-led multilateral alternatives. Concluding that global supply chains now function as geostrategic infrastructures embedded in a competitive, multipolar international system, a recalibration is underway – from just-in-time to just-in-case supply chain design, driven by the imperative to reconcile resilience, sovereignty, and competitiveness. This analysis contributes to the emerging literature on geoeconomics and global value chains by foregrounding the political salience of logistics in contemporary international relations.