Command of Commerce: America’s Enduring Economic Power Advantage over China

The Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Asia Program held a timely virtual conversation with Professor Stephen G. Brooks, a leading scholar of US foreign policy, international security, and international political economy. Drawing on decades of research at the intersection of economics and grand strategy, Professor Brooks will discuss his new book, co-authored by Ben A. Vagle, "Command of Commerce: America’s Enduring Economic Power Advantage over China" (Oxford University Press, 2025). In Command of Commerce, Brooks and Vagle challenge prevailing assumptions about the balance of economic power between the United States and China. The book overturns the conventional wisdom that China’s economy is on the brink of parity with America’s and that the United States could not undertake a comprehensive economic cutoff of China without inflicting equal or greater harm on itself. Instead, the authors argue that America’s economic power has been systematically underestimated because traditional metrics overlook the unprecedented global reach of US multinational firms, while China’s economic power has been overstated due to data opacity and structural peculiarities in its economy. Through systematic analysis of multiple scenarios, Command of Commerce also demonstrates that Beijing would suffer disproportionately more—both in the short run and long term—than Washington from a multilateral economic cutoff. This event will offer a rigorous exploration of the strategic implications of economic statecraft in US-China relations and will include audience Q&A. Command of Commerce is essential reading for policymakers, scholars, and practitioners seeking a deeper understanding of economic power in great-power competition.