The Dig Economic Warfare w/ Aslı Bâli, Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, Nicholas Mulder
Mar 27, 2026
Nicholas Mulder, an economic historian of sanctions; Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, a West Asia development researcher and professor; and Aslı Bâli, a public international law and human rights scholar. They discuss economic warfare in the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran. Short takes cover sanctions' historical role, choke points and hybrid tactics, semiconductor controls, asymmetric strategies, and the geopolitical fallout for global finance and regional integration.
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Chip Controls Mark A New Era Of Geoeconomic Warfare
- Modern geoeconomics echoes mercantilism: economic policy is national security.
- Biden-era chip export controls mark a turning point by targeting a large integrated economy (China), provoking industrial decoupling and long-term retaliation (Nicholas Mulder).
Sanctions Often Strengthen Target Resilience
- Sanctions reconfigure targeted societies rather than reliably compel policy change.
- Iran responded to decades of embargoes by building domestic human capital, autarky, and resilience that now enable asymmetric retaliation (Aslı Bâli).
Iran Converted Industry Into Cheap Asymmetric Force
- Iran turned limited industrial capacity into asymmetric military leverage by investing in drones, missiles, and naval systems.
- Despite ~$8 billion military spending (2024), Iran sustains cost-effective production like millions of vehicles and cheap munitions (Esfandyar Batmanghelidj).
