15 December 2024

The Era of Supply Chain Spy Wars Is Here

Calder Walton

The sabotage earlier this year of Hezbollah’s communications devices, apparently by Israel, was undoubtedly spectacular, but, as a matter of espionage, it was anything but new. Intelligence agencies have long targeted and exploited supply chains both for intelligence and sabotage purposes. From the 20th century Cold War to today’s geopolitical clash with Russia and China, infiltrating supply chains has always offered the opportunity to acquire valuable information about an adversary, or to disrupt critical sectors of its economy.

Western officials are now busily assessing their own strategic and tactical supply chain vulnerabilities. Hardly a D.C. conference goes by without mention of the CHIPS Act and semiconductor supply chains. The United States is funneling billions of dollars towards the development of ecosystems for high tech manufacturing and critical materials processing to support microelectronics both domestically (e.g., Intel in Arizona) and in partner countries (Mexico, the Philippines, and others).



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