On October 23-24, 2025, the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, in partnership with Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government and Public Service, hosted the Fifth Annual Summit on Economic Statecraft in Washington, DC. The theme of the Summit was: “Navigating a Reset of the Global Economic Order.” It focused on identifying and understanding the major evolutionary issues associated with economic statecraft over the last 18 months, and especially since the change in US presidential administrations.

Discussions were unclassified and conducted under the Chatham House Rule to encourage candor and transparent debate.

Analysis of the Summit discussions resulted in seven key themes with eleven recommendations.

• The US is in a zero-sum economic war with China
• US  objectives are guided by reindustrialization and novel uses of existing tools like tariffs and export controls
• Industry is recognizing its frontline role in geoeconomics
• The private sector requires clear signaling from the USG to effectively guide risk assessments and investment decisions
• The Department of Defense has become the “agency of choice” to execute the emergent vision of economic statecraft
• Allies and partners continue to struggle with a vascillating U.S. approach to economic statecraft
• A new public-private arrangement is needed to fuse and share actionable intelligence

• The US is in a zero-sum economic war with China
• US  objectives are guided by reindustrialization and novel uses of existing tools like tariffs and export controls
• Industry is recognizing its frontline role in geoeconomics
• The private sector requires clear signaling from the USG to effectively guide risk assessments and investment decisions
• The Department of Defense has become the “agency of choice” to execute the emergent vision of economic statecraft
• Allies and partners continue to struggle with a vascillating U.S. approach to economic statecraft
• A new public-private arrangement is needed to fuse and share actionable intelligence

On October 23-24, 2025, the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, in partnership with Texas A&M University’s Bush School of Government and Public Service, hosted the Fifth Annual Summit on Economic Statecraft in Washington, DC. The theme of the Summit was: “Navigating a Reset of the Global Economic Order.” It focused on identifying and understanding the major evolutionary issues associated with economic statecraft over the last 18 months, and especially since the change in US presidential administrations.

Discussions were unclassified and conducted under the Chatham House Rule to encourage candor and transparent debate.

Analysis of the Summit discussions resulted in seven key themes with eleven recommendations.

Recommendation 1: Congress should consider authorizing and funding an executive branch cabinet-level entity to orchestrate economic statecraft activities and policy across the USG, with the private sector, and with allies and partners.

Recommendation 2: Congress should set deliberate oversight triggers to drive maturation of economic statecraft practice, policy, and law. 

Recommendation 3: Establish a defined institutional path for legislation and oversight for economic statecraft issues in Congress. 

Recommendation 4: The Executive Branch should establish a central mechanism for signaling economic statecraft policy to commercial actors.

Recommendation 5: The Executive Branch should create a single entity where private sector stakeholders can submit reports of negative unintended consequences of trade, financial, or regulatory measures; seek clarification, mitigation, or administrative redress; and provide feedback to inform future policy. 

Recommendation 6: The Executive Branch should create a joint analytic enterprise that mandates participation from the US Trade Representative, the IC, and the Departments of Treasury, Commerce, State, Defense, Homeland Security, and Energy.

Recommendation 7: A cabinet-level council should be established as the convening authority on all economic statecraft related activities for the executive branch of the federal government.

Recommendation 8: Firms should develop internal or shared “policy intelligence” capabilities to continuously track, synthesize, and interpret regulatory and trade developments.

Recommendation 9: As a matter of corporate strategy, industry should create and lead industry-specific policy networks or working groups to distill and translate government economic statecraft activity into actionable strategic insights.

Recommendation 10: Companies should integrate economic statecraft considerations into board-level and investment committee discussions and decisions.

Recommendation 11: The academy, professional associations, and think tanks must pursue the study of the practice and theory of economic statecraft.