Over the past year, the nature of economic power has shifted. Control over production remains necessary, but it is no longer sufficient. Disruptions in the Red Sea and the growing risk of instability around the Strait of Hormuz, intensifying competition over AI infrastructure, and the weaponisation of critical minerals all point to the same conclusion: resilience at the point of production does not automatically translate into strategic leverage. Once goods, data, and capital begin to move across borders, vulnerability re-emerges. What matters is not only where things are produced, but how they are integrated, governed, and scaled.

This shift helps explain the emergence of the US-led Pax Silica initiative, launched in December 2025 to strengthen trusted production networks across critical minerals, semiconductors, and advanced manufacturing. As of early 2026, its core participants include the United States, Japan, South Korea, Australia, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Singapore, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, with India most recently joining, reinforcing the emerging Asia–Middle East linkage at the heart of the initiative. Other actors, including the European Union and Taiwan, have participated as observers and dialogue partners.