Economic Diplomacy Initiative

The military dimension of the U.S.-China relationship "is only one dimension,  and by far a supporting dimension to the broader objectives that are both political and economic," General Joseph F. Dunford, Jr. (retired) said in an interview with Belfer Center Fellow Chris Li, writing for The Wire China.

The Economic Diplomacy Initiative (EDI) at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs is presenting a first-of-its-kind analysis of the makeup of the Commerce Department’s Entity List, by country, by sector, and by year of addition. Starting with raw data made available by the Commerce Department, we manually grouped blacklisted sub-entities at the parent level to give a clearer view of the companies targeted by export controls. While  the Entity List does not include industry tags, we used Federal Register announcements and secondary research to manually assign industry sectors to each entity. The analysis provides a quantitative review of the evolving use of the entity list to shed light on shifting aims of US economic and national security policy.

Since March, the Belfer Center’s scholars and practitioners have been physically distanced but intellectually close. They’ve faced the pandemic head-on, launching new types of research to explore the unusual, tragic circumstances of this year. 

These new products include tips and advice regarding COVID, health, and safety from Juliette Kayyem, Faculty Director of our Homeland Security Project, and a series of reports and recommendations regarding preparing for and responding to future pandemics from the OPCAST Ad-Hoc Pandemic Response Group, led by John P. Holdren.

From trade disputes to digital governance to multilateral institutions in need of reform, the incoming Biden Administration faces a full international economics policy agenda. Rising U.S.-China tensions will exacerbate these policy challenges as the world’s two largest economies compete for economic power and global influence. This fall, the Belfer Center’s Economic Diplomacy Initiative, led by Aditi Kumar, Nicholas Burns, and Lawrence H. Summers, hosted a series of discussions examining the U.S.-China economic relationship.  

In this week’s update on COVID-19 and Economic Diplomacy: Eurozone governments fiscal deficit nears €1T. The Chinese economy will be the only major economy to grow this year as the U.S. struggles to negotiate a fiscal stimulus bill.

The IMF states that austerity isn’t needed and that the pandemic will wreak lasting damage on living standards. Eight million Americans have fallen into poverty as Cares Act aid runs out. Zambia is likely to be the first African country to default due to the pandemic.

In this week’s update on COVID-19 and Economic Diplomacy: Fed Chair Jerome Powell states the need for more fiscal stimulus. Spain announces plans on how it will use the EU recovery fund. Foreign investor demand for Chinese assets raises prospects of the renminbi becoming a currency reserve.

In this week’s update on COVID-19 and Economic Diplomacy: Eurozone’s economic rebound shows signs of slowing. Poverty in Asia will rise for the first time in 20 years. A Federal Reserve survey found inequality increased during 2016-2019.

In this week’s update on COVID-19 and Economic Diplomacy: Global worker income fell by 10% equating to a $3.5 trillion loss. Without fiscal support, the U.S. economic recovery is at risk while the ECB argues to make the recovery fund permanent. 

In this brief, we outline the common motivations driving central bank work on CBDCs. We then explore CBDCs’ potential impacts on financial inclusion, a primary motivation in developing and emerging markets that has also gained significant traction in developed economies during the COVID-19 related global recession. We conclude that for CBDCs to achieve its financial inclusion goals, more technical advancement in offline adaptability and policy deliberations around issues of identity and traceability are needed.