In an age of great-power competition, the next major conflict may be waged not in the skies over the Indo-Pacific or in the South China Sea, but through sanctions regimes, targeted financial disruptions and coercive use of trade and capital. Finance has emerged as a sixth domain of warfare. Economic and financial warfare has become a critical instrument of statecraft, from Iran’s isolation from SWIFT to China’s creation of the Cross-border Interbank Payment System (CIPS). The ability to shape behaviour through financial tools is now a strategic reality. Australia, as a middle power with limited kinetic mass but outsized regulatory and technological clout, must take financial warfare seriously.
Australia should establish a unit dedicated to financial warfare capabilities | The Strategist
