In a recent episode of the Lawfare podcast, legal scholars Kristen Eichensehr and Ashley Deeks describe what they term a "new command economy" taking shape in the United States. Over the past decade, they argue, the federal government has steadily expanded its use of economic measures—tariffs, sanctions, export controls, and investment screening—to pursue national security objectives. More striking, it has also adopted tools rarely seen in recent decades, such as taking government-owned equity stakes in private companies and building new stockpiles of critical materials.
The two professors, writing in the Harvard National Security Journal, contend that these developments signal a far more activist economic role for the government than at any point in many decades. During the podcast, they join host Peter Harrell to explore what this shift means for both companies and the state. They also stress the need to think carefully about how basic legal values—particularly transparency and oversight—should be incorporated into this emerging framework, rather than allowing the new tools to operate without clear guardrails.
Because the source is a single podcast description, no contrasting viewpoints are presented. The episode frames the trend as a significant departure from post-Cold War norms, but the authors' own prescriptions remain at a general level: they call for deliberate legal thinking about accountability as the government's economic role expands.