Center on Economic and Financial Power

About

FDD’s Center on Economic and Financial Power (CEFP) develops strategies to harness American economic power and strengthen the nation’s economic security framework. CEFP’s research and recommendations protect U.S. national security interests, deter adversaries, and ensure the integrity of the global trade and financial systems.

Rogue states — including China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea — increasingly deploy offensive economic tools, nonmarket practices, and weaponize corruption to undermine U.S. interests. These tactics erode the stability of the international economy and threaten democratic governance worldwide. CEFP’s cutting-edge research sharpens the tools of U.S. economic statecraft and advances actionable solutions that leverage America’s financial strength in support of national security.

CEFP’s core lines of effort include:

Projecting U.S. economic power to counter malign regimes, terrorists, criminal organizations, and illicit finance
Strengthening the nation’s economic toolkit, including sanctions, export controls, investment screening, tariffs, anti-money laundering tools, foreign aid and investment, and strategic capital alignment
Countering kleptocracy and global corruption while promoting radical transparency and accountability
Securing U.S. and allied critical supply chains and trade infrastructure against adversarial threats, disruptions, monopolies, and nonmarket practices
Building and strengthening international alliances to advance collective economic security

A Gameplan for American Economic Security

Supercharging U.S. Statecraft, from an Economic Pentagon to the Near-Global Economy

America’s economic statecraft tools are not standalone levers, they are gears in a single engine of national power.

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CEFP experts advocate for bold, offensive measures to promote U.S. interests and constrain malign actors, while also proposing defensive strategies that protect America’s economy and its allies.

Drawing on open-source intelligence, commercial data, and integrated national economic security strategies, CEFP provides in-depth research and timely analysis to U.S. policymakers, international partners, the private sector, and nongovernmental organizations. Leveraging experience in trade, finance, technology, supply chain, global governance, and national security, CEFP experts work in close coordination with FDD’s other centers on American power to promote the use of all instruments of U.S. power to advance national security objectives.

CEFP’s team includes FDD domain experts as well as a top-level board of advisors who provide strategic guidance, champion initiatives, and amplify research.

Elaine K. Dezenski serves as senior director and head of CEFP. Josh Birenbaum is the deputy director of CEFP. The Hon. Juan C. Zarate, former deputy national security advisor for combating terrorism, serves as CEFP’s co-founder and chairman of its Board of Advisors. FDD Chief Executive Mark Dubowitz serves as CEFP’s co-founder.

CEFP is one of FDD’s centers on American power, which include FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power and FDD’s Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation.