One of the main elements in India’s External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar’s speech at the U.N General Assembly’s annual session was highlighting the weaponization of elements once considered to be the hallmarks of global cooperation.
In this context, few countries are sane enough to take stock of the fragmented nature of the world and take concrete steps to try and repair it. Even if the task of ‘repairing’ seems herculean, some leaders are gutsy enough to be blunt when it comes to naming the problems plaguing the world.
One such statesman is the current External Affairs Minister of India—Dr. S. Jaishankar. An astute diplomat, his recent speech at the UN General Assembly effectively articulated India’s perception of the global political order. Among the many portions of his speech, one particularly pertinent point of significance was his argument that the existing world order is not only fragmented but this fragmentation is directly the result of the “weaponization of everything”.
Meaning of the Term
According to the neoliberal theory of global politics, notwithstanding the anarchical nature of the world order, state-actors do not remain at loggerheads with each other. They actively seek to defuse tensions by cooperating with each other through institutions, mechanisms, and a multiplicity of channels to uphold international peace and stability. One of the key modes of such cooperation is commerce. Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye, in this context, advocated the idea of complex interdependence.
This idea posits that in this age of globalization, no nation-state possesses the capacity to excel in the production of all goods, services, and assets. They therefore tend to produce goods and services in which they have a comparative advantage and source raw materials, and other goods and services elsewhere. This has created a complex web of interrelationships where an incident, whether positive or negative will have implications for the rest of the world, including the remotest corners of the planet.
The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated this. Fast-forward to 2026, we are witnessing a new war in the Middle East where the energy security of the world has been put in a hostage situation as a result of the fighting. In this context, weaponization of everything highlights how certain countries—particularly the Western ones—are weaponizing different elements of global interdependence in order to make relative gains, with zero regard for what happens to countries and their citizens across the world.
The Weaponization of Finance
The very hallmarks of financial globalization— cross-border clearing networks, foreign exchange reserves, secondary bond markets, and global credit rating agencies, which were touted to be neutral public goods have been effectively weaponized by the Western countries. This is particularly evident during the Russia-Ukraine war. Despite Russia’s serious security concerns, the West operating under NATO chose to ignore them and arm the diabolical neo-Nazi regime of Ukraine. When Russia decided to wage a fully righteous war, the West responded by the expulsion of Moscow from a major monetary institution like SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication), creating economic issues for Moscow.
To make matters worse, the illegal freezing of over $300 billion Russian central bank assets held by the West marked a fundamental shift in international finance. It demonstrated that holding sovereign wealth in Western debt instruments exposes a country to unilateral financial confiscation during diplomatic or military disputes.
The Vulnerability of Supply Chains
While weaponization of finance seeks to control the flow of money, the weaponization of supply chains marks an attempt to strangle the physical survival of “recalcitrant actors” in the eyes of the West. A particularly important component of this weaponization is the term 4F-Food, Fuel, Fertilizer, and Finance, raised by Dr Jaishankar. The 4F framework underlines the multifaceted challenges faced by the developing world. When strategic maritime routes, pipelines, and insurance mechanisms are sought to be deliberately restricted or attacked, energy ceases to be a neutral commercial commodity and becomes a potent tool of coercion.
In this regard, the warning by India’s External Affairs Minister on the “weaponization of everything” must not be treated as a mere critique of Western hegemonic attitude, but must be essentially understood as a clarion call for systemic reform. As trust in traditional global mechanisms and institutions continues to erode, the emerging multipolar world order must be built on sovereign resilience, alternative trade infrastructure, and pragmatic multi-alignment choices across the Global South.
Pranay Kumar Shome, a research analyst who is a PhD candidate at Mahatma Gandhi Central University, Bihar, India
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