Strategic Competition
The Defining Challenge of Our Time
“Strategic competition today is not just about projecting force—it’s about projecting influence. Technology, talent, and trusted partnerships will define the next era of leadership.”
Understanding the Strategic Landscape
- Across my career in public service, business, and higher education, I’ve focused on how institutions—whether companies, universities, or countries—compete and align with the world around them. Today, strategic competition is no longer defined solely by military posture. It is driven by technological leadership, economic resilience, and the strategic use of non-military tools—from trade and supply chains to alliances and digital standards.
- This reality is what led me to found the Wahba Institute for Strategic Competition (WISC): a platform for advancing U.S. leadership across technology, trade, infrastructure, and energy. WISC’s work seeks to secure prosperity, deter coercion, and defend shared values—through coordination, innovation, and credibility.
From Shapeholders to Geoeconomic Statecraft
- The vision for WISC is deeply informed by my earlier academic work, particularly Shapeholders: Business Success in the Age of Activism. That book explored how companies succeed not just through market transactions, but by aligning with the values, expectations, and power of external influencers—what I called "shapeholders."
- Today, that insight carries forward into international affairs. Strategic competition is the global extension of the shapeholder challenge. Nations, like companies, must engage not only in direct competition, but also in the contest to shape norms, networks, and institutions.
- This is the essence of what I call geoeconomic statecraft—the deliberate use of economic, technological, and institutional tools to align others with your vision for the future. It is about securing power by shaping systems, not just outmuscling rivals.
Strategic competition is the defining global challenge of our time. Geoeconomic statecraft is how we win it. Shapeholders is the theory that explains why it works.
The Pillars of Strategic Competition
To advance this strategy, WISC focuses on five key pillars. These define where America must lead to prevail in the competition of systems:
What’s Ahead
- WISC is now entering a new phase as it transitions from the Wilson Center to a new institutional home—one committed to advancing research, global convening, and impact across sectors. This next chapter offers an opportunity to more deeply embed strategic competition as the defining framework for American statecraft.
Deepen the Framework
To explore the challenge and strategy that shape WISC’s mission:
- - Outlines the five dimensions of authoritarian challenge and why the U.S. must respond
- - Proposes U.S. strategy to align technology, economic tools, and alliances in shaping the future