China

Key Takeaways The unseen battlefield: The defense industrial base and its supply chains are under constant cyber attack, with millions of intrusion attempts annually and regular successful breaches. The theft campaign: Intellectual property theft from defense contractors isn't just economic crime—it provides adversaries with precise knowledge of U.S. weapons systems and their vulnerabilities. The single-point dependencies: Critical materials like rare earths, specialized chemicals, and advanced semiconductors depend on sources that could be denied in conflict. The compound vulnerability: Unlike kinetic attacks, supply chain warfare operates continuously in peacetime, degrading capabilities before any conflict begins. The War That’s Already Being Fought When military planners discuss future conflict, they typically imagine scenarios that begin with a dramatic event—a missile launch, an invasion, a blockade. But a different kind of war has been underway for decades, fought not on battlefields but in fiber optic cables, patent offices, and shipping containers. ...

The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt 1 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 1: The Mandate of Salt 2 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 2: The Garum Grid: Salt, Sex, and Power in the Roman World 3 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 3: The Adriatic Empire: Venice, Salt Monopoly, and the Spice Trade 4 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 4: Friday’s Treasure: Cod, Herring, and the Northern Salt Wars 5 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 5: Liberté, Egalité, Tax Breaks: The Gabelle, Contraband, and Revolution 6 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 6: The Rock and the Soul: Gandhi’s March to End an Imperial Tax 7 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 7: Sodium’s Perfect Marriage: When Chemistry Dethroned the Miner 8 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Part 8: Big Salt, Little Salt: The Global Corporation and the Gourmet Revival 9 The White Gold Standard: A World History of Salt - Intro: The Rock That Built Civilizations ← Series Home Prologue: The Rock and the Economy Salt stands as one of the first international commodities of trade. This substance, essential for human survival and health, inevitably became the focus of the world’s first state monopoly. Long before it fueled empires in Europe, salt drove politics, philosophy, and technology in China. Chinese history, documented across 4,000 years, begins as a history of pivotal inventions. Leaders throughout China, including Mao Zedong, proudly list the numerous Chinese firsts. These inventions include the papermaking process, printing technology, gunpowder, and the magnetic compass. ...