Economic power has always been central to war: America’s rise to global dominance in the first half of the 20th century was a function of assembly lines and shipyards. Great powers have long manipulated events at a distance by funding client states and rebellions. Persia funded the building of the Spartan fleet that won the Peloponnesian War. But money — pure capital, distinct from infrastructure and economic output — is the fuel of modern warfare. Putin’s most effective fighters aren’t in the Russian Army; they are a mercenary force who prop up African autocrats. He’s only been able to prosecute his criminal misadventure in Ukraine thanks to the hard cash Russian oil commands on the international market. His victory does not hang on valor or strategy, but cauterizing Ukraine’s flow of American money.

Scott Galloway