Trade, Geopolitics & Industrial Policy
| Theme | Source | Type | Why important | Best use in article |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trade and tariffs | WTO World Tariff Profiles / Tariff & Trade Data | Official database | Official tariff and non-tariff data across 150+ economies | Use for tariff, market-access, and trade-policy evidence |
| Trade interventions | Global Trade Alert | Policy tracker | Verified and timely evidence on trade-distortive interventions worldwide | Use to support structural fragmentation and intervention intensity |
| Industrial policy | New Industrial Policy Observatory (NIPO) | Dataset / research platform | Tracks industrial-policy measures and motive shifts since 2017 | Use to strengthen industrial-policy and security-of-supply arguments |
| Trade flows | UN Comtrade | Official database | Best global bilateral goods-trade dataset | Use for connector-country and rerouting analysis |
| US trade detail | US Census Foreign Trade | Official database | Fastest official read on US goods trade by partner | Use for China / Mexico / Vietnam shifts |
| Sanctions | OFAC sanctions pages + recent actions | Official policy tracker | Shows sanctions activity as a live operating variable | Use to support economic-security architecture |
| FDI screening | CFIUS annual reports | Official annual report | Quantifies screening intensity and case complexity | Use in fragmentation and economic-security sections |
| EU economic security | European Commission FDI screening reports | Official annual report | Shows institutionalization of EU screening and economic-security logic | Use for Europe-specific fragmentation evidence |
| Export controls | BIS official rules / releases | Official policy source | Tracks advanced-semiconductor and AI-related controls | Use for technology-separation evidence |
| AI and data restrictions | National AI strategy documents; BIS AI-related rules | Policy sources | Emerging controls on data, model weights, AI-as-a-service | Use in technology fragmentation and dual-stack discussion |
Automation, AI & Workforce
| Theme | Source | Type | Why important | Best use in article |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Robotics | IFR World Robotics | Industry flagship / dataset | Best recurring dataset on industrial robot deployment | Use to refresh automation evidence every year |
| AI capability / investment | Stanford AI Index | Flagship annual report | Rigorous, broad-based dataset on AI performance and investment | Use to strengthen AI momentum claims |
| AI in organizations | McKinsey 2025 AI workplace research | Survey / applied analysis | Useful for the organizational bottleneck story | Use in AI maturity and adoption discussion |
| Workforce transformation | WEF Future of Jobs 2025 | Survey / flagship report | Large employer survey on labor and skills change to 2030 | Use in workforce and E2E planning implications |
| Demographics | OECD Employment Outlook / UN WPP | Flagship report + database | Best evidence on ageing, labor supply, and working-age population decline | Use in workforce and automation rationale |
Energy, Carbon, Transport & Climate
| Theme | Source | Type | Why important | Best use in article |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Road freight electrification | IEA Global EV Outlook | Flagship annual report | Strongest recurring source for EV and truck electrification trends | Use in energy/transport section |
| AI infrastructure / energy | IEA data center and energy reports | Flagship analysis | Tracks energy demand from AI/data centers | Use in AI infrastructure supply chain section |
| Shipping regulation | IMO GHG strategy / net-zero framework | Official regulatory source | Best source on shipping decarbonization obligations | Use in energy and transport-cost logic |
| Carbon pricing | World Bank State and Trends / Dashboard | Flagship report + database | Best cross-country source on carbon-pricing coverage and revenues | Use in carbon-cost logic |
| Maritime trade / chokepoints | UNCTAD Review of Maritime Transport | Flagship annual report | Strong on Suez, Red Sea, Hormuz, freight rates, and shipping economics | Use in route-security and distance economics |
| Climate signal | WMO State of the Global Climate | Flagship annual report | Best top-line evidence for climate severity and system stress | Use to strengthen climate-amplifier argument |
| Logistics benchmarking | World Bank LPI | Benchmarking database | Useful for customs, infrastructure, dwell times, and corridor lead time | Use in operational appendix and country comparisons |
Critical Minerals, Circularity & Finance
| Theme | Source | Type | Why important | Best use in article |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resilience policy | OECD Supply Chain Resilience Review | Flagship review | Best policy-oriented synthesis on dependencies, relocalization costs, and resilience | Use to sharpen managerial implications |
| Supply chain finance | Lloyd's; trade finance industry reports | Industry analysis | Insurance premiums, trade finance trends, counterparty risk | Use in financial architecture of supply chains |
| Critical minerals | IEA Global Critical Minerals Outlook | Flagship annual report | Best cross-mineral dataset on supply, demand, concentration, and investment | Use in critical minerals section and resource pyramid |
| Water and food trade | Chatham House water footprint research | Research / data | Water stress in global food and agriculture trade | Use in water scarcity discussion |
| Circularity regulation | EU Ecodesign / DPP / EPR regulatory updates | Official regulatory source | Tracks mandatory circularity requirements across product categories | Use in circularity and reverse logistics section |
| Reverse logistics | Industry market research | Market sizing | Reverse logistics market size, growth, and infrastructure investment | Use in circularity economics |