The Chain of Peace: Do Supply Chain Chokepoints Deter War?

AI Summary

An article examines the strategic importance of supply chain chokepoints, focusing on critical semiconductor manufacturing equipment produced by Dutch company ASML. It highlights how such industrial dependencies could influence deterrence strategies in potential Indo-Pacific conflicts.

The next war over Taiwan may be deterred not by aircraft carriers or nuclear arsenals, but by a Dutch lithography machine. ASML, headquartered in Veldhoven, the Netherlands, is the sole manufacturer of the extreme ultraviolet lithography systems required to produce the world’s most advanced semiconductors. Without its machines, the most sophisticated foundries on earth — including those of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) — cannot operate. This fact should be at the center of how the United States thinks about deterrence in the Indo-Pacific. Currently, it is not.The conventional wisdom holds that Taiwan’s semiconductor industry acts as a “silicon The post The Chain of Peace: Do Supply Chain Chokepoints Deter War? appeared first on War on the Rocks.