NATSEC Roundtable No. 5: Remote War and American Commerce

The “Arsenal Effect” refers to the cascading influence that remote warfare, defense-tech investment, and militarized infrastructure are having on America’s commercial ecosystem. It’s how technologies developed for the battlefield are infiltrating civilian sectors—from retail and logistics to talent acquisition and regional economics. What was once siloed under national defense is now bleeding into the civilian boardroom. This is not just a metaphor—it’s a measurable shift in how capital flows, how data is utilized, and how industries evolve under the gravitational pull of a new era of military conflict. It’s an era that resembles the days of old, where civilian and defense industries are separated by a blurring line. I live close to one of those blurring lines; I am in the blur.