Provenance
This standalone page was migrated from the February 2026 compendium corpus.
Five Factors
The framework’s core country-level test: food sufficiency, energy sufficiency, technology capability, demographics, and security vulnerability (often phrased as “are we easy to attack?”). The presenter uses this as a decision matrix for governments, alliances, and long-term investment positioning. It is treated as a survival screen, not a valuation model.
Secure and Control
A recurring phrase that means countries now prioritize guaranteed access and controllability of critical inputs over lowest-cost sourcing. In the channel’s logic, this is the defining operating rule of the post-globalization world. It is also used as an investment signal: if a state must secure and control something, policy support and capital flows usually follow. Independent assessment: most Western policies aim for “assured access” or “redundancy” rather than monopoly control; the phrase overstates the mechanism for Western democracies while accurately describing Chinese and Russian resource strategies.
Deglobalization
The channel’s term for the breakdown of the post-1945 integrated trade and finance order. It does not mean trade instantly stops; it means trust, routing, and policy assumptions change and become more adversarial. The presenter treats this as a multi-year structural process, typically 15+ years. Competing frameworks (WTO, IMF) prefer terms like “slowbalization” or “reglobalization along alliance lines,” noting that trade volumes are reorganizing rather than collapsing.
Regionalization
The proposed replacement for old globalization: trade, security, and manufacturing cluster into regional blocs with harder boundaries. In this model, countries rely more on geographically or politically trusted partners. Regionalization is presented as both geopolitical reality and investment filter.
Multipolar World
A world where no single hegemon can enforce the old system alone. The channel uses this to explain why countries hedge, re-arm, and negotiate transactional deals instead of relying on legacy alliances. Multipolarity is tied to frequent policy shocks and capital reallocation.
Critical Manufacturing Sovereignty
A later-stage extension of Five Factors that emphasizes domestic control over strategic industrial capacity. It reframes national security as a manufacturing and supply-chain problem, not only a military one. The phrase appears as a practical bridge from geopolitics to portfolio decisions.
Crisis Management Investing
A policy label the presenter associates with Five-Factor implementation, especially in Japan videos. It means state spending into strategic sectors (defense, chips, energy systems, critical minerals) even under high debt pressure. It is presented as necessity spending, not discretionary stimulus.
Clarity Over Certainty
A decision rule used repeatedly in the series. Governments, firms, and investors should prefer identifiable strategic direction (clarity) over false precision (certainty) in unstable systems. In practice, the channel uses this to compare currencies and policy regimes.
Old World vs New World
In the channel’s framework, “old world” means price-first sourcing under stable global shipping/security assumptions; “new world” means sovereign-risk, route-risk, and chokepoint-risk dominate allocation choices. This distinction is central to why the presenter argues many legacy valuation assumptions fail.
Sphere of Influence
The idea that major powers will consolidate resource and security control in their own geopolitical zones. In the series, this appears in U.S. hemisphere discussions and in China/Russia/Europe resource narratives. It is treated as a driver of future border and route politics.
Political Agreements vs Economic Agreements
A core transition claim in the transcripts. The presenter argues legacy institutions were primarily political bargains, while the next phase is governed by material constraints and financing realities. This shift is used to explain institutional strain in EU/NATO/G7 settings.
UCI (Underwater Critical Infrastructure)
A category of strategic systems under the sea (cables, pipelines, related infrastructure) that supports modern economies and defense. The channel lists UCI as one of the globally fragile systems likely to break under conflict and deglobalization stress. It later sits beside rare earths and process-level chokepoints.
MADD / Malacca Dilemma Framing
A shorthand around the Chinese “Malacca dilemma” and mutual vulnerability in maritime chokepoints. In the channel, it describes how narrow routes can determine national strategic options. The concept anchors several energy and logistics theses.
Trump Corollary
The 2025 National Security Strategy’s formalization of a new Monroe Doctrine interpretation, asserting the US right to deny non-hemispheric competitors the ability to control strategically vital assets in the Western Hemisphere. Operationalized through the Venezuela intervention (Operation Absolute Resolve) and Panama port seizure (February 2026).
Flexible Realism
The strategic doctrine described in the 2025 NSS that replaces post-Cold War liberal hegemony. Prioritizes homeland defense, hemispheric denial of Chinese/Russian influence, and economic nationalism. Narrows US vital interests while maintaining selective global engagement.
Burden Shifting
The US policy of demanding that allies assume primary responsibility for their regional security, with security guarantees implicitly conditional on compliance (e.g., NATO 5% GDP spending targets). Distinguished from “burden sharing” by the unilateral nature of the demand.
Taoguang Yanghui / Yousuo Zuowei
Chinese strategic doctrines: taoguang yanghui (“hide brightness, bide time”) was Deng Xiaoping’s directive to avoid confrontation while building capacity. Yousuo zuowei (“accomplish something”) represents the shift under Xi Jinping toward assertive use of accumulated power. In the context of critical minerals, the transition from quiet market share accumulation (1985-2010) to overt supply chain weaponization (2020-present) mirrors this doctrinal evolution.
Reglobalization
A term used by competing frameworks (WTO, IMF, Brookings) to describe the current phenomenon as a rewiring of supply chains toward political allies (“friend-shoring”) rather than a collapse of global trade. Implies that trade volumes reorganize along alliance lines rather than disappearing, and that “bloc-ification” is a more accurate descriptor than “deglobalization.” The distinction matters for investment: under reglobalization, Mexican and Vietnamese manufacturers may outperform purely domestic US plays.
Rodrik Trilemma
Harvard economist Dani Rodrik’s thesis that a nation cannot simultaneously pursue democracy, national sovereignty, and hyper-globalization — it must choose two. In the channel’s framework, advanced economies have chosen sovereignty and domestic politics over hyper-globalization, providing the political logic for the five-factor model.
Open Strategic Autonomy (OSA)
The European Union’s evolving framework for achieving self-sufficiency across the five-factor dimensions while maintaining open trade relationships. Covers food security, energy independence (Green Deal), technology de-risking (European Economic Security Strategy), defense capabilities, and demographic management.