Supply-Chain Resilience and International Capacity

Status, question and scope

Research question

How can institutions examine resilience without treating every international dependency as equivalent?

Scope

Supply chains can create efficiency, market access and specialization while also transmitting disruption. Resilience analysis should identify critical functions, dependencies and feasible responses.

Key findings

The reviewed sources support the following bounded findings.

• CRS notes that global value chains can support competitiveness and market access while creating risks for particular sectors and national security.
• Transparency and security can improve resilience, but localization, diversification, inventories and allied sourcing carry different costs and benefits.
• NIST treats technology supply-chain risk across the full system lifecycle, including acquisition, maintenance and disposal.

Evidence interpretation

What the evidence establishes

• CRS notes that global value chains can support competitiveness and market access while creating risks for particular sectors and national security.
• Transparency and security can improve resilience, but localization, diversification, inventories and allied sourcing carry different costs and benefits.

What requires judgment

Supply chains can create efficiency, market access and specialization while also transmitting disruption. Resilience analysis should identify critical functions, dependencies and feasible responses.

Application beyond the source setting is ASPC analysis and should be tested against the authority, capability, risk and conditions of the institutions involved.

ASPC application and limitations

Proposed application

• Map critical products, services, tiers, geographic concentration, substitutes and recovery time.
• Distinguish routine commercial volatility from risks to essential functions or security.
• Evaluate diversification, trusted-partner, inventory, standards and domestic-capacity options against explicit criteria.

Limitations

• This brief does not designate a supplier, country or product as a security risk.