The Weaponization of IEEPA Trade:A Hegemonic Turn in Legal Tools

This article argues that the United States’ use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) is showing a clear trend toward weaponization, with the core shift primarily reflected in the strategic deployment of this legal tool. Originally designed as an emergency response mechanism to short-term economic threats, the law has in recent years been transformed into a long-term strategic tool for economic coercion. The Trump administration has seen a surge in the frequency of invoking IEEPA in conjunction with other specialized laws, demonstrating a growing trend toward expanding the scope of IEEPA-based sanctions, upgrading implementation methods and means, and extending sanctions targets to key nodes in the industrial chain. This strategic deployment of legal tools reflects the United States’ institutional innovation in transforming domestic law into a weapon of hegemony. In the future, technological sanctions based on IEEPA will escalate further, potentially leading to a further fragmentation of international rules.