# Strategic Dependency **Domain:** Geopolitics / Infrastructure / Security **Doc Type:** Concept Node **Maturity:** Developed ## Definition **Strategic dependency is reliance on an external actor, system, route, resource, standard, or institution that can constrain essential action when interests diverge.** Ordinary reliance becomes strategic when interruption threatens defense, governance, industrial capacity, computation, identity, or continuity. ## War With Empire Context [[wiki/War With Empire|War With Empire]] treats dependency as a stress-test problem. A cable, certification authority, model evaluator, semiconductor supplier, cloud platform, or financial channel may look like ordinary plumbing until political conflict turns it into a valve. [[articles/war with empire/Indicators That the American War With Empire Never Ended|Indicators]] asks whether the system can be substituted, reproduced, or exited under pressure. ## Key Insight **A dependency becomes strategic when another actor can convert it into veto power.** ## See Also [[wiki/Asymmetric Interdependence|Asymmetric Interdependence]], [[wiki/Invisible Dependency|Invisible Dependency]], [[wiki/Practical Sovereignty|Practical Sovereignty]], [[wiki/Substrate Capture|Substrate Capture]]