Projects
Current DESGRI research projects and developing areas of inquiry.
Research Portfolio
DESGRI’s research portfolio brings together strategically relevant work across defence economics, geoeconomics, industrial resilience, critical supply chains and financial responses to geopolitical shocks. Each project connects rigorous economic analysis with real-world security challenges, generating research designed to inform both academic debate and policy practice.
DESGRI Participates in NATO STO SAS-220 Research Task Group
DESGRI, together with the Department of International Economics at Krakow University of Economics, participates in the NATO Science and Technology Organization (STO) research activity SAS-220: “A Research Roadmap to Determine NATO-wide Gaps and Synergies in the Broader Defence and Technological Industrial Base.” The three-year Research Task Group runs from 1 September 2026 to 1 September 2029 and develops a NATO-wide research roadmap focused on gaps, synergies and resilience across the Defence and Technological Industrial Base (DTIB).
Dr Joseph Abodakpi leads Syndicate 2 – Acquisition and Lifecycle Sustainment, with a dedicated research strand on Strategic Minerals and Rare Earth Elements. The work examines industrial capacity, critical inputs, supply-chain vulnerabilities, lifecycle sustainment and the economic foundations of defence-industrial resilience.
Strategic Minerals & Defence Industrial Resilience
Maps dependencies in critical minerals and rare earths that underpin defence production, with particular attention to supply concentration, diversification, acquisition, lifecycle sustainment and industrial resilience.
Defence Spending, Burden Sharing & Fiscal Capacity
Examines how defence expenditure, alliance burden sharing and fiscal capacity interact—and how governments can sustain higher security commitments while preserving macroeconomic resilience.
Geopolitical Shocks & Defence Financial Markets
Tracks how wars, crises and major geopolitical events reprice defence equities and sovereign bonds, revealing shifts in investor behaviour, risk perception and capital allocation.
Mapping Critical Foreign Direct Investment
Identifies where foreign investment intersects with critical infrastructure, strategic technologies and national-security concerns, with emphasis on economic resilience and investment screening.
Geoeconomics & Strategic Economic Competition
Explores how trade dependence, sanctions, investment screening, industrial policy and strategic resources are used as instruments of competition in the global economy.
How DESGRI Projects Are Structured
Developing New Research
DESGRI welcomes academically grounded collaboration on projects that strengthen understanding of defence economics, economic security and geoeconomic competition.