Abstract
The decline of the liberal international economic order and the emergence of great power competition have created a whole new strategic environment for peripheral and developing states. Bangladesh, positioned at the confluence of South and Southeast Asia and approaching graduation from Least Developed Country status, confronts a transformed global and regional landscape marked by a paradoxical economic resilience amid tariff disruptions, record military expenditures, the race for rare-earth minerals, unmanned systems warfare, and the securitisation of the energy transition and supply chain. This article argues that Bangladesh should integrate economic policy into its national security institutions to reduce exposure to supply-chain coercion and financial vulnerability. The analysis addresses the necessity of integrating economic and security policy within the national security framework and of transforming the bureaucracy, armed forces, and the private sector into an integrated strategic ecosystem. Comparative analysis of the national security strategies of the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and China captures distinct security paradigms, from American transactional realism to Chinese holistic security, while offering practical relevance for parliamentary institutional design. The article concludes that Bangladesh’s choice is not between development and security, but between strategic autonomy and strategic dependence, in an era of transactional multipolarity that emerged following the weakening of the liberal world order.