Miles Kellerman published the article The Hidden Frontlines of Global Trade Security, that starts with:

The world is in the midst of a hidden war, one that is being fought across every node of the global trading system. The battle is raging within the ports of Rotterdam and Shenzhen, in the City of London and FedEx’s logistics center in Memphis. It is not a war fought with traditional weaponry. Rather, packing labels, bills of lading, and shipping data are the ammunition of choice, deployed in a grand strategic contest to enforce “export controls” on sensitive goods and technology. A contest initiated by politicians but largely carried out by another set of actors: private firms.

The scale and complexity of this hidden war is staggering. It touches virtually every major international conflict, from the US-China rivalry to Russia’s extraction of stolen grain from occupied Ukraine.

This is in line with the trend of outsourcing public tasks to private companies (which is also a hallmark of the fight against money laundering).