Vidya Mani

Visiting Associate Professor

Vidya Mani, a visiting professor at Cornell University whose research focuses on global supply chains, says after a month of war, essential products such as fuel, fertilizer, metals, and chemicals have already been severely disrupted.

Mani says:

“In the first phase, the shock surfaced through higher gasoline prices, rising trucking costs, and shortages of consumer goods on grocery and department store shelves. In the second phase, chipmakers, consumer electronics firms, and medical device manufacturers are bracing for shortages of critical inputs and reduced energy supplies. Recovery will take months and could stretch into years if Gulf energy infrastructure suffers major damage. 

“This is an inflection point: if the war escalates, cascading disruptions will spread across industries and national economies. The immediate policy response is likely to accelerate efforts toward energy security and self-reliance through geographically diversified refining operations, deployment of large-scale nuclear and renewable energy projects, maintaining backup coal capacity where feasible, and strengthening regional sourcing supported by multiple pipelines and transport routes to reduce future geopolitical risk exposure. 

“This in turn will put increased pressure on securing critical material supply chains within geopolitically aligned boundaries and potentially reshape major manufacturing hubs and digital infrastructure around them.”