By Zach Mears, Susan Cassidy, Justin Ganderson and Jeff Bozman (October 15, 2018, 2:56 PM EDT) -- Peter Navarro, assistant to the president for trade and manufacturing policy, recently offered in a New York Times op-ed that "[a] strong manufacturing base is critical to both economic prosperity and national defense."[1] The Trump administration's maxim that "economic security is national security" is rooted in several government initiatives, ranging from large-scale policy reforms (like renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement[2] and strengthening the so-called "Buy American Laws"[3]) to more granular contracting procedures (like the U.S. Department of Defense's proposed changes to commercial item contracting[4] and increased scrutiny of security across all levels of defense supply chains).[5]...