Amid the transformations of the international order, the subordination of commercial and financial flows to non-economic goal is a phenomenon with increasing occurrences. The objective of this work is to understand the characteristics of this instrumental use of international economic relations in the recent period (2017-2022). It is argued that in these years there has been a deployment of instrumental economic diplomacy, supported both by discourses that postulate a necessary link between economic policy, international security and strategic policy; and by the expansion of the capacity of governments to intervene in the economic flows. The article reviews the conceptual debates around instrumental economic diplomacy and geoeconomics; to seek to systematize the features of these practices and proceed to their empirical study. Three key cases are analyzed: the USA, China and the European Union. A research agenda emerges from the identified regularities.