In Search of Strategic Advantage: Understanding the Landscape of Technology Competition

Abstract: In an era of seemingly ever-increasing global tensions, technology competition is often mentioned as a pathway for U.S. and allied success. And yet, beyond doing more across the board regarding technology competition is not at all simple. First, it is a concept increasingly muddled together with other big issues such as innovation policy, national defense strategy, great power competition, allied cooperation, public-private partnerships, and a host of other issues. Second, it is inherently dynamic, an action-reaction cycle between multiple players. Third, there are limits to what you can do - limited time, limited financial resources, limited human capital, and limited knowledge of what lies ahead. One is forced to choose. In this recently released CGSR Occasional Paper, authors look at different dimensions of the problem. Some of the authors look at dyadic competitions between states. Some explore the dynamics of technology competition between allies or between adversaries. Others look at a particular technological competition, in fields like nuclear weapons, energy security, or quantum computing. Some look at tools for competing, such as export controls, or mechanisms for assessing the competition, such as net assessments and wargaming. But many of the questions and problems are the same throughout the work, these hard fundamental questions about how technology competition works and what we should focus on as a country, with our allies, and within the national laboratories to achieve a meaningful strategic advantage through our competitive efforts.

Michael Albertson is deputy director of the Center for Global Security Research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. His research interests at the center include U.S.-Russian relations, strategic arms control, nuclear deterrence, and strategic stability. Prior to CGSR, he served for 16 years in the federal government handling a wide variety of Russia, nuclear policy, extended deterrence, and arms control-related portfolios in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), the State Department, the National Security Council Staff, and the Intelligence Community.

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