Cooperate or Compete? The Zero-Sum Game of AI Engagement with China
March 26, 2024The United States and China have reportedly reached an agreement to extend the decades-long cooperative framework of the US-China Science and Technology Agreement. That recent move follows Biden [...]
COMAC Comes to Europe: strategic implications of the commercial aerospace battleground
January 11, 2024China co-opted and conquered foreign solar energy and high-speed rail players. Will incumbent aerospace giants fall for the same playbook and spell their own disruption? The question is an existential one, and Western incumbents' survival hinges on weaning off the Chinese market and ceasing cooperation with Chinese players.
The US national innovation base has critical weaknesses. Just look at Starlink.
September 1, 2023To compete with China, the US needs a robust industrial and innovation base, able to withstand attacks on the battlefield and the factory floor. Real American dynamism – and real competitive advantage – stem from credible and sustainable power. Starlink's, and more broadly Elon Musk's, dependence on China underscore the vulnerabilities in current US national defense strategy.
How Canada Can Take Back Manufacturing
July 11, 2023Canada's manufacturing trade deficit has ballooned in the past four decades. It has an ailing resource sector and a hollowed-out manufacturing base. This essay, adapted from Nigel Southway's new book, "Take Back Manufacturing," proposes a road map for rebuilding Canada's manufacturing sector.
Reshoring Rides the EV Battery Wave, Taking Aim for Another All-Time High
May 24, 2023The latest report from the Reshoring Initiative shows reshoring and FDI manufacturing job announcements continuing to outpace recent records, adding 101,500 jobs in Q1 2023, driven in large part by geopolitical tension and efforts to shore up dependence on an unreliable China.
How America’s Aerospace Industry Built China’s and a Market-Based Solution
April 18, 2023China is positioning to squeeze international incumbents out of their markets – by leveraging their technology. Corporate leadership should be held accountable for a business model of self-destruction; footprints in and partnerships with China in strategic sectors should be treated as a liability.
This Is the Blueprint for China’s Industrial Strategy
March 17, 2023China's "single champions" and "little giants" programs fuel an industrial ambition that entails not merely acquiring dominant industrial capacity, but also establishing positions of leverage in key global supply chains.
All Hat No CATL: Are State Leaders Wising up to China’s Industrial Threat?
March 2, 2023Ford has announced that it will collaborate with a Chinese State-backed supplier in establishing a battery plant for electric vehicles in Michigan. This despite the fact that an EV battery plant dependent on Chinese technology runs contrary to ambitions to shore up dependence on Chinese players and increase sustainable American industrial capacity.
The China Nexus: Thirty Years in and around the Chinese Communist Party’s Tyranny
November 17, 2022The challenges facing US industrial dynamism extend are in part a product of the Chinese Communist Party’s market distortions: Rebuilding domestic industry will demand equal protection as well as promotion. This excerpt from Benedict Rogers’s The China Nexus details a new US resolve to protect.
Global Gateway Can Succeed – If It Focuses on Trusted Production
November 15, 2022The best prospect for getting Global Gateway going strong would be to understand that it must be turned into a tool that finances the external dimension of a European industrial policy cognizant of the need to diversify, to cut dependencies vis-à-vis authoritarian countries, and to find new ways of partnering with the Global South towards sustainable development.
The Lesson of Pelosi’s Taiwan Visit: Win The Production Battle, Win the War
August 23, 2022Positioning for the industrial competition at hand will require the US national security community to recognize that today's geopolitical contest may not be fought with missiles. Except, that is, as it applies to where those missiles are made. This is a war to be won on the factory floor. And it started long before Pelosi’s Taiwan visit.
An Economic Policy to Save Italy, and Europe
August 18, 2022How to craft an economic policy capable of saving Italy, and with it Europe? We have a few alternatives, summarized by the so-called "austerity trilemma" that affects the euro-area: You cannot have austerity (the loss of the possibility of using fiscal policy with increased public demand to counter adverse shocks and help the weakest), democracy, and a common euro currency simultaneously. We have to choose two of the three.
Security-Centric and Climate-Inclusive: Energy Policy for an Era of Great Power Politics
August 7, 2022The world is witnessing the first great power military challenge to the US-led liberal international order—an order that Russia and China have long sought to discredit and dismantle. This moment be seized upon to reorient Western thinking from its climate-centric mindset to one that’s security-centric and climate-inclusive
Strategic Capitalism: The New Economic Strategy for Winning the Capitalist Cold War
July 11, 2022China’s ability to manage its economy and undermine the American capitalist model is still strong. This excerpt from Richard D'Aveni's prescient "Strategic Capitalism: The New Economic Strategy for Winning the Capitalist Cold War" outlines what to do to improve the American model.
The Era of One Grand Bargain Is Over: Today’s Competition Demands Thousands of Bargains
May 29, 2022The United States needs to reclaim control over international industry. Doing so requires working with its allies and partners. But the United States will have to do so from the ground up, through countless compromises, and skirmishes, with the private sector. This is not an efficient method. But it is the only way to be effective.
China’s COVID-19 Lockdown Should Bring Production Back to America
April 8, 2022China’s COVID-19 debacle could be precisely the impetus the US needs to get serious about rebuilding supply chains. These should provide markets a prod to start pricing in the real costs of offshoring – and Washington justification for dedicated, emergency investments in domestic industry.
