MAY 2024
Beyond Economics
How U.S. Policies Can Undermine National Security Goals
By Thibault Denamiel, Taylar Rajic, William A. Reinsch, James A. Lewis, and Julia Brock
Introduction
Gaining and maintaining leadership in technoloy and innovation is set to be a key feature of
global competition throughout the twenty-rst century. With today’s intermingling of economic
competitiveness and defense, staying ahead of the technoloy curve is a cornerstone of national
security. The United States, to further its geopolitical interests and maintain a strong domestic
economy, must approach every aspect of economic and trade policy through the lens of global
technoloy competition.
U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken stated that the administration under President Joe Biden has
recognized that technoloy “is profoundly a source of national strength.” Renewed government
investment and tightening rules around cross-border technoloy transfers reect an understanding of
the sector’s signicance to global competition. Nevertheless, while the administration has promoted
large-scale investments in U.S. critical and emerging technoloy (CET) capabilities, some of its current
economic and trade policies are undercutting the U.S. technoloy sector’s potential and undermining
the country’s long-term national security interests. The administration’s current approach to antitrust
also discounts the landscape of competition between China and the United States and may jeopardize
U.S. advancements in emerging technologies, which could cede the advantage to China and other
foreign competitors.
In this paper, the authors aim to shed light on the principal policy shortcomings that hobble the United
States’ ability to remain a leader in technoloy innovation and production. The paper highlights several
areas of improvement, including ongoing antitrust cases, digital trade and competition policy, industrial
policy guardrails, and novel economic security measures around CETs. It also identies concrete
pathways to address these issues.
