Technology and Competitiveness: The New Policy Frontier

International competition has eroded the once commanding U.S. advantage in technology. It has caused a shift in government and business relationships in the United States and raised fundamental questions about the conduct of American foreign policy. Both the public and private sectors are increasingly concerned with a new set of technological issues related to industrial competitiveness. This concern has forced a reassessment of national priorities and caused both industry and government to rethink their traditional roles in the development and application of technology. The implications for foreign policy stem from one overriding fact: when it comes to advanced technology, national security can no longer be viewed in purely military terms; economic security is also a vital consideration. Moreover, just as it is increasingly difficult to make a meaningful policy distinction between military and commercial technologies, so is it difficult to determine how to manage international relationships, since important political allies in military technology are often hard-nosed economic competitors in commercial technology.

As a result of these trends a new U.S. public policy framework is emerging that focuses on industrial competitiveness and technology. This focus raises some important issues about the evolving roles of business and government in the economy, and forces new thinking about how U.S. foreign policy can accommodate strategic economic concerns.

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