Technological Change and Grand Strategy

Abstract

Abstract What is the relationship between technological change and grand strategy? Can great powers promote technological trends that allow them to pursue specific grand-strategic goals? Or is technological change beyond the reach of great powers, and thus it acts like an independent enabler or an independent constraint? This chapter provides a brief introduction to the interconnection between technological change and grand strategy. First, drawing from other social sciences, this chapter summarizes the most relevant direct and indirect effects of technological change on international politics, with particular attention to its long-term generation of wealth, to its distributional implications within and among countries, to the uncertainty that it brings about, and to the complementary assets that it requires. Second, this chapters shows the main channels through which technological change can modify the domestic sources of grand strategy, promote the pursuit of new grand strategic goals, and enhance or undermine existing instruments. Third, this chapter identifies possible intended and unintended technological trends resulting from the adoption of specific grand strategies, and how, in the medium-to-long term, they can strengthen a country in its strategic competition with adversaries.