2023.09.26

• Emerging Technologies

How emerging technologies can bring power to states (Geoeconomic Briefing)

So-called emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum information science (QIS) have recently become a major issue in international politics. While the technologies are anticipated to largely change how militaries, economies and societies are operated, many of their social impacts remain unclear, prompting governments to consider what it means to own and use such technologies. In such circumstances, the United States has been quick to reconstruct its national security and industry policies based on the advance of a series of emerging technologies, exercising power over countries of concern at times and even over allies and friends in certain cases. There are a number of ways to convert such technologies into power. To offer one perspective on the issue, this article will focus on the use of technologies as hard power and the influence of imaginative power in doing so.