How Domestic Institutions Shape the Global Tech War

Abstract

The United States, China, and the European Union (EU) are engaged in a national security-driven economic competition over advanced technology. Many scholars and commentators focus on the external dimension of this geopolitical contest; that is, they describe the strategic choices by each actor in terms of geopolitical realities, threat perceptions, and relative power. However, this Article brings to the fore the internal dimension of the global tech war. We argue that each player’s strategy in the tech war is a function of their internal features, including basic constitutional powers, domestic legal institutions, and the relationships between the government and private industry. We show how these internal features enable the United States, China, and the EU to deploy certain strategies while constraining them with respect to other strategies. Comparing key U.S., Chinese, and EU domestic features reveals important insights about their respective strengths and weaknesses in waging the global tech war, and it offers predictive insights about the tech war’s likely future.