Latest news with #militaryPower
Forbes
9 hours ago
- Business
- Forbes
An Inflection Point For U.S. Competitiveness
'Peace through strength in the 21st century can only be achieved by turning bleeding-edge technology into defense capability faster than our potential adversaries. Today, that bleeding-edge technology largely exists in the commercial world and is dual-use. Our national security R&D ecosystem was developed over the last 65 years and includes the best universities, government laboratories, commercial and defense companies, large and small, and now new defense tech founders and capital. Let's get these entities resourced and organized to take advantage of the innovation being produced and build real defense capability to secure our nation for future generations."As the United States rushes toward its 250th birthday, the nation faces a watershed moment. A moment that will determine whether it sustains its hard-fought and hard-won pole position as the world's leading innovation-driven economy and military power; or whether it falters, falling behind others in a rapidly shifting, global race. Rapid advancements across nearly every technology are emerging and converging at an unprecedented pace. The fundamental question is: does America possess the capacity—and the resolve—to lead and set the global pace in this era of disruptive innovation? The Great Convergence "In this era of relentless technological upheaval, the question is no longer whether the United States can innovate — it's whether we can innovate fast enough to stay ahead. The future belongs to those who harness the chaos of convergence, transforming disruptive technologies into strategic advantage. The key is focus, synthesis, and collaboration across our entire ecosystem of academia, industry, and national labs. The clock is ticking while our global competitors are accelerating their pace.'Today's tech-based innovation landscape is a whirlwind. Farmers harness satellites, sensors, and AI to optimize yields; physicians stand on the brink of personalized medicine driven by genomics and machine learning; energy innovators are reimagining the grid with renewables, nuclear, and fusion; urban planners deploy data analytics to improve city life; cybersecurity experts leverage AI to defend against increasingly sophisticated threats; and AI itself is pushing a generational shift toward how the nation conceives of generating and harnessing energy. This is not incremental progress—it is a collision of technologies rewriting the rules of industry and society. Economist Joseph Schumpeter described this as 'creative destruction,' where innovation displaces old business models to ignite new waves of economic growth. However, the pace of this powerful force is accelerating: in 2023, for example, the turnover rate of firms in the S&P 500 was 31.4 percent—more than eight percentage points above its 10-year rolling average. The United States is not running this race alone – other nations and regions are on the track and jockeying to overtake the leader. China's aggressive strategies aim to dominate global markets and reshape security paradigms, challenging America's longstanding leadership. President Trump's recent warning to the White House OSTP underscores the urgency: 'Rivals abroad seek to usurp America's position as the world's greatest maker of marvels and producer of knowledge.' The stakes are clear—who leads in AI, quantum, biotech, and frontier tech will shape the future global order. Critical decisions lie ahead, the answer to which will determine if the United States is ready to rise to the occasion: The Urgency of Action 'We must meet this moment and work together to reap the benefits of these new technologies. Exercising new models for productive partnerships among all elements of the ecosystem is essential.'In response to mounting global competition and to help address these strategic questions, the Council on Competitiveness' Technology Leadership and Strategy Initiative, now in its 16th year, has issued a comprehensive new blueprint: Compact for America: A Call to Action for a New, Tech-Driven Industrial Base and National Innovation Ecosystem. This bold plan distills insights captured over several years of intense dialogue from some fifty of the nation's top chief technology officers from across sectors. This major report now offers a strategic pathway forward — a blueprint centers on four critical pillars: The convergence of platform technologies presents a 'perfect storm.' As innovation capacity and capability become increasingly vital to a nation's competitiveness — now on par with military and economic strength — the United States' ability to lead in innovation will determine its place in the global world order. Our leaders must prioritize the path of innovating relentlessly and leading decisively; the alternative is risking falling behind in the shadows of competitors eager to reshape the future in their image. The TLSI Compact for America is a rallying cry for leaders across sectors to unite behind a shared vision: restore America's innovation capacity and capability, secure its economic prosperity, and safeguard its national security in an increasingly competitive world.
Arab News
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Arab News
US is at war with Iran — and with itself
Forget about the war with Iran for a moment. The conflict inside the US, with universities, foreign students, immigrants, and the polarization between interventionists and isolationists, may have far more impact on the country's future as a world power or on the empire it has built itself up to be in the 20th century. In this conflict, the US is at war with itself and has much to lose. When the dust settles, what will matter is whether what the US achieved through war can be preserved in times of peace. We have seen how that failed in Iraq and Afghanistan, when after a military victory and occupation, the US did not succeed in creating a local government that could control the country as its ally. For an empire, military power is important for expansion, but empires consolidate their control by recruitment. Former empires controlled vast territories with very few people because they could co-opt the locals who then ruled on their behalf. Romans ruled most of the known world for almost a millennium because the conquered could become Romans, absorbing the culture and language and serving the empire. Some emperors, such as Septimius Severus and Philip the Arab, were from Carthage or the town of Shahba in the Roman province of Arabia, now in Syria. The British in India ruled over tens of millions with tens of thousands, incorporating officials, administrators and the military. Several early Ottoman grand viziers were also originally recruited as slave boys in the Balkan provinces, such as Serbia and Croatia, and rose through the ranks both through meritocracy and by joining Sufi religious orders. The empire that America built is ruled by global corporations and cultural influence through technology, education, innovation and lifestyle. You know you have landed in one of its provinces from the signs in the streets, the way people dress and, to a certain extent, what can loosely be described as American values. It is a system that anyone can join and become part of. Immigrants become Americans in ways that they can never become Chinese or Russian. When the dust settles, what will matter is whether what the US achieved through war can be preserved in times of peace Nadim Shehadi America spread its influence through education, immigration and its belief in a universal mission to uphold and preserve American values of freedom, democracy and human rights. This universalism is deeply rooted in puritan beliefs and emphasizes education and equality among people as a model — the city upon a hill that was meant to be a model for all nations. These are the three pillars of American soft power. America was always a reluctant empire. After all, it revolted against the British Empire and is composed of a population that left Europe to create a free and egalitarian society. So, the pendulum swings between interventionism and isolationism, with one administration dismantling what the previous one achieved. I lived in the US for seven years and barely began to understand the complexity of its society. But then again, I am also Lebanese and, believe me, I can recognize acute and toxic polarization when I see it. I am not sure if the Trump phenomenon is behind the polarization of the country, whether it is a symptom of it or if it is a kind of backlash against a system that has become so rigid that half the country feels alienated by it. The result is what we have now — a feeling that the country is imploding under the tension of extreme polarization, which future historians will probably describe far better than I can. Symptoms of the American malaise are obvious: complicated phenomena like the conflict between the Trump administration and universities such as Harvard, together with the protests in California about immigration policies. America has also proved to be an unreliable ally when each administration reverses the policies of its predecessors. When foreign students are seen as a threat to the US, it means that the country is losing confidence in itself, its cultural values and recruiting power. An experience of living and studying in the US should be seen as producing assets to America and a threat to students' own strict societies if, say, they come from China, Russia or Iran. Even when they protest against the US itself, these foreign students are learning that protests are possible and realize that they are not possible at home. They are becoming American. US power is challenged by China and its BRICS allies, but America has the upper hand as long as students choose it for education Nadim Shehadi It is also absurd to think that the protests in California are directed against the application of immigration laws. It is precisely because the US is a country that is governed by the rule of law that it attracts immigrants, especially those escaping the rule of drug cartels and failed states in Latin America. If faith in the rule of law is no longer there, and immigrants are no longer welcome, then this is far more dangerous to what America stands for. Silicon Valley, which produced many of the leaders of the tech industry, was also part of that recruitment ability. The brightest and most creative, whether products of Syrian, Indian or South African immigration, all became part of America's empire, together with countless executives of American companies and banks. In occupied Iraq, the US lost its alliances among both Shiite and Sunni because it proved to be an unreliable ally when President Barack Obama fixed a date for withdrawal as an election campaign promise. The Iraqi Shiites were eventually recruited by Iran, which gained more control in the country. The Sunnis also felt abandoned after Sunni tribes had worked with the Bush administration to fight Al-Qaeda in the north. Afghanistan is another story. American power is challenged by China and its BRICS allies, but America has the upper hand as long as students choose it for education. Every emigrant wants to become American and its allies will not worry that the next administration will reverse policies and abandon them. In the war with Iran, these are battles that cannot be lost and that will affect the outcome as much as, if not more than, the military operations.
