Interested in innovation policy, US-China competition, or the implications of the Fourth Industrial Revolution for international affairs? Check out Assistant Professor Jeffrey Ding's new article for Foreign Affairs: "The Innovation Fallacy: In the U.S.-Chinese Tech Race, Diffusion Matters More Than Invention."
While US and Chinese leaders focus on winning the balance of power in critical innovation technologies, Dr. Ding argues they should take a more holistic look. He notes, "...innovation only gets you so far. Without the humbler undertaking of diffusion—how innovations spread and are adopted—even the most extraordinary advances will not matter." He argues that, "A focus on the diffusion of technology points toward an alternative explanation for how technological revolutions change geopolitics: it matters less which country first introduces a major innovation and more which countries adopt and spread those innovations." Read more at Foreign Affairs or take a deeper dive and pick up Dr. Ding's latest book: Technology and the Rise of Great Powers: How Diffusion Shapes Economic Competition.