Patents & the geoeconomics of innovation: the USA remains the world’s brain
05/07/2024
The global economic landscape has changed fundamentally since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Following this historic event, an American political philosopher, Francis Fukuyama, predicted the end of history. Economic globalization would continue without encountering major obstacles. Thirty years and a global pandemic later, the tone has changed. The pattern of unstoppable globalization has been replaced by a renewed concern for the risks associated with excessive economic interdependence.
This change has given rise to a debate on technological sovereignty, a concept that refers to a country’s ability to control and supply the technologies that are essential to its competitiveness and well-being. Technological sovereignty differs from domestic autarky or technological self-sufficiency. The aim is not to develop all technologies in one’s own country, but – when acquiring technologies abroad – to avoid unilateral dependence on a particular country.
The importance of taking technological sovereignty into account has become clear during recent economic and political crises, for example during the Covid pandemic or with problems related to the supply of semiconductors. This is also the case when we consider the trade tensions between the United States and China in the high-tech sector, and the war in Ukraine.
