THREATS TO U.S. S&T LEADERSHIPBookshelf: Preserving the U.S. Technological Republic
The United States since its founding has always been a technological republic, one whose place in the world has been made possible and advanced by its capacity for innovation. But our present advantage cannot be taken for granted.
Alexander Karp and Nicholas Zamiska make a strong case for strengthening the United States’ standing in the tech world. In their recent book—The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West—they argue that:
The United States since its founding has always been a technological republic, one whose place in the world has been made possible and advanced by its capacity for innovation. But our present advantage cannot be taken for granted.
Both authors are executives at Palantir Technologies, a prominent US-based software and artificial intelligence company. Karp is chief executive and co-founder (entrepreneur Peter Thiel is the other co-founder), while Zamiska is head of corporate affairs and legal counsel to the CEO.
Karp and Zamiska are committed to defending the West and see this defense as a key mission of Palantir. They also believe that the new era of advanced AI provides geopolitical adversaries with a great opportunity to challenge the US global standing.
A key argument of the book is that ‘Silicon Valley has lost its way’. The initial growth of Silicon Valley—a region in California associated with technological development—came from Pentagon funding during the 1950s and 1960s. The subsequent boost to technological innovation strengthened US security during the Cold War.
Today, the sector should be refocusing its efforts on helping the US retain its global edge in the technological arms race with China. Instead, it is fixating on the consumer market, prioritizing projects such as video-sharing apps, social media platforms, advertising algorithms and online shopping websites.
Karp and Zamiska argue that Silicon Valley must rebuild its relationship with government, and that tech companies must get over their aversion to working with the Pentagon. They deride the tech bosses who take moralist postures against the US and other democratic governments while silently collaborating with authoritarian regimes. The authors argue that these attitudes have been influenced by the decline of rigorous classical education, and the weakening of national identity among cosmopolitan tech elites.
The authors mourn the prime of US technological leadership, when president Franklin D Roosevelt was mobilizing technology for the military and great minds such as J Robert Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein played prominent roles. Moreover, they are concerned that consumer technology and social media are weakening national unity by increasing polarization and eroding mental health.
The authors don’t doubt the capabilities of the US tech sector. On the contrary, as of 2024, US tech companies were worth US$21.4 trillion—equivalent to 86 percent of the total value of the world’s 50 biggest tech companies. But China threatens US tech predominance. China leading in certain tech sectors, and has demonstrated its ability to catch up and copy in others, especially AI.
But Silicon Valley is not solely to blame. The authors believe that the state has retreated from the pursuit of breakthroughs of similar scale to those that gave rise to the atomic bomb and the internet. Instead, it is unwisely placing its faith in the private sector. They argue that the US and its allies should commit to launching a new Manhattan Project to retain exclusive control over the most sophisticated forms of AI for the battlefield.
Karp and Zamiska seem to be overstating the Silicon Valley problem and understating the region’s contribution to US national security. Indeed, the authors may well be talking their book, emphasizing the contributions of Palantir Technologies.
But it remains true that technology is an important aspect of the great power rivalry between the US and China. Continued technological dominance will be key to ensuring the continued prosperity and security of the West. Indeed, one of the many lessons of conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East is that technology is transforming the practice of war.
Karp’s and Zamiska’s book is therefore a valuable reflection on the state of a sector at the forefront of global security. While some readers may be troubled by the authors’ stark positioning on some topics and strident forms of expression, The Technological Republic has much to offer to both expert and non-expert audiences.
John West is the author of Asian Century … on a Knife-edge and executive director of the Asian Century Institute. His career has included major stints at the Australian Treasury, the OECD, the Asian Development Bank Institute and Tokyo’s Sophia University.This articleis published courtesy of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI).
