For America to remain the global leader in IT, the U.S. government must formulate a grand strategy grounded in a new doctrine of “digital realpolitik.” The first priority should be advancing U.S. interests by spreading the U.S. digital innovation policy system and constraining digital adversaries, especially China. This will entail working with allies when possible—and pressuring them when necessary.

Publications
January 19, 2021
Policies that support renewable energy technologies also drive innovation in complementary technologies for energy storage, grid efficiency, and fast-ramping combustion. Public R&D funding has the most consistent impact and should be increased.
January 19, 2021
Automation’s effect on labor demand has long been seen by the public as negative. Japanese researchers challenged this perception when they examined robots’ impact on employment across a range of Japanese industries from 1978 to 2017.
January 13, 2021
As the owner of the country’s largest and most geographically distributed building portfolio, the federal government is uniquely positioned to address barriers to commercialization and deployment by serving as a test bed for and early adopter of next-generation building-energy technologies.
January 12, 2021
Rob Atkinson writes in American Compass that putting conservatives and moderates who embrace a national industrial strategy in the same boat as far left critical theory-inspired, identity politics warriors is just plain dumb, substantively and politically.
January 11, 2021
A Democratic-led Congress will certainly be considering steps to regulate social media, and many critics in the media will likely cheer them on. But they should be careful of the unintended consequences of some of their proposed remedies.
January 11, 2021
Antitrust advocates allege market-leading “superstar” firms—particularly in digital industries—succeed through anticompetitive conduct. But evidence shows they outperform competitors by investing in innovative technologies and global operations that create more value.
January 11, 2021
Defense R&D spending can help to relax credit constraints on innovate sectors, increase profitability of spin-off projects, and foster entrepreneurship.
January 11, 2021
Rob and Jackie talk about the unfounded fears surrounding GMOs with L. Val Giddings, senior fellow at ITIF and leading expert on policy relating to biotechnology innovations in agriculture and biomedicine.
January 6, 2021
With future elections likely to divide along stark partisan lines, and election security in question, end-to-end verifiability can let voters know that their ballots have been received and not tampered with.