U.S. firms chased shareholder value, boosting profits and elite innovation while shedding factories—leaving supply chains efficient, fragile, and hollowed out.
The collapse of the Soviet Union raises a central question: could reform have preserved it? Interpreted on China’s terms, the contrast is clear. China survived prolonged upheaval by undertaking systemic transformations that built not only industrial capacity but a resilient industrial ecosystem, balanced authority with internal checks, and fostered strategic autonomy. These foundations allowed later … Read more
One of the most consequential strategic mistakes the United States made in the last century was its failure to pursue large-scale, long-distance water diversion projects during its period of peak national strength from the 1950s to the 1970s. By missing this critical window, the nation forfeited the opportunity to address water scarcity in its central … Read more
At its core, the tension between China and the West is not primarily ideological, military, or economic—it is psychological. The underlying driver is fear, shaped by the West’s historical experience of rising to power through conquest, colonization, and external domination. Accustomed to interpreting global influence through this lens, Western powers often assume that any ascending … Read more
The vast, commanding landscape of the Guanzhong Plain, nestled between the Qinling Mountains, offers a striking contrast to the intimate, enclosed regions of southern China, shaped by rivers, hills, and coastlines. This geographic divide not only defines the diverse internal landscapes of China but also lays the foundation for fundamentally different ways of living and … Read more
China will still generate major, highly successful companies, but they are more likely to arise from capital-driven growth and platform expansion—such as ByteDance or Tencent—rather than from the kind of organically built industrial powerhouse represented by Huawei. The specific historical, political, and economic conditions that enabled Huawei’s rise are unlikely to occur again, meaning future … Read more
Over the past several decades, the West—especially the United States—has drifted into what anthropologist David Graeber termed a “big idea famine,” marked by a decline in transformative innovation despite abundant capital and talent. Military and strategic technological progress has slowed as ethical hesitation, bureaucratic inertia, and weak prioritization constrain experimentation, while the civilian tech sector … Read more
In The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West (2025), Alexander C. Karp and Nicholas W. Zamiska argue that the United States, particularly Silicon Valley, has the potential to revive a mission-driven technological culture, but only by breaking free from the ideological constraints that have dominated since the 1980s. These … Read more
In The Technological Republic (2025), Alexander C. Karp and Nicholas W. Zamiska explore Western, particularly U.S., anxiety over China, framing it as a strategic concern rather than a mere cultural or economic rivalry. The authors argue that this anxiety stems from a fear of losing technological, military, and geopolitical dominance at a time when the … Read more
In The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West (2025), Alexander C. Karp and Nicholas W. Zamiska argue that Western technology ecosystems—most notably Silicon Valley—drifted away from strategically consequential “hard tech,” becoming instead preoccupied with convenience, lifestyle innovation, and short-term shareholder value. This shift, they contend, left critical domains of … Read more
In The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West (2025), Alexander C. Karp and Nicholas W. Zamiska present China not only as a technological and commercial rival, but as the central catalyst for a profound moment of reckoning for the West. While the prevailing discourse in Silicon Valley often vacillates … Read more