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Episode 4.12: Adapting to the End of U.S. Technological Dominance

Interviewer: ZACHARY LOEB. In the period following World War II and during the Cold War, the United States was the indisputable world leader in technological development, putting the U.S. government in a privileged position to shape technologies for its own economic and security ends. National security expert MELISSA FLAGG argues that since 2000 these circumstances have changed drastically: there are now many more actors in technological development, both in terms of countries across the globe and corporations, domestic and transnational. In her discussion with historian of science and technology Zachary Loeb, she describes the new landscape of emerging technology and the failures of the U.S. government to adapt to it. Having lost its ability to dictate priorities and to limit the challenges that new technologies pose, Flagg argues that the government should work to build coalitions with private sector companies, as well as other nations, and to revamp its approach to promoting innovation.