CNAS Technology Alliance Project Announces API and MERICS Partnership with Support from Schmidt Futures

The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) is pleased to announce a partnership with the Asia Pacific Initiative (API) and the Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) for the Technology Alliance Project. Together with Tokyo-based API and MERICS, headquartered in Berlin, the Technology Alliance Project convenes global stakeholders in the public sector, academia, and industry to develop a framework for a new international coordination body for technology policy—a technology alliance. The nations that lead in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and next-generation telecommunications will garner strength for decades. The world’s leading democracies should be at the vanguard of this technological competition.

Dr. Yoichi Funabashi, Chairman of API, said: "Technology defines our national security, economy and our way of life. Technology is indispensable, evolving, complicated, and mulitifaceted. No single country, even a super power, can develop, invest, apply, regulate, and control technology alone. Cooperation and coordination among like minded countries is imperative. That is why this Technology Alliance Project is so valuable. I am excited to work together with the esteemed institutions, CNAS and MERICS."

Mikko Huotari, Executive Director of MERICS, commented: "In managing cooperation and competition with China and preserving Europe’s own technological competitiveness and security, while protecting democratic values, it is paramount that Europe invests in pro-active and forward-looking coordination with like-minded liberal democracies. MERICS is thrilled to be part of this ambitious collaboration."

Technology—including the capacity to innovate and the ability to set the norms for how technology is used—will be at the center of great power competition. To garner leadership in emerging technologies and safeguard democratic institutions, norms, and values, the Technology Alliance Project proposes the creation of a technology policy coordination body.

The project will discuss the organizational structure, coordination mechanisms, and potential membership of this coordination body, as well as the emerging technology areas it could focus on. The project will culminate in a working paper for senior government officials from the proposed member countries, as well as a final public report outlining a blueprint for multilateral technology policy coordination among the world’s major liberal-democratic nations.

This project was made possible with support from Schmidt Futures.

For more information or to schedule an interview with the project leads, contact CNAS Communications at [email protected] or (202) 457-9409.

The Center for a New American Security (CNAS) is an independent and bipartisan research institution that develops strong, pragmatic, and principled national security and defense policies. CNAS leads efforts to help inform and prepare the national security leaders of today and tomorrow.

Asia Pacific Initiative (API) is an independent think tank based in Tokyo. Its mission is to promote liberalism, innovation, and policy entrepreneurship.

The Mercator Institute for China Studies (MERICS) is a Berlin-based, independent think tank and leading European provider of policy-oriented research on contemporary China. MERICS has an extensive track record in researching the rise of “Digital China” and its strategic implications for Europe and transatlantic relations, having recently produced trailblazing analyses of China’s technology and digital policies, China’s digital platform economy and Beijing’s digital trade policy.

Schmidt Futures is a philanthropic initiative, co-founded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt, that finds exceptional people and helps them do more for others together. Schmidt Futures knits talent into networks, bets on the most promising ideas through diverse forms of competition and support, and equips people to scale through partners and modern tools. To realize this vision, Schmidt Futures uses a broad set of tools—including gifts, grants, investments, and startup activity—for charitable, educational, and commercial efforts with a public purpose.