March 30, 2015
Shades of Gray: Technology, Strategic Competition, and Stability in Maritime Asia
In this seventh paper in the Maritime Strategy Series, Amy Chang, Ben FitzGerald, and Van Jackson unpack how a "fog of technology" is exacerbating dangerous "gray zone" scenarios in maritime Asia. Proliferating technologies that lack of clear norms to govern their use are intersecting with strategic competition and coercive behaviors to unsettle longstanding patterns of interaction among states. The authors see these trends as converging to raise the dangers of conflict in the region, whether through distorted incentives to undertake coercion or through the potential for miscalculation. They outline ways to "remove the fog" of technology and shore up stability in maritime Asia. Many of their recommendations for the United States government have broad relevance for a refreshed approach to technology and national security.
Ben FitzGerald is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Technology and National Security Program at the Center for a New American Security. Dr. Van Jackson is a Visiting Fellow at CNAS and a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow. At the time of writing, Amy Chang was the Norman R. Augustine Research Associate in Technology and National Security at CNAS.
Authors
-
Amy Chang
-
Ben FitzGerald
Former Adjunct Senior Fellow, Defense Program
Ben FitzGerald is a partner at Lupa, a private investment firm, and a former adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). At Lupa he leads the firm’...
-
Van Jackson
Former Adjunct Senior Fellow, Indo-Pacific Security Program
Dr. Van Jackson is a former Adjunct Senior Fellow with the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), an American political scientist, and...
More from CNAS
-
How China and the U.S. Are Competing for Young Minds in Southeast Asia
Business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month warned that China has overtaken the United States in the development of artificial intelligence and other emer...
By Kristine Lee
-
China's Artificial Islands Are Bigger (And a Bigger Deal) Than You Think
Surely you have heard the news — China has been dredging up coral reefs and creating artificial islands in the South China Sea with the purpose of enforcing their claims...
By CDR Thomas Shugart, USN
-
Defense / Indo-Pacific Security
Beijing's Go Big or Go Home Moment in the South China SeaChina is preparing for its go or go home moment in the South China Sea and it appears they have chosen the right time to make a play for regional and, ultimately, global domin...
By Jerry Hendrix
-
Defense / Indo-Pacific Security
Parting the South China SeaJuly 12, 2016, marked a turning point in the long-standing disputes over the South China Sea. After more than three years of proceedings at the Permanent Court of Arbitration,...
By Mira Rapp-Hooper