American Edge Project Releases National Security Policy Detailing Consequences If U.S. Loses Tech Leadership Role, Calls For Deployment Of “U.S. Digital Power”
Washington, DC – The American Edge Project (AEP) today released its strategic national security policy in a new report, written in collaboration with some of the nation’s top national defense experts, including AEP National Security Advisory Board Co-Chairs former Supreme Allied Commander at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and commander of U.S. Southern Command Admiral James Stavridis, USN (Ret.) and former White House Counterterrorism and Homeland Security Advisor Frances Townsend. It details the critical, long-term national security consequences that the United States faces if it relinquishes its technology leadership role.
AEP’s national security policy hinges on three pillars: 1) protecting the ability to innovate; 2) securing U.S. technology, networks, and data through enhanced cybersecurity; and 3) advancing a democratic and open internet.
The United States has traditionally relied on a mix of hard power (military strength), soft power (diplomacy), or smart power (a sensible blend of both hard and soft power) to advance its interests at home and abroad. With a new administration sworn into office, the report states “it is time to build the architecture for the deployment of U.S. digital power.” This new policy framework seeks to leverage two distinctly American assets: technological strength, and a network of allies, partners, and friends around the world that share a commitment to democratic principles.
The policy framework highlights the need to ensure that “the American technology industry maintains its edge on its international competitors.” It describes the need to empower “American technology innovation and promote it globally as a way to defend our interests and advance our values in the competition between ‘techno-democracies’ like the U.S., European Union (EU), Japan, and other democratic allies and ‘techno-autocracies’ like Russia and China.”
The policy concludes with a stark warning for policymakers on the threat Americans face if the United States continues to fall behind foreign adversaries in its technological advancement.
“Over the last several generations, technology innovation has driven productivity, invented millions of new jobs, and made the United States the wealthiest nation in the world,” the policy states. “As the nation continues to fight a global pandemic, the technology industry remains a consistent growth area for the U.S. economy and the job market. It also offers services to maintain regular order in the short-term and a path to thrive as a nation in the decades ahead. Policies that forfeit the U.S. competitive edge to foreign entities put the safety, privacy, and economic prosperity of Americans at risk.”
The national security policy framework was published by the American Edge Project along with contributing authors Admiral James Stavridis, USN (Ret.); former White House Counterterrorism and Homeland Security Advisor Frances Townsend; founder and executive director of the National Security Institute (NSI) Jamil Jaffer; founder of One Defense Stephen Rodriguez; and Beacon Global Strategies’ Jeremy Bash, Michael Allen and Kaitlyn Garman.
To read the analysis in its entirety, please click here.
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