Addressing the China Challenge to Democratic Technology Policy

MERICS is pleased to have partnered up with the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) and the Asia Pacific Initiative (API) for the Technology Alliance Project, an major collaboration effort launched by CNAS and supported by Schmidt Futures. The purpose of the project was to explore how the world's tech-leading liberal democracies can improve their coordination by spearheading the creation of a new multilateral architecture for technology policy – a technology alliance.

On 21 October 2020, CNAS organized a virtual event to launch the project report Common Code – An Alliance Framework for Democratic Technology Policy. Co-authored by MERICS Analyst Rebecca Arcesati, along with Martijn Rasser, Ainikki Riikonen and Monika Bochert of CNAS and Shin Oya of API, the document provides a blueprint for a multilateral techno-democratic statecraft strategy. It provides recommendations for creating a technology alliance through which democracies can regain the initiative in the global technology competition, protect key areas of technological advantage, and promote collective norms and values around the use of emerging technologies.