The U.S. Must Lead a New Transatlantic Alliance on Tech Policy
The United States and Europe have reinvigorated the transatlantic security alliance in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The galvanizing event of a major war in Europe has spurred greater action on security cooperation than at any point in decades. More importantly, it has accelerated the discussion about the importance of a common strategic vision for the United States and Europe to work together to counter autocratic adversaries.
Despite the emerging consensus on defense needs, disagreements on important issues such as how we deal with increasingly vital emerging technologies continue to frustrate a common path forward on democracy and technology. The NATO security alliance was essential for meeting the challenges of the 20th century, but today's growing challenges, including leading the global technological future, will require even better cooperation in more areas. To ensure that democracies remain at the forefront of economic development through this rapidly changing international environment, the United States should lead a new transatlantic technology alliance with our European allies based on our shared democratic values.
Well over half of the economic growth since the end of World War II has been directly attributable to technological innovation. The American people see the importance of innovation with large majorities telling us in a recent survey that they want U.S. technology leadership so that the United States becomes a home for the good paying jobs of the future, and that Congress should promote that leadership through bipartisan investment. In a rare recent feat of that bipartisanship, a conference committee of the House and Senate is now considering bipartisan legislation that will invest billions to expand American innovation, strengthen our cyber workforce, and diversify our STEM pipeline.
We need to increase investment in this innovation ecosystem because China is outpacing the U.S. in establishing leadership in the critical emerging technology sectors that will drive the new jobs and industries for decades to come. China’s remarkable growth and investment in its technology sector has caught many around the world by surprise. According to Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, China “has displaced the U.S. as the world’s top high-tech manufacturer,” and, “has become a serious competitor in the foundational technologies of the 21st century.”
But just as the United States is utilizing a powerful alliance with Europe to assist Ukraine as it fights to counter Russian aggression, we need a strong partnership with our European allies to meet this new challenge of winning the technological future. NATO was established to ensure that the security architecture of Europe was not defined by undemocratic forces. Likewise, the global technology future should be forged through democratic values. As Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has said, “We, together with our allies, who care about privacy, freedom, individual rights, individual protection, we need to write the rules of the road.”
Unfortunately, current proposals in Europe will hinder transatlantic cooperation in this critical sector, undermine American innovators, and potentially strengthen the hand of organized criminals and nation states that want to abuse technologies for malign purposes. For example, the bipartisan leadership of the Senate Finance Committee voiced concerns that the European Digital Markets Act would “unfairly disadvantage U.S. firms to the benefit of not just European companies, but also powerful state-owned and subsidized Chinese and Russian companies, which would have negative impacts on users’ privacy, security, and free speech.”
Despite the issues with the European approach expressed by their colleagues, some American legislators are pushing for the United States to follow Europe’s lead. A group of former Cabinet-level national security officials recently warned that these U.S. proposals “would provide an open door for foreign adversaries to gain access to the software and hardware of American technology companies… [which] could result in major cyber threats, misinformation, access to data of U.S. persons, and intellectual property theft.” However well-intentioned these American and European proposals are, this is the wrong framework for a transatlantic technology alliance.
The values expressed by Secretary Raimondo and legislation like the bipartisan innovation bills currently in conference committee provide a better foundation from which to win the technological future. A transatlantic technology policy alliance should be built on three core principles: 1) a focus on expanding innovation driven prosperity and opportunity that benefits us all, 2) a strong foundation of security and privacy safeguards; 3) and wrapped in a shared belief in the rule of law and respect for individuals.
This framework is entirely consistent with establishing responsible guardrails for the technology sector in both the United States and Europe to both ensure effective rules of the road spur critical innovation. Such an alliance will have as profound an impact on the world today as the transatlantic security alliance did on the 20th century.
Those in the United States and Europe seeking to fuel the global competitiveness of the Western economies need to take the reins of the transatlantic technology policy dialogue to ensure a more prosperous, equitable, democratic, and trusted future.
Ken Gude is the Executive Director of the think tank Trusted Future.
