The United States needs to establish a multilateral supply chain and customs agreement to stop bad actors or countries of concern from accessing critical technologies such as semiconductor chips, according to Nicholas Henderson, a research associate at the U.S. Naval War College.
Henderson, who specializes in Chinese international economic policy, wrote in a post on The National Interest magazine’s Techland blog that working with trusted partners will allow the U.S. government to better use sanction measures.
He said America employs export control as one tool in its economic statecraft but the existing system is outdated and ineffective, failing to “navigate the complex supply chains of multinational companies.”
The research associate warned that if the trend continues, U.S. technology assets could be put at risk from Chinese weapons systems. Production capacity in the country and in partner nations such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the Netherlands could be impacted as well.
Henderson suggests the U.S. form a security alliance with partner nations to address China’s growing influence in the sector.
“Despite the risks, this cooperative environment between allies would recapture the more open and necessary collaborative space that feeds semiconductor development that we risk losing in this new era of increased strategic competition,” he concluded.
Henderson is the research associate to USNWC’s Ruger Chair of National Security Economics at the Center for Naval Warfare Studies Strategic and Operational Research Department.
