Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Techno-nationalism

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The Economist has come up with a term for China's single-minded pursuit of advanced technology - 'Techno-Nationalism'.

Techno-nationalism designates the restriction of foreign participation in domestic research and development. The focus is laid on national gains through accessing foreign technology and the monopolization of technology, rather than on mutual exchange with other nations.

China, of course, is not a pioneer in this business of linking nationalism and 'national interest' to the rapid assimilation of the latest technology, by all means possible. Countries in continental Europe did exactly the same thing after the advent of the Industrial Revolution in England; Japan did it immediately after the Meiji Restoration, while Taiwan and South Korea followed suit in the late 1960's.

There are at least two significant factors that seems to be unnerving people when China does a repeat performance: The scale and speed at which China is assimilating technology, and the fact that this is taking place in an era when the advanced countries imagined that they had got the rest of the world neatly bound & gagged under the new IPR regime.

In stark contrast, India's approach in this arena seems to be laid back, lacking in a sense of urgency or purpose in reducing dependence on imported technologies.

Will this change in the days to come?

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LINKS


Hughes, Christopher W. (2011) The slow death of Japanese techno-nationalism? Emerging comparative lessons for China's defense production. Journal of Strategic Studies, Vol.34 (No.3). pp. 451-479. ISSN 0140-2390, URL - http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/39974/

NBR Reports (May 2004)
China's Post-WTO Technology Policy: Standards, Software, and the Changing Nature of Techno-Nationalism by Richard P. Suttmeier, Xiangkui Yao and Alex Zixiang Tan


Book Review by Noriko Matsumoto: Gregory P. Corning (2004) Japan and the Politics of Techno-Globalism, Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, ISBN 0-7656-0969-X, hardback, 235 pages plus index.
http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/reviews/2009/Matsumoto.html

Hughes, Christopher W. (2011) The slow death of Japanese techno-nationalism? Emerging comparative lessons for China's defense production. Journal of Strategic Studies, Vol.34 (No.3). pp. 451-479. ISSN 0140-2390
http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/39974/

Edgerton DEH (2007): The Contradictions of Techno-Nationalism and Techno-Globalism: A Historical Perspective
http://csde.washington.edu/~scurran/files/readings/SIS511/EdgertonNewGlobalStudies.pdf

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