Emerging Tech Policy

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

Technology is reshaping the fabric and function of global society, politics, economics, and international relations. Since the widespread adoption of generative artificial intelligence—beginning with large language models such as ChatGPT—science and technology have moved to the center of geopolitical competition, economic statecraft, and national security strategy. Governments now increasingly view technological leadership, control over critical supply chains, and access to data, compute, and talent as core elements of power. In the years since the COVID-19 pandemic, the relationship between science, technology, and policy has fundamentally shifted. The global science and innovation system has become more fragmented, with heightened tensions over technological dependence, export controls, industrial policy, and digital sovereignty. Strategic competition—particularly between the United States, China, and other major powers—has accelerated efforts to “de-risk” or “decouple” supply chains in semiconductors, advanced computing, biotechnology, energy technologies, and critical minerals. At the same time, emerging technologies are increasingly intertwined with global challenges such as climate change, public health, food security, misinformation, and armed conflict. Against this backdrop, the course examines how rapid advances in science and technology are reshaping international policy debates and global governance. It explores key emerging technologies—including artificial intelligence and machine learning, advanced computing and semiconductors, synthetic biology and gene editing, additive manufacturing, energy and climate technologies, food and agricultural innovation, space technologies, and blockchain—and analyzes their implications for economic development, trade, security, environmental sustainability, and global inequality. Rather than focusing on technical detail alone, the course emphasizes governance, power, and policy choices: who sets the rules for emerging technologies, whose values are embedded in them, and how states, international institutions, companies, and civil society respond to technological disruption. Particular attention is paid to the growing role of national and subnational governments in shaping innovation through industrial policy, regulation, and public–private partnerships, as well as to the expanding influence of technology companies as geopolitical actors. The course also explores the promise and limits of technology as a tool for public purpose, including the use of AI and digital technologies for social good, development, humanitarian response, and climate resilience—while critically examining risks related to surveillance, inequality, bias, and democratic governance. Through class discussions, case studies, and applied projects, students will develop a framework for understanding how science and technology shape contemporary foreign policy and global affairs. Guest speakers from government, international organizations, and global technology companies will provide practical perspectives on how technology policy is made and contested in today’s rapidly evolving geopolitical landscape. In addition, students will be exposed to some of the key drivers of technology change in the Silicon Valley, and around the world.