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February 08, 2012
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June 15, 2010

Strategic Industries in a Globalized World

America's economic and military power has long been based on its dominance in key strategic industries. Three in particular exemplify this dynamic: space, military aircraft and semiconductors. But outmoded policy approaches, the advent of new technologies, and changes in the globalized supply chain threaten to radically alter the nature of all three industries -- and their relationship to American power.

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Feature articles in this theme:

Coping with Globalization in Semiconductors

By Kenneth Flamm 15 Jun 2010 | World Politics Review

After half a century, the revolution in computer technology continues to rapidly transform the world about us. There have been, however, some fundamental changes in the dynamics driving this process over the last decade and a half, and these changes raise important questions about whether this process is still serving the U.S. national interest in quite the same simple, straightforward, uncomplicated way that was apparent in earlier epochs.

Fighters and Drones: Divergent Paths for Aerospace

By David Axe 15 Jun 2010 | World Politics Review

The past year has been pivotal for one of the world's most important strategic industries. For the first time, the U.S. Air Force -- the world's most important aerospace customer -- bought more unmanned aircraft than manned aircraft. In the same time-span, the Air Force settled on the exportable F-35 Joint Strike Fighter as its fighter of the future. If the two programs represent dual paths of current and future aerospace, they are highly divergent paths.

Tending the Forge of American Space Power

By Eric Sterner 15 Jun 2010 | World Politics Review

Increasingly, if one digs deeply enough into any economic activity in the 21st century, a space element will be involved. And as the world's most developed space power, the United States has led the way in integrating space into its economic foundations and military capabilities. That ought to give policymakers pause, because the U.S. space industrial base is not what it used to be. Indeed, its health is actually in question.