S&T and Geopolitics

Context:

Science and technology acts as a portion of geopolitics where technological developments boost Geo-political domination of the country.
This dominion can act as a decisive instrument to pursue a geopolitical outline and build strategic relations in international affairs.
It can also be a potential tool in national security and opening new market opportunities
Possession of high-class technology fetches greater power and control in International arena.
Intermediate powers like Canada and Switzerland are best examples in the international arena because of their S&T capabilities.

Israel

Being a small country it embraces a great geo-political importance because of its high-tech ecosystem.
One of the cause for India’s latest tilt regarding Israel is the latter’s strength in S&T, especially in agriculture.
Israel serves the triple purpose of boosting economic growth, ensuring national security, and offering international leverage.

U.S.

Country has been the world’s superpower for the past 50 years, because of their headship in S&T.
The beginning of World War I with the establishment of the Council of National Defense and the National Research Council established the Science and technological leadership.
World War II led to the development of the atomic weapon and Foundations of Silicon Valley.
The diplomatically important US space program was the seed of cold war.

China

Chinese innovation policy is a geopolitical apparatus to advance economic and military hegemony.
China’s New Industry Policy 2025 aims to make itself an “innovative country”.
Chinese moves in clean energy and space have made technology a prime pawn in the international power play.
China aims to become a superpower in Artificial Intelligence, leading to a technology race with the US.
The Chinese government also invests strategically in the US, particularly in Silicon Valley

India

India’s fresh works to focus on its domestic defense manufacturing industry, develop a regional satellite for South Asia, an independent GPS, as well as establish 20 world-class universities, are all seen as foot works in the S&T advancement to reach the power.
As per the 2015 report by the OECD, the US spent 2.7% of its GDP on research and development in 2013. South Korea and Israel each spent 4% of their GDP while China is targeting 2.5% by 2020.
India currently spends only 0.9% of GDP on R&D.

Way forward

India needs to diagnose the geopolitical reality of S&T.
India needs to build the infrastructure to generate new technologies and to invest in human capital, maintain a cadre of top scientists and professionals, and develop industry-lab links.

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