Page 29 - Focus_in_Continuity_a_Monograph

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There are moments in history where technology played a decisive role in geopolitics. The
invention of the steam engine bolstered the British Empire, driving the Industrial
Revolution, the search for raw materials and an age of colonisation. Another is in nuclear
politics where the transfer of “sensitive nuclear assistance” shaped nuclear power for the
coming decades. Matthew Kroenig highlights the peculiar logic of developing the nuclear
capabilities of other states. For instance, China’s assistance with Pakistan’s nuclear
programme in the 1980s and France’s aid to Israel fed into their own national interests. 1

There are patterns of such alliances today, where the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue
(QUAD) aims to advance the vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific with leader-level
2
working groups on critical and emerging technologies and cyber or China’s call for the
3
Global initiative on Data Security . Such power structures, formed by technological
advancements, persist today whether to maintain the gap between developing and
developed nations, preserve technological dominance in military equipment or control over
industrial bases.