Description
Is the dominance of new technological sectors decisive in periods of power transition? Evolutionary economics suggests that successful bids for hegemonic leadership are associated with first mover advantage in leading edge technologies, since dominance in new technologies creates opportunities for supplying essential infrastructure necessary for their diffusion. Yet how such infrastructure is governed is a significant component of how well it is perceived to operate: the ability of great powers to sustain dominance of leading-edge technological change is shaped by the quality of state leadership. Particular modes of governance may raise switching costs for certain types of actors to prohibitive levels, and so limit the effective scope of a particular actors’ socio-technical system. We illustrate this argument by discussing the emerging geopolitics of net-zero: specifically the competition between the United States and China to master green technologies, and to offer mechanisms by which to diffuse their models of net-zero transition throughout the international system.
