The American Edge: The Military Tech Nexus and the Sources of Great Power Dominance

To regain its capacity to effectively deter China and retain its unmatched global status, the United States must deepen its partnership with the nation’s most innovative tech companies. In The American Edge, Seth G. Jones explains how the industrial bases of the world’s great military powers have risen, fallen, and evolved relative to each other over the past century, from Imperial Germany and Japan during World War II, to the United States and Soviet Union during the Cold War, to the recent rise of China. In doing so, Jones reveals how the US is on a trajectory toward failure-a failure to effectively deter major adversaries, and to fight and win a great power war if necessary.

China is on a wartime footing. It is rapidly building its defense industrial base to deter and-if deterrence fails-to fight the United States. During periods of wartime, the US defense industrial base has always needed to maximize production capacity, minimize excessive regulations, and provide incentives to the private sector for innovation. Today, though, the US military industrial base is operating on a peacetime footing despite China’s massive military buildup and Russia’s total war in Ukraine. Set in its ways and trapped in outdated procurement systems, it lacks the capacity, responsiveness, flexibility, and surge capability to meet the military requirements to deter China.

However, the US does have a tremendously innovative private sector, from companies like SpaceX to Microsoft and Anduril, and this private sector can be leveraged. If the US can regain its capacity to respond flexibly and deter China in the current struggle for global power, it will need to come through the partnership with and utilization of these private companies. Along with providing a deep history of the economic foundations of how America’s ascent to military superpower, this book shows how these innovative firms are helping the US military regain its edge and thereby retain its status as the world’s paramount military force.

Seth G. Jones is president of the Defense and Security Department and Harold Brown Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Prior to joining CSIS, Dr. Jones was director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at the RAND Corporation. He also served as representative for the commander, U.S. Special Operations Command, to the assistant secretary of defense for special operations. Before that, he was a plans officer and adviser to the commanding general, U.S. Special Operations Forces, in Afghanistan. Dr. Jones is a graduate of Bowdoin College and received his MA and PhD from the University of Chicago.