What lies beneath the 'Chip War'? Knowledge flows, technology and geopolitics

Understanding the global circulation of knowledge, its geopolitics and future challenges

US measures to prevent China from developing an advanced semiconductor industry have recently taken centre stage in the political debate.

To secure US global leadership - above all in artificial intelligence (AI) - incentives to encourage foreign firms to invest in the US have been combined with a swathe of export controls to regulate trade in technology and 'knowhow' with China so as to 'strangle with the intent to kill' their AI developments.

This important case is just one prominent example within a broader historical process. We've seen an increasing 'interference' by the American government in the transnational circulation of science, technology and knowhow between US and Western research communities, firms and national governments. This is particularly - but not only - with China, to protect its national economic and military security.

This talk will look at the epistemic and geopolitical work that goes into regulating the transnational circulation of knowledge - especially through export controls, using the Chip War as an example.

Highlighting little known continuities between the Biden and Trump administrations, the event will end with a reflection on the new measures taken to restrain further access of Western firms to the Chinese market.

John Krige

John Krige is Kranzberg Professor Emeritus in the School of History and Sociology at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta.

He is the preeminent historian of transnational science collaboration and knowledge exchange. His most recent publications by the University of Chicago Press and published in 2022, are:

• Knowledge Flows in Global Age: A Transnational Approach
• Knowledge Regulation and National Security in Post war America - a co-authored volume with Mario Daniels.

Fred Jevons lecture

The Fred Jevons Science Policy Lecture commemorates the founding professor of ‘Liberal Studies in Science’ at Manchester.

Manchester has long been a major centre for social, economic and historical studies of science and technology - a history consolidated by the establishment of a Department of Liberal Studies in Science in the 1960s.

That scholarly tradition is today maintained by LSS's successor centres, the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, and the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research.

Which collectively constitute one of the world's major centres of expertise in the social, historical, economic and political analysis of science and technology.

Refreshments will be available for networking after the lecture from 6:30pm.