U.S. foreign policy doctrine subordinates the goal of maintaining, let alone maximizing, America’s global power advantage. That formula will not succeed against the new China challenge.

Unlike the digital divide, many ignore the data divide or argue that the way to close it is to collect vastly less data. But without substantial efforts to increase data representation and access, certain individuals and communities will be left behind in an increasingly data-driven world.

Achieving digital inclusion requires a comprehensive understanding of the digital divide and standardized methods for addressing related topics such as reasons for nonadoption and digital illiteracy—but in getting people online, individualized approaches are the way to go.

Defending Digital Series, No. 17: Last year’s defeat of the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA) has led to predictable handwringing about the future of the news business. Both history and recent events suggest that such fears will prove unwarranted.

Exaggerated and misleading concerns about generative artificial intelligence have crowded out reasonable discussion about the technology, generating a familiar, yet unfortunate, “tech panic.”

Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, offer unique policy challenges. While the United States has taken some important steps to address the potential risks and benefits of the technology, there is more policymakers can do to protect consumers while encouraging innovation.

China’s economy is best viewed as a giant Asian Tiger. China’s great success stems mostly from its vast size and its use of the proven Asian development model. Claims that it’s mostly the result of exploitive and unfair communist practices distort U.S. priorities and policies.

Innovation in electrical engineering (EE) powers the U.S. economy, yet the share of students graduating with EE degrees has declined. This reduces EE innovation and production in the United States. Congress should act.

Effectively managing the Energy Department’s hydrogen hubs program in the face of formidable challenges will be vital for the success of developing hydrogen-based economic ecosystems.

Green ammonia has attracted plenty of recent attention. The technology is promising, but cost reductions, demonstrations, infrastructure, and market growth are all still needed if it is to realize its potential.

Large retail companies are more productive than small retailers. That is why they can offer better prices to consumers, pay higher wages to their employees, and contribute more to the overall economy—which puts the lie to the neo-Brandeisian argument that “big is bad.”

Defending Digital Series, No. 16: The recent congressional hearing about TikTok was a missed opportunity to insist that U.S. and Chinese companies be treated equally in both nations.

The EU’s new cloud cybersecurity regime should focus on good security practices, as the U.S. FedRAMP regime does. Emulating China’s protectionist focus on firm nationality is a bad security practice that weakens transatlantic influence over cybersecurity issues globally.

Investments in biopharmaceutical innovation and expenditures on medicines themselves both produce tremendous societal returns. Maintaining the robust innovation ecosystem necessary to capitalize on these benefits requires the right mix of “push” and “pull” incentives.

Progressives want to replace neoliberalism with green-equity-focused industrial policy, which would make America poorer and weaker. Washington should instead adopt a Hamiltonian agenda to win the global competition for advanced industry leadership, especially versus China.

Critics argue developers of generative AI systems such as ChatGPT and DALL-E have unfairly trained their models on copyrighted works. Those concerns are misguided.

Just as there was opposition to the corporate economy in the early 1900s, there is opposition to the platform economy today. But limiting “platformization” would have considerable long-lasting economic costs for the nation and consumers.

Smart city technology could modernize local government services and improve residents’ quality of life. To reap these benefits and maintain public trust, cities and communities need to balance the interests of innovation and privacy.

In the 2017 law journal article that established her reputation, now FTC Chair Lina Khan ignored or misapplied the economics of two-sided markets, mischaracterized competitive conditions, and did not consider the pro-competitive effects of Amazon’s conduct.

Interrelated gaps and failures in the process and policies used to efficiently allocate spectrum demand comprehensive reform. To prevent future failures, policymakers must improve device performance, increase data gathering and sharing, and clarify the spectrum allocation process.

Concerns about artificial intelligence have prompted policymakers to propose a variety of laws and regulations to create “responsible AI.” Unfortunately, many proposals would likely harm AI innovation because few have considered what “responsible regulation of AI” entails.

Tax incentives for research and development (R&D) in America are less generous than in comparable countries—and now prevent firms from expensing the full value of R&D investments in the first year. Enhancing R&D tax incentives would create high-paying jobs across the country.

Immersive technologies have already proved to be useful in supplementing classroom education and on-the-job training. Those successes underscore how implementing the technology can bolster the effectiveness of apprenticeship programs in the United States.

The federal government controls large swaths of the electromagnetic spectrum, but the current system for managing it lacks effective ways to incentivize agencies to use it efficiently. Congress and the Biden administration should promote good stewardship of spectrum and better enable it to power both federal missions and the commercial wireless ecosystem.

Policymakers should empower metaverse platforms to develop innovative tools and solutions to address safety issues and ensure AR/VR products and services don’t harm users. Overly prescriptive regulation risks stifling the progress of those innovations.

Restrictive data policies coming into effect in Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Vietnam will measurably increase import costs and reduce trade volumes, undermining the broader economic role of data. Policymakers should change course or else be left behind in the race for digital development.

In absolute terms, the United States is among the world’s leaders in deploying fast broadband, and it does so at competitive prices. But there is room for improvement on broadband adoption.

Policymakers in some nations want edge companies such as Netflix to pay a larger share of broadband infrastructure costs. These “sending-party-pays” policies would harm Internet users, disproportionately tax U.S. tech companies, and fail to deliver infrastructure improvements.

Policymakers could improve content moderation on social media by building international consensus on content moderation guidelines, providing more resources to address state-sponsored disinformation, and increasing transparency in content moderation decisions.

Data privacy regulations impose significant costs on businesses and the economy. Effective, targeted federal legislation would address actual privacy harms while reducing costs that hinder productivity and innovation.