Technological competition and international leadership
Debates about global power shifts often focus on military strength or alliance politics, yet these approaches struggle to explain contemporary change. This project analyses how leadership in emerging technological revolutions provides advantages that extend beyond economic growth and serves as a source of structural power. It examines how mastery of key technology clusters enables states to shape and control infrastructures, standards, and institutions, and shape the frontiers of international order.
Research outputs
- Curtis, Simon; Kitchen, Nicholas; Vasileiadis, Panos (forthcoming) Tomorrow’s World: Technological Mastery, Infrastructures of Diffusion and Hegemonic Change
Project Director
Dr Simon Curtis
Senior Lecturer in International Relations
Biography
Simon joined the University of Surrey in 2023. He had previously been an Associate Professor in International Relations at the University of East Anglia, and holds a PhD from the London School of Economics.
His books include Global Cities and Global Order (Oxford University Press), which was awarded the 2018 Hedley Bull Prize by the European Consortium for Political Research, and The Belt and Road City (Yale University Press, 2024).
Project Experts
Dr Nicholas Kitchen
Associate Professor in International Relations; Executive Director, Centre for the Study of Global Power Competition (CGPC)
Biography
I joined Surrey in 2018 from the London School of Economics, where I had been Assistant Professorial Research Fellow and Head of Analysis at LSE IDEAS. I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Visiting Fellow at LSE IDEAS, and Treasurer of the US Foreign Policy Working Group of the British International Studies Association.