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 foregrounds technological mastery as a core source of structural power. It examines how leadership in key technology clusters enables states to shape and control infrastructures, standards, and international outcomes.
Leadership through technology
This project analyses how leadership in emerging technological revolutions provides advantages that extend beyond economic growth. Technological leadership allows states to influence standards, institutions, and the direction of international order.
Research outputs
- Curtis, Simon; Kitchen, Nicholas; Vasileiadis, Panos (forthcoming) Tomorrow’s World: Technological Mastery, Infrastructures of Diffusion and Hegemonic Change
Project team
Project Lead
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; 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 in the United States Centre, Executive Director of the LSE Diplomacy Commission, 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 and Acting Convenor of the US Foreign Policy Working Group of the British International Studies Association.