A World of Wannabe Leapfrogs
Tech Competition Statehood in the Shadow of Sino-American Digital Rivalry
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32387/prokla.v56i223.2235Keywords:
Artificial Intelligence, Competition State, Critical Political Economy, Digital Technologies, GeoeconomicsAbstract
The concept of tech competition statehood proposed here examines transformations in state action in the face of U.S. and Chinese digital dominance from the perspective of those seeking to catch up. Rather than moving away from the regulatory creation of locational advantages, they rebalance the emphasis between inward- and outward-looking, economically and politically oriented competitiveness projects in strategically-selective ways. The EU and India, for example, are attempting to contain digital markets regionally, utilizing not only industrial policy and regulation but also strategic public procurement and the discursive legitimization of their own tech ambitions as morally superior.
Downloads
References
Abels, Joscha / Bieling, Hans-Jürgen (2022): Jenseits des Marktliberalismus? Europäische Industrie- und Infrastrukturpolitik im Zeichen neuer globaler Rivalitäten. In: PROKLA 208 52(3): 429-449. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32387/prokla.v52i208.2004. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32387/prokla.v52i208.2004
– (2024): Drivers and Limits of the Geoeconomic Turn in EU Infrastructure Policy. In: Politics and Governance 12: 8127. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.8127. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.8127
Adams, Rachel (2024): The New Empire of AI: The Future of Global Inequality. Hoboken.
Altvater, Elmar (1994): Operationsfeld Weltmarkt oder: Vom souveränen Nationalstaat zum nationalen Wettbewerbsstaat. In: PROKLA 97 24(4): 517-547. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32387/prokla.v24i97.978. DOI: https://doi.org/10.32387/prokla.v24i97.978
Babić, Milan (2025): Geoökonomie: Anatomie der neuen Weltordnung. Berlin.
Bareis, Jascha / Katzenbach, Christian (2022): Talking AI into Being: The Narratives and Imaginaries of National AI Strategies and Their Performative Politics. In: Science, Technology, & Human Values 47(5): 855-881. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/01622439211030007. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/01622439211030007
Beckert, Jens (2016): Imagined Futures. Fictional Expectations and Capitalist Dynamics. Cambridge, Mass. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674545878. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674545878
Bhambra, Gurminder (2021): Colonial Global Economy: Towards a Theoretical Reorientation of Political Economy. In: Review of International Political Economy 28(2): 307-322. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290.2020.1830831. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290.2020.1830831
Birch, Kean (2023): Data Enclaves. London. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-46402-7. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-46402-7
Bradford, Anu (2015): Exporting standards: The externalization of the EU’s regulatory power via markets. In: International Review of Law and Economics 42: 158-173. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.irle.2014.09.004. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.irle.2014.09.004
– (2023): Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology. New York.
Brand, Stewart (1987): The Media Lab: Inventing the future at MIT. New York.
Calvo, Angela Garcia / Kenney, Martin / Zysman, John (2025): Responding to platform firm power: differing national responses. In: New Political Economy 30(2): 225-239. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13563467.2024.2418075. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13563467.2024.2418075
Cavalcante Silva, Guilherme (2025): Articulating AI futures for Brazil: on different regimes of technological solutionism. In: Critical Policy Studies 19(4): 637-656. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/19460171.2024.2449381. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/19460171.2024.2449381
Cerny, Philip G. (1997): Paradoxes of the competition state: The dynamics of political globalization. In: Government and Opposition 32: 251-274. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1477-7053.1997.tb00161.x. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1477-7053.1997.tb00161.x
– (2010): The competition state today: from raison d’État to raison du Monde. In: Policy Studies 31(1): 5-21. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01442870903052801. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/01442870903052801
Chaudhuri, Bidisha (2021): Distant, opaque and seamful: seeing the state through the workings of Aadhaar in India. In: Information Technology for Development 27(1): 37-49. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02681102.2020.1789037. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02681102.2020.1789037
Davies, Matt (2024): A Lost Decade? The UK’s Industrial Approach to AI. AI Now Institute.
Ding, Jeffrey (2024): The diffusion deficit in scientific and technological power: re-assessing China’s rise. In: Review of International Political Economy 31(1): 173-198. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290.2023.2173633. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290.2023.2173633
Europäische Kommission (2019): Communication on Building Trust in Human-Centric Artificial Intelligence. COM(2019) 168 final. Brüssel.
– (2025a): EU launches InvestAI initiative to mobilise €200 billion of investment in artificial intelligence (11.2.). URL: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu, Zugriff: 2.4.2026.
– (2025b): AI Continent Action Plan. COM(2025) 165 final. Brüssel.
– (2025c): Apply AI Strategy. COM(2025) 723 final. Brüssel.
Farrand, Benjamin / Carrapico, Helena (2022): Digital Sovereignty and Taking Back Control: From Regulatory Capitalism to Regulatory Mercantilism in EU Cybersecurity. In: European Security 31(3): 435-453. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09662839.2022.2102896. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09662839.2022.2102896
Gazzane, Samira / Li, Cathy (2025): How can nations overcome the great AI divide? (21.1.). URL: https://www.weforum.org/stories/, Zugriff: 2.4.2026.
Hao, Karen (2025): Empire of AI. Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI. New York.
Hirsch, Joachim (1995): Der nationale Wettbewerbsstaat. Staat, Demokratie und Politik im globalen Kapitalismus. Berlin.
Kwet, Michael (2019): Digital Colonialism: US Empire and the New Imperialism in the Global South. In: Race & Class 60(4): 3-26. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0306396818823172. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0306396818823172
Jessop, Bob (2008): State power: a strategic-relational approach. Cambridge.
Leese, Matthias (2018): Standardizing security: the business case politics of borders. In: Mobilities 13(2): 261-275. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2017.1403777. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2017.1403777
Mügge, Daniel / Paul, Regine / Stan, Vali (2026): The AI Matrix: Profits, Power, Politics. Newcastle upon Thyne. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.36233889. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.36233889
Nilekani, Nandan (2013): Technology to leapfrog development: The Aadhaar experience. Vorlesung vom 22. April 2013 am Center for Global Development.
Panday, Jyoti / Samtub, Mila T (2024): Promises and Pitfalls of India’s AI Industrial Policy. AI Now Institute. URL: https://ainowinstitute.org/publications/analyzing-indias-ai-industrial-policy, Zugriff: 2.4.2026.
Parsheera, Smriti (2024): Stack is the New Black? Evolution and Outcomes of the ‘India-Stackification’ Process. In: Computer Law & Security Review 52. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clsr.2024.105947. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clsr.2024.105947
Patel, Dinyar (2024): To revive India’s industries: The global and imperial roots of swadeshi in the nineteenth century. In: Modern Asian Studies 58(3): 686-716. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X24000350. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X24000350
Paul, Regine (2024): European Artificial Intelligence »trusted throughout the world«: Risk-based fashioning of a competitive common AI market. In: Regulation & Governance 18(4): 1065-1082. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/rego.12563. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/rego.12563
Purayil, Muhsin Puthan (2026): India’s Fraught Push for Digital Decolonization (17.2.). URL: https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/11/24/india-bjp-modi-digital-decolonization-swadeshi, Zugriff: 2.4.2026.
PwC (2017): Sizing the prize. URL: https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/analytics/assets/pwc-ai-analysis-sizing-the-prize-report.pdf, Zugriff: 2.4.2026.
Rikap, Cecilia (2021): Capitalism, Power and Innovation: Intellectual Monopoly Capitalism Uncovered. London. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429341489. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429341489
– (2022): From global value chains to corporate production and innovation systems: exploring the rise of intellectual monopoly capitalism. In: Area Development and Policy 7(2): 147-161. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/23792949.2021.2025118. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/23792949.2021.2025118
Satariano, Adam / Mozur, Paul (2024): ›To the Future‹: Saudi Arabia Spends Big to Become an A.I. Superpower. In: The New York Times (25.4.).
Seidl, Timo / Schmitz, Luuk (2023): Moving on to not fall behind? Technological sovereignty and the ›geo-dirigiste‹ turn in EU industrial policy. In: Journal of European Public Policy 31(8): 2147-2174. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2023.2248204. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2023.2248204
Smuha, Nathalie A. (2021): From a ›race to AI‹ to a ›race to AI regulation‹: regulatory competition for artificial intelligence. In: Law, Innovation and Technology 13(1): 57-84. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17579961.2021.1898300. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17579961.2021.1898300
Srikanth, Chandra R / Dilipkumar, Bhavya (2025): MC Interview: There is a Swadeshi movement underway, India must be self-reliant in tech and trade on equal terms, says Zoho’s Sridhar Vembu (14.10.). URL: www.moneycontrol.com/technology, Zugriff: 2.4.2026.
Srnicek, Nick (2017): Platform Capitalism. Cambridge, UK.
– (2026): Silicon empires: the fight for the future of AI. Cambridge, UK.
Staab, Philipp (2019): Digitaler Kapitalismus: Markt und Herrschaft in der Ökonomie der Unknappheit. Frankfurt/M.
Youngs, Richard (2021): The European Union and Global Politics. London.
Zuboff, Shoshana (2019): The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. New York.
