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Technology and the Rise of Great Powers

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Lecture

Mon, Mar 31, 2025

4:30 PM – 6 PM EDT (GMT-4)

Louis A. Simpson International Building, Room A71

Princeton, NJ 08544, United States

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Flyer for Technology and the Rise of Great Powers
Will China or the U.S. lead the way in the Fourth Industrial Revolution? To answer this question, leading thinkers and policymakers in both countries draw lessons from past technology-driven power transitions that center the moment of innovation — the eureka moment that sparks astonishing technological feats. In this book, Jeffrey Ding offers a different explanation of how technological revolutions affect competition among great powers. Rather than focusing on which state first introduced major innovations, he investigates why some states were more successful than others at adapting and embracing general-purpose technologies at scale. Drawing on historical case studies of past industrial revolutions as well as statistical analysis, Ding develops a theory that emphasizes institutional adaptations oriented around diffusing technological advances throughout the entire economy. Applying GPT diffusion theory to analyze U.S.-China competition in AI, this book derives novel insights about how today’s technological breakthroughs will affect the U.S.-China power balance, as well as the optimal strategies for the U.S. and China to pursue.

Where

Louis A. Simpson International Building, Room A71

Princeton, NJ 08544, United States

Speakers

Jeffrey Ding's profile photo

Jeffrey Ding

Assistant Professor of Political Science

George Washington University

Jeffrey Ding is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at George Washington University. His book Technology and the Rise of Great Powers, published with Princeton University Press, investigates how past technological revolutions influenced the rise and fall of great powers, with implications for U.S.-China competition in emerging technologies like AI. Ding’s research has been published in European Journal of International Relations, Foreign Affairs, International Studies Quarterly, Review of International Political Economy, and Security Studies. He received his PhD in 2021 from the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar, and earned his B.A. in 2016 at the University of Iowa.

Sponsors

Paul and Marcia Wythes Center on Contemporary China. No image description provided

Hosted By

Center on Contemporary China | View More Events
Co-hosted with: Princeton Institute for International & Regional Studies, Center on Contemporary China (OWNER)