The Vital Role of Basic Research in Innovation

What has happened in the past 100 days to America’s science and technology ecosystem? What are China's ambitions and how is the government trying to take advantage of American uncertainty? And what can we learn from China's war mobilization exercises?

To explore these questions, we're joined by Divyansh Kaushik and Alex Rubin, who both work at Beacon Global Strategies. Divyansh holds an AI PhD from Carnegie Mellon, and Alex spent the past decade at the CIA focusing on China and emerging technologies.

We discuss…

• The Historical origins of the US R&D model, and the division of labor between universities, government, and industry,

• How budget cuts will impact the NSF, NIH, NIST, and DoD basic research,

• Why and how China attempts to emulate US research institutions,

• What a leaked wargame exercise from Guangdong province can tell us about China’s grand strategy,

• How institutions like ChinaTalk can complement the IC with fresh, independent research.

Outro music: The Elements - Tom Lehrer (YouTube Link)

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