Hello everyone and welcome to ESAIP's Global Economy podcast. My name is Frederick Erickson and today we are going to engage on a topic that has forced itself back into public discussion again, at least in the past decades, namely the rise and fall of great powers.

And I am delighted to welcome to the podcast, Jeffrey Ding, who is an assistant professor of political science at the George Washington University.

He has previously been at

Oxford, Stanford, and Georgetown, among other universities. And he recently came out with a

fascinating book, Technology and the Rise of Great Powers. And it's this book we're going to talk

about today. Jeffrey, welcome. Thanks so much for having me.

I really liked reading your book, and as the title reveals, it's a book about the role that

technology plays for shaping the rise of new powers, and this theme, of course, connects with

so many of the broad developments we have

seen in recent times as well. The subtitle is how diffusion shapes economic competition. And we are

going to talk about that theme of diffusion, because it's also very central to the way that you

approach the issue of great powers.

But why don't we start with a primer on the rise and fallen of great powers

and how this issue has been approached in the past?

As opposed, you wanted to research this theme and write this book

because you felt something was missing or that others were getting things wrong.

So what has been the common understanding of technology? because you felt something was missing or that others were getting things wrong.

So what has been the common understanding of technology and the economy for rising great

powers in the past?

Yeah, you're exactly right, Frederick. I started out researching these past historical cases

because I wanted to see if they could offer any lessons for great power competition in artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies today.

But as I was going back through the first Industrial Revolution case, the second Industrial

...