Episode 110: How Diffusing New Technologies Defines Great Powers with Jeffrey Ding

Global Economy Podcast

ECIPE

Business

4.2 • 5 Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode of ECIPE’s Global Economy podcast, Fredrik Erixon speaks with Jeffrey Ding, assistant professor at George Washington University, about his book Technology and the Rise of Great Powers: How Diffusion Shapes Economic Competition. They discuss how the diffusion of general-purpose technologies, rather than just leading-edge innovation, drives national economic power. Drawing on historical cases from the Industrial Revolutions to today’s AI race, Ding explains why widespread adoption across sectors is more critical than simply being first. The conversation explores implications for the US, China, and Europe in the current technological competition. You can purchase the book “Technology and the Rise of Great Powers: How Diffusion Shapes Economic Competition” here. You can watch a video recording of this conversation here. You can read a transcript of the chat here. Jeffrey Ding is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at George Washington University. Prior to this role, Ding served as a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, sponsored by Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. Ding’s research focuses on great power competition and cooperation in emerging technologies, the political economy of innovation, and China’s scientific and technological capabilities. His work has been published or is forthcoming in the European Journal of International Relations, European Journal of International Security, Foreign Affairs, International Studies Quarterly, Review of International Political Economy, and Security Studies, and his research has been cited in major outlets such as The Washington Post and The Financial Times. Ding earned his PhD in 2021 from the University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. Previously, he worked as a researcher for Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology and Oxford’s Centre for the Governance of AI. Originally from Iowa City, Ding is a lifelong Hawkeye fan and a proud graduate of the University of Iowa.

Transcript

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0:00.0	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.
0:28.6	And I am delighted to welcome to the podcast, Jeffrey Ding, who is an assistant professor of political science at the George Washington University.
0:36.6	He has previously been at
0:39.2	Oxford, Stanford, and Georgetown, among other universities. And he recently came out with a
0:44.5	fascinating book, Technology and the Rise of Great Powers. And it's this book we're going to talk
0:50.8	about today. Jeffrey, welcome. Thanks so much for having me.
0:55.8	I really liked reading your book, and as the title reveals, it's a book about the role that
1:04.1	technology plays for shaping the rise of new powers, and this theme, of course, connects with
1:09.7	so many of the broad developments we have
1:11.7	seen in recent times as well. The subtitle is how diffusion shapes economic competition. And we are
1:19.3	going to talk about that theme of diffusion, because it's also very central to the way that you
1:25.3	approach the issue of great powers.
1:27.9	But why don't we start with a primer on the rise and fallen of great powers
1:33.3	and how this issue has been approached in the past?
1:36.3	As opposed, you wanted to research this theme and write this book
1:40.0	because you felt something was missing or that others were getting things wrong.
1:44.0	So what has been the common understanding of technology? because you felt something was missing or that others were getting things wrong.
1:44.2	So what has been the common understanding of technology and the economy for rising great
1:50.4	powers in the past?
1:52.7	Yeah, you're exactly right, Frederick. I started out researching these past historical cases
2:05.2	because I wanted to see if they could offer any lessons for great power competition in artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies today.
2:11.5	But as I was going back through the first Industrial Revolution case, the second Industrial
	...

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