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Global Economy Podcast

Episode 112: Techno-Nationalism – Strategic Competition in the 21st Century with Alex Capri

Global Economy Podcast

ECIPE

Business

4.25 Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode of the ECIPE Global Economy Podcast, Fredrik Erixon speaks with Alex Capri about his new book Techno-Nationalism: How It Is Reshaping Trade, Geopolitics, and Society. The conversation explores the growing entanglement of technology, national security, and economic policy, focusing on key elements such as supply chain weaponisation, strategic decoupling, and tech diplomacy. Capri highlights the geopolitical competition over critical technologies like semiconductors and AI, the implications for global supply chains, and the strategic dilemmas faced by smaller countries. The discussion offers both historical context and forward-looking insight into a fragmenting yet innovation-driven global economy. You can purchase the book “Techno-Nationalism: How It Is Reshaping Trade, Geopolitics, and Society” here. You can watch a video recording of this conversation here. You can read a transcript of the chat here. Alex Capri teaches in the Business School at the National University of Singapore (NUS), and in the NUS Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. He has worked extensively in China and Asia for two decades, where he was a partner and the regional leader of KPMG’s Asia Trade & Customs Practice, based in both Hong Kong and Singapore. Prior to his consulting career, he was a trade specialist in the U.S. Treasury Department, and the U.S. Customs Service. Alex is a regular panellist for the World Economic Forum (WEF). He writes for Forbes Asia and Nikkei Asia, and he is a frequent guest on global television and radio networks. Known for his expertise in supply chains, global trade, technology and geopolitics, he is a research fellow at the Hinrich Foundation, a senior fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) and a board member of Purdue University’s Krach Institute of Tech-Diplomacy. He advises corporate boards on geo-economics and techno-nationalism and he provides guidance to clients on cross-border projects throughout Asia and the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas. Alex holds an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, in International Political Economy and a B.Sc. in International Relations, from the University of Southern California.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello, everyone and welcome to E-Syp's Global Economy podcast. My name is Fredrik Erickson, and I am very

0:17.8

pleased to say that today. I am joined by Alex Capri to talk about his new book titled

0:23.5

Techno-Nationalism, how it is reshaping trade, geopolitics and society. It's a great book that I recommend

0:32.5

to everyone with an interest in the subject and Alex now teaches business and public policy at the National University of Singapore,

0:42.4

but for a long time he also built practical experience of the world of trade and techno-nationalism.

0:49.0

He was with the KeePMG's global trade practice for several years,

0:53.0

and was a partner and regional leader

0:54.8

for the company's international trade and customs practice in Asia.

1:00.5

Alex, welcome to the podcast.

1:02.6

Thank you, Frederick.

1:04.2

So, techno nationalism, I think many listeners will have at least a broad idea what it is,

1:10.0

and I assume that many of them are going

1:13.3

to have followed debates over, say, US export restrictions to China in certain technologies and

1:18.8

perhaps how the whole area of semiconductors have increasingly become charged, not just with

1:26.1

restrictions, but efforts to localize production.

1:29.8

But I think it could be useful for us to take a step back and first ask, what is techno-nationalism?

1:36.3

Yes, and as most people would probably assume, it's about nation-states linking technological prowess directly to national security, increasingly

1:48.5

now to economic security and strength. And from a social aspect, because of hybrid warfare

1:57.5

all around us, there are issues around truth, disinformation, narrative wars, et cetera,

2:04.5

and all of those are also dependent on technological prowess. So those things form the basis

2:12.5

of what a simple definition of techno-nationalism is.

2:23.3

And if we then start to think a little bit about type of measures that easily are folded into this category or this world of techno-nationalism,

...

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