Hi, I'm Ravi Agrawal, Foreign Policy's editor-in-chief. This is FP Live.

Welcome to the show. Now, chips are everywhere. Whether you call it a semiconductor, an integrated

circuit, or anything else, those tiny tiny microscopic pieces of silicon power and define our lives.

From smartphones to cars and washing machines, chips are the very foundation of the world as we know it.

They are so critical to how modern societies function that they and their entire supply chains have become

the basis for geopolitical competition. Unlike several other technologies, however, the highest-end

chips cannot just be produced by anyone. Taiwan's semiconductor manufacturing company or

TSM controls about 90% of the market for advanced ships.

And it doesn't seem as if any other company or country can catch up. But why? What is TSM's

secret sauce? What makes its semiconductors so special? Why is the semiconductor market unique? And why are they so crucial to the

world economy and to geopolitics? So many questions, and for answers, I spoke with Chris Miller. He's

the author of Chip War, the fight for the world's most critical technology. Miller is an associate

professor of international history at Tufts University's

Fletcher School. He is really the expert on this topic. You should buy his book, of course,

but start by listening to him here. As always, FP subscribers send us questions for these

discussions. If you'd like to do that too, subscribe now.

Use the code FP Live for a discount.

You can also watch these interviews live and video

if you go to foreign policy.com.

Let's dive in.

Chris Miller, welcome to FP Live.

Thank you for having me.

...