System-on-System Competition in Defense Innovation

Defense innovation systems (DIS) have become an important analytic concept in defense policy circles in recent years. DIS are networks of interacting agents involved in the generation, diffusion, and utilization of defense-related technologies supported by local institutional infrastructures. This notion can be a valuable addition to one’s arsenal of tools for understanding aspects of great power competition between the United States and China. The DIS construct draws attention to competition between the United States and China being fundamentally a contest between different innovation systems. This adds an important perspective to policy debates because it broadens the analysis of competition away from particular elements and toward the overall systems involved, including global technological systems, dual-use technologies, and civilian elements that are important components of nearly all innovation systems. Furthermore, while U.S. industrial policy may have historically hidden it, the DIS construct draws attention to the intensive management and networking activities by U.S. Department of Defense elements involved in organizing the generation, diffusion, and utilization of defense-related technologies. For China, the DIS construct helps shed a bright light on the civilian-military fusion that has been a bedrock of China’s international competitive strategy.