The United States is in danger of losing its lead in technology and innovation sector to Asian nations such as India, China, South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan and Singapore, a senior foreign policy expert has said.
Although US technical dominance remains solid, the globalisation of research and development is exerting considerable pressure on the American system, Adam Segal, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations writes in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs.
Indian companies, he points out, are quickly becoming the second-largest producers of application services in the world, developing, supplying, and managing data bases and other types of software for clients around the world.
Also, the percentage of patents issued to and science journal articles published by scientists in China, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan is rising. South Korea has rapidly eaten away at the U.S. advantage in the manufacture of computer chips and telecommunications software.
In addition to the increasing science and research and development budgets, India, China, South Korea and Taiwan are now shifting from top-down, state directed technology policies to more flexible, market-oriented approaches, he points out.
The US will never be able to prevent other countries from developing new technologies, he said, adding it can remain dominant only by continuing to innovate faster than others but 'that won't be easy.'
The number of Americans pursuing advanced degrees in the sciences and engineering is declining, and university science and engineering programmes are growing more dependent on foreign-born talent, Segal writes.
