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Memorandum 229, January 2024
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In recent years the technological struggle between the United States and China has intensified. Washington has increased its efforts to deny Beijing access to advanced technologies and has announced huge investments to accelerate technological research and development, in order to secure its status as the world’s strongest economic power. At the same, time, the United States is demanding that its partners join the fight and adopt a policy of restricting China’s research, development, and manufacturing capabilities in the field of advanced chips. Investment in technological research, development, and manufacture is a vital component and a relative advantage that Israel enjoys, but this is only a partial solution to the problem. Israel needs a national plan to cover all aspects of the development, manufacturing, and trade in chips. This memorandum presents alternative technological policies for Israel and calls for a discussion, as soon as possible, on national technological strategy.
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Table of Contents:
Globalization is one of the most significant phenomena of history and has been an irrefutable axiom since World War II. Today it is difficult to imagine how either individuals or countries could survive without international partnership and movement of goods. However, since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the supply chain crisis that followed cracks have become obvious in the principles of global trade, and one of its clearest manifestations is the Great Power technological competition between the United States and China...
This memorandum is being submitted to readers in the middle of the Gaza War that broke out on October 7, 2023, as we were preparing for publication. Naturally, the war pushes aside academic engagement and long-term strategic issues as well. However, one of the main missions of the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) at Tel Aviv University is precisely that, to ensure that the State of Israel prepares for the challenges it will face in all issues affecting its national security. This memorandum examines and studies what has come to be known as the “Chip War”—a titanic struggle between the United States and China for technological supremacy that has been raging for over three years around the globe and with tremendous impact on the State of Israel...
Since October 7, 2023, the State of Israel has been engaged in a war forced upon it by Hamas. This war is being waged not only in our own region, but also across the globe, in the western capitals, on campuses of prestigious universities, in the headquarters of the largest and most influential technology companies in the world; these entities have he power to directly and indirectly influence the narrative, the support for Israel, and the world’s governments in a way that ultimately would affect Israel’s room to maneuver in this war. In addition, it is impossible to disconnect the struggle from global contexts and from the competition of the superpowers. The INSS is committed to basic research on issues related to Israel’s national security even in times of war, with the understanding that when the war ends, the strategic challenges facing Israel will necessitate a knowledge base that will be available to policymakers and decision makers. This work touches on one of the main factors shaping the world order and will return to occupy the State of Israel once the fighting ends...
Globalization has been an irrefutable axiom since World War II. It is one of the most significant phenomena that has occurred in history, and it is difficult to imagine today how individuals and countries could survive without international partnership and movement of goods. However, since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the supply chain crisis following it, cracks have emerged in the principles of global trade. One expression of these cracks is the technological struggle taking place between the United States and China. In October 2022, the United States publicized the CHIPS Act.1 The law includes a budgetary investment of $278.2 billion over ten years to accelerate technological research and development, and to ensure that the United States remains the strongest economic power in the world. Out of this total, a direct investment of $52 billion is planned, by subsidizing the establishment of semiconductor manufacturing plants in US territory, a field in which China has been trying to achieve a global advantage for a decade...
This section is dedicated to a discussion of whether Israel should formulate a policy regarding investment in technology in light of its needs and an assessment of future national security. The working assumption is that it is not Israel’s place to advance legislation on the level of the American or European legislation. However, given the global trends, Israel’s current situation, and the exponential pace of development of technology, the private sector and
market forces alone are insufficient for ensuring Israel’s standing as a hightech power over time; therefore, it is desirable and recommended to examine current government policy on the issue...
In the previous chapter, we discussed considerations that are meant to encourage decision-makers in Israel when planning a technology strategy and to examine investment in local technology production systems. In this section, we describe the current Israeli situation in the systemic context and the “displacement” that it is in. This section brings together the insights presented so far in a way that allows for discussing policy alternatives. The alternatives will be presented via the SWOT model, which helped us highlight the advantages and disadvantages of each alternative...
This memorandum has presented the emerging world order, at the center of which is the global technological competition between the great powers, in the context of the retreat from globalization and a return to models based on self-reliance, alliances, and coalitions. The supply-chain crisis demonstrated to the world the risk of relying on factories in countries with which cooperation is strategically sensitive, given the potential for instability in relations. Most technologically advanced countries have internalized the depth of the geostrategic changes and in the past year have examined the implications, each country according to its size, strength, geographic location, economy, and unique characteristics...
The opinions expressed in INSS publications are the authors’ alone.