ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Chip Wars and Strategic Alliances: Historicizing Science Diplomacy in the Semiconductor Age

• In Event: Science Diplomacy: Cooperation, Competition and Crisis 4

English Abstract

The global semiconductor sector exemplifies a profound geopolitical transition from techno-globalism towards acute techno-nationalism, catalysed by intensifying US-China strategic competition and the securitisation of critical technologies. This has precipitated the ‘Chip War’, a pervasive international contest for supremacy in the semiconductor sector. Concurrently, strategic alliances are forming as states cooperate to bolster their collective technological capabilities and security. Within this contested landscape, established paradigms of science diplomacy, emphasising open, universal collaboration, appear increasingly strained and inadequate.
This trajectory marks a departure from the open, voluntary architecture of the post-Cold War Wassenaar Arrangement towards a neo-containment era reminiscent of the Cold War’s Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (COCOM). However, this paper argues that a critical historical divergence has occurred: the shift from a strictly state-centric approach to a modern diplomacy defined by ‘corporate statecraft’, where private technology giants such as TSMC, Samsung, Intel, and NVIDIA possess independent geopolitical agency that states must negotiate with rather than simply command.
The intended research seeks to understand how these emerging techno-nationalist alliances in the semiconductor sector reconfigure the practice, principles, and function of science diplomacy. Specifically, it interrogates what the emergence and operational dynamics of frameworks like the EU Chips Act, the CHIP 4 Alliance, and Quad semiconductor initiatives reveal about the evolving nature, scope, and inherent limitations of international scientific cooperation in strategic technologies.
The intended research will employ contemporary case-study methodology, scrutinising the adaptive role of science diplomacy through rigorous analysis of state industrial policies, specific inter-state cooperative agreements, the architecture of new semiconductor alliances, and the proliferation of research security measures. By contrasting the strategic deployment of scientific engagement for national or bloc advantage with normative cooperative ideals, this analysis will elucidate how techno-nationalist imperatives are reshaping transnational scientific interactions. Furthermore, evidence suggests significant impediments to deep technology and knowledge sharing persist even within these strategic alliances due to intellectual property concerns and security vetting. This necessitates a critical reappraisal of science diplomacy, acknowledging its contingent, often competitive, function alongside its cooperative potential in an era of corporate statecraft.

Author

• Akash Kumar, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.