The Strategic Technologies Program focuses on technologies that extend beyond economic and industrial applications and carry profound implications for national security, technological autonomy, and geopolitical positioning.
In today’s world, advanced technologies have become one of the most important sources of power. The ability to develop, control, and deploy strategic technologies increasingly determines the capacity of states to compete, maintain resilience, and shape the future global order.
This program examines technologies that are considered strategic due to their transformative impact on the future of economies, security, and global power dynamics. These include artificial intelligence, semiconductors, advanced computing, quantum technologies, biotechnology, robotics, space technologies, and other emerging technological domains.
The program seeks to understand why certain technologies become critical components of national power and how states use investment strategies, industrial policies, supply chain control, and technological advantages to strengthen their position in the emerging global order.
It also explores the challenges surrounding access, development, and governance of strategic technologies, including technological dependencies, export restrictions, competition over international standards, and efforts to shape the trajectory of future innovation.
From CTST’s perspective, strategic technologies are not merely advanced tools; they represent the foundations of power in the twenty-first century. Understanding their evolution is essential for analyzing global competition, economic security, and the changing architecture of international power.
This study analyzes the process by which semiconductor chips have shifted from an industrial commodity to an instrument of foreign policy and geopolitical rivalry.
CTST Specialized Glossary | Entry No. 002
Senior Fellow
Raheleh Tousi is a researcher specializing in Southeast Asian Studies, with a focus on the geopolitical and geoeconomic dynamics of the region, great-power competition in the Indo-Pacific, and the impact of emerging technologies on regional and global order.
Areas of expertise