Baker Institute Rice Faculty Scholar | Harry Z. Yan and Weiman Gao Senior Fellow for Brain Health and Society | Office of Innovation
Advisor, Brain Capital Alliance
Executive Director, Rice University National Security Research Accelerator
Founder and Co-chairman, UCSF Dyslexia Center
Professor of Engineering Psychology, Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership, U.S. Military Academy, West Point
Director, Wharton Neuroscience Initiative; James S. Riepe Penn Integrates Knowledge (PIK) University Professor
Harris A. Eyre, Dan Mannix, Vinod Veedu, and Mike D. Matthews, “The China Competition 2.0 Strategy Needs Brain Capital” (Houston: Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, December 4, 2023), https://doi.org/10.25613/fng8-g364.
This paper is a work in progress and has not been submitted for editorial review.
To build resilience and compete effectively, America needs to re-double its efforts to boost its domestic brain capital–the collective social, emotional, and cognitive resources of her people. The China Competition 2.0 strategy needs brain capital.
For the United States, navigating the new age of the Great Power Competition (GPC) with China is a colossal task because, in addition to military competition, the two countries are in a fierce rivalry spanning a broad range of global markets, technological competition, trade imbalance, and extremely complex global supply chains. Unlike prior global conflicts, this demands a thoughtful and methodical approach to addressing national security and economic goals collectively. The highest priority should be to build technology and economic ecosystems focused on disruptive innovation, dual-use technology development, workforce development, addressing policy matters, and global sales of technologies. The core to building such an ecosystem is brain capital, whereby a premium is placed on brain skills (both cognitive and non-cognitive) and brain health. Investing in the development of brain capital is indispensable for tackling contemporary societal challenges, fostering innovation, and safeguarding economic security.
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