Principle 11 · Strategic Capacity
America's Strategic Advantages
What should America become exceptionally good at?
Build capabilities that make Americans more prosperous, make America more resilient and make the world want to work with us.
Why it matters
Strategic priorities: AI infrastructure, energy, agriculture and healthy food, semiconductors and robotics, advanced manufacturing, water technology, defense technology, immigration, and trade and alliances.
America should become so capable, prosperous, innovative and open that the world wants to work with us.
- AI infrastructure & semiconductors
- Energy & advanced manufacturing
- Agriculture, water & defense technology
- Immigration, trade & alliances
Visual model
- Talent + Immigration
- Innovation + Investment
- Strategic Industries
- American Jobs + Exports
- National Wealth
- More Investment
Citizen benefit
More and better jobs in the industries that will define the next century, built on American soil.
Measurement
- Share of global R&D and manufacturing capacity in strategic sectors
- Net high-skill immigration
- Export share in strategic industries
Measured by
Strongest counterargument
A named list of nine 'strategic' sectors is industrial policy by another name — governments have a poor track record picking long-run technology winners.
Response
The list names capability areas, not companies or specific technologies within them, and Build and Protect America's Capital's fiscal rules require major spending to be measured by cost, return, and outcome — the same discipline applied to any other investment.
Open questions
- How does the list of strategic priorities get revised as technology shifts?
- What's the mechanism for exiting a bet that isn't paying off?
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