Mike Brown - What is the Role of Commercial Technology In Great Power Competition? - CSP S04E18

Cold Star Project

Past Defense Innovation Unit Director, visiting Scholar at Stanford, former large tech company CEO, and current venture capitalist Mike Brown is this interview guest on the Cold Star Project. Host Jason Kanigan asks Mike about the role of commercial technology in Great Power competition. We discuss:

• what "commercial technology" is (not just silicon chips)

• the organizing principle of commercial tech development for great powers, and whether there is a difference in war or peacetime
• what national leaders frequently fail to focus on that punishes the nation
• what the focus of tech dev in peacetime is, and whether the speed of that development matters when war begins
• the shocking truth about the defense industrial base and the tiny number of companies funded by Pentagon spending (6 vendors receive 2/3 of all Pentagon procurement spending)
• infiltration of US commercial tech dev by foreign powers through venture investment, and just how meaningful this is
• the question Peter Zeihan poses about the breakdown of the global supply chain, and whether we in the US ought to be concerned.

USEFUL LINKS:

Mike Brown's 2017 DIUx Report:

https://www.k-state.edu/research/faculty/other-resources/facility-security-office/documents/diux-study.pdf

Secret History of Silicon Valley slides download from my Google Drive:

https://coldstartech.com/steveblank

Innovating Victory: Naval Technology in Three Wars by O'Hara and Heinz:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1682477320/

OpEx Society:

https://www.opexsociety.org

Talk to Cold Star:

https://coldstartech.com/talktous