Former NSA Head Urges West to Integrate Government and Private Sector Approach for Technology Supremacy

(SMH.com.au) Retired admiral Mike Rogers, who ran the massive National Security Agency under both the Obama and Trump administrations is being hosted in Canberra by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. In his presentations, Rogers is underscoring Western concerns about a global battle for technology supremacy that many commentators are comparing to an arms race. Rogers says China has got ahead of the West by having a “national strategy” for areas such as 5G mobile, artificial intelligence and quantum computing.
Quantum computing, AI and 5G have military as well as civilian applications and therefore will confer a significant strategic advantage on any country that streaks ahead.
The traditional Western economic model, in which the private sector shapes the direction of innovation with only a light government footprint, needs to change for the digital era, he says. “One of the things I think we need to do in the digital world that we’re living in now … is step back and say, ‘So how can we have a much more integrated government and private sector approach to this? What is the role of the government in helping companies to be competitive?'”