U.S.-India Relations in 2030: The Future of Strategic Technologies

Friday, May 5, 2023
8:30 AM - 3:00 PM
(Pacific)
Philippines Conference Room
Encina Hall, Third Floor, Central, C330
616 Jane Stanford Way, Stanford, CA 94305
Speaker: 
  • Rudra Chaudhuri,
  • Helena Fu,
  • Joshua White,
  • Sameer Lalwani
U.S. and India flags with event title "U.S.-India Relations in 2030: The Future of Strategic Technologies”

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The sixth installment in a special event series on the occasion of Shorenstein APARC's 40th Anniversary, "Asia in 2030, APARC@40"


How will key technologies shape India’s strategic capacity, and its relationship with the United States, in the years ahead? The Indian and U.S. governments both recognize that critical and emerging technologies, from artificial intelligence to synthetic biology, are increasingly vital for national security and global influence. Effectively harnessing those technologies requires the right mix of state policy, academic research, and private-sector-led innovation. The South Asia Initiative will bring together leading researchers and practitioners to better understand India’s approach to applying technologies in its defense industrial base, and the evolution of US-India cooperation on strategic technologies. 

An initial keynote session will provide an overview of key trends and policy priorities for India and the bilateral relationship. Two research presentations will then examine how India has sought to develop its defense industrial sector, with new partnerships and private sector involvement, and an aspirational goal of indigenization; and how the major powers including the US and India have traditionally managed the expectations, conditions, and anticipated returns of high technology transfers. The research will be critically evaluated by dedicated discussants who draw from both academic scholarship and personal experience as technology-sector practitioners. By the end of the workshop, we anticipate setting a rigorous baseline appreciation of how India and the US-India relationship approach the strategic applications of key technologies, and generating important new cues for future research and public-private collaboration. 

 

Agenda

8:30-9 a.m. ~ Coffee and Tea Served


9-9:30 a.m. 

Welcome Remarks

Gi-Wook Shin
Director of Shorenstein APARC and the Korea Program
William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea
Professor of Sociology
Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Stanford University

Arzan Tarapore
South Asia Research Scholar at Shorenstein APARC 
Stanford University


9:30-10:30 a.m.

Keynote Conversation: "The Future of U.S.-India Tech Cooperation" (virtual)

Rudra Chaudhuri
Director of Carnegie India
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Helena Fu
Director for Technology Alliances
National Security Council


10:30-10:45 a.m. ~ Coffee and Tea Break


10:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m. 

Panel: "The Evolution of India's Defense Industrial Base: Trends, Trade-offs, and Technologies"

Speaker

Joshua T. White
Professor of the Practice of International Affairs
Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies

Discussants

S. Paul Kapur
Professor at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School 
Visiting Scholar at the Hoover Institution 
Stanford University

Sarah Hess
West Coast Director
Silicon Valley Defense Group


12:15-1 p.m. ~ Lunch Break


1-2:30 p.m. 

Panel: Transactionalism Revisited? Unpacking the Logic of Major Power Technology Transfers"

Speaker

Sameer Lalwani
Senior Expert of South Asia Programs
U.S. Institute of Peace

Discussants

Julie George
Predoctoral Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation
Stanford University

Akhil Iyer
Vice President
Shield Capital


2:30-3 p.m. 

Concluding Discussion


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Headshot for Rudra Chaudhuri

Rudra Chaudhuri is the director of Carnegie India. His research focuses on the increasingly important role of emerging technologies in diplomacy and statecraft. He works on comparative models of cross-border data flows and how data is treated by national capitals in inter-state and multilateral negotiations. He is the author of Forged in Crisis: India and the United States Since 1947, and the editor of War and Peace in Contemporary India. He is also a visiting professor of international relations at Ashoka University, New Delhi. From 2009 to 2022 (on leave since 2018), Rudra was  a lecturer and a senior lecturer at the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, and in 2012, he established the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office's (FCDO) Diplomatic Academy for South Asia at King’s College London. He holds a PhD in War Studies from King’s College London.

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Headshot for Helena Fu

Helena Fu, Director for Technology Alliances, National Security Council

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Headshot for Joshua White

Joshua T. White is Professor of the Practice of International Affairs at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, and serves as the inaugural director of the U.S.-ASEAN and U.S.-Pacific Institutes for Rising Leaders. He is also a Nonresident Fellow in the Foreign Policy program at The Brookings Institution. He previously served at the White House as Senior Advisor & Director for South Asian Affairs at the National Security Council, where he staffed the President and National Security Advisor on the full range of South Asia policy issues pertaining to India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Indian subcontinent, and led efforts to integrate U.S. government policy planning across South and East Asia. Prior to joining the White House, White was a Senior Associate and Co-Director of the South Asia program at The Stimson Center and, previously, Senior Advisor for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, a position he held in conjunction with an International Affairs Fellowship from the Council on Foreign Relations. White has written on a wide range of issues including defense policy, electoral politics, Islamic movements, and nuclear deterrence.

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Headshot for Sameer Lalwani

Sameer Lalwani is a senior expert on South Asia at the U.S. Institute of Peace. He is also a non-resident senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. Lalwani’s research interests include nuclear deterrence, interstate rivalry, alliances, crisis behavior, counterinsurgency and Indo-Pacific security. He has conducted field research in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Lalwani is a term member with the Council on Foreign Relations, and a contributing editor to War on the Rocks. He earned his doctorate in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was an affiliate of the MIT Security Studies Program. From 2015 to 2022, Lalwani was a senior fellow for Asia strategy and the director of the South Asia program at the Stimson Center. He was also as an adjunct professor at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs and a Stanton nuclear security postdoctoral fellow at the RAND Corporation.