Semiconductors at the Intersection of Geoeconomics, Technonationalism, and Global Value Chains

Abstract

This study provides a historical and contemporary analysis of the United States’ strategies in the global semiconductor industry, framed within Joseph Nye’s three-dimensional chessboard analysis. This study examines the strategic responses of the United States from the 1980s to the present, connecting these shifts to changes in international politics and geoeconomic alliances. It scrutinizes how the U.S. utilized its unipolar power to respond to Japan’s growing semiconductor industry influence in the 1980s and its adoption of free-market principles during the globalization era of the 1990s and 2000s. It further discusses how these multilateral shifts have led to a resurgence of technonationalism in the late 2010s, responding to asymmetric interdependence in the global value chain of the semiconductor industry. This research contributes to the comprehension of the dynamics of the industry within international politics and suggests insights into the ongoing Sino–American competition and strategic realignment in the sector.