A growing number of geopolitical struggles today are fought through infrastructure: chips and compute, undersea cables and satellites, standards and supply chains, and the cloud platforms that increasingly mediate economic and military power. This course examines how international technology policy is made in practice when interdependence is inescapable but security stakes are rising. We focus on the policy instruments that translate technical capability into political leverage: export controls and industrial policy, platform regulation and content governance, cybersecurity strategies and alliance coordination, and the management of high-consequence transitions (e.g., post-quantum cryptography). While the course focuses primarily on the fast-evolving relationships among the United States, Europe, and China, the dynamics we study routinely extend beyond this core and shape technology policy worldwide.

Students learn to read strategies and policy documents as instruments of power, to identify assumptions and implementation risks, and to produce decision-grade outputs under real-world constraints. Assessment emphasizes professional policy writing, one in-class crisis simulation, and a final portfolio (submitted as an alternative final assessment) rather than in-class exams.

The course is organized around three recurring propositions:

• Infrastructure creates leverage. The most durable advantages often come from chokepoints, dependencies, and switching costs, not just ``innovation.''
• Governance happens in the plumbing. Standards, procurement policies, compliance regimes, liability rules, and interoperability constraints can lock in power and shape conflict.
• Dual-use is normal. ``Civilian'' systems routinely become security-relevant because they are widely deployed, privately operated, and difficult to replace quickly.

By the end of the course, students should be able to (i) explain how material and digital infrastructures (re)shape the international system, (ii) evaluate competing policy strategies across jurisdictions, and (iii) communicate clear recommendations to decision-makers under uncertainty and time pressure.