Strategic Competition at NYU: Four Pillars for Democratic Strength

This fall, the Wahba Initiative for Strategic Competition (WISC) begins a new chapter as part of New York University’s Development Research Institute (DRI). We do so with gratitude to Sadek Wahba for his vision and steadfast support, and with excitement to join Rajeev Dehejia, Jonathan Morduch, and Yaw Nyarko in one of the world’s premier centers of development scholarship.

Strategic competition today is no longer just about tanks and treaties. It is about whether democracies can finance infrastructure that meets real needs, whether they can sustain resilient supply chains, whether they can set the standards for AI and digital platforms, whether they can preserve the innovation ecosystems that drive growth, and whether they can adapt alliances to a world of multipolar power. It is about whether free societies can demonstrate not only that they deter threats but that they deliver opportunity.

That is why WISC organizes its work around Four Pillars — each representing a decisive arena in which the contest will be won or lost.

Pillar One: Infrastructure That Binds and Builds Power

Ports, grids, cables, and corridors are not neutral assets. They are levers of deterrence and engines of development. Democracies must show they can offer trusted alternatives that deliver speed, scale, sustainability, and competitive price — without hidden strings.

The question animating this pillar is: How can America and its allies finance and deliver infrastructure that strengthens deterrence while meeting urgent development needs? The answer will determine whether partners in the Global South see democracies as reliable builders — or as absent voices in their development.

Pillar Two: Enhancing Resilience and Expanding Reach

No country can make everything. The challenge is to combine domestic investment in critical industries with diversified interdependence among allies. Resilience depends on balance: not isolation, not naïve dependence, but federated supply chains across trusted partners.

This pillar is shaped by the question: What mix of domestic production and trusted interdependence is needed to ensure resilient supply chains? Democracies that get this balance right will find security in openness; those that do not will find vulnerability in either overexposure or overprotection.

Pillar Three: Securing Digital Dominance

From AI and cloud to 5G and standards bodies, the digital realm is where values and power converge. Whoever wires the Global South, writes the algorithms, and governs the data that will shape the defaults of the 21st century.

Here, democracies face two intertwined questions. The first: How can they preserve digital sovereignty — especially in AI, cloud, and telecom — without fragmenting the global digital commons? The second: How can they preserve the world’s leading innovation ecosystem — ensuring it remains dynamic, inclusive, and values-driven?

Keeping the edge requires more than attracting talent. It means developing it, preparing citizens for a digital world, sustaining federal research funding, and ensuring universities have the compute power to drive discovery. Democracies must show that openness fuels innovation rather than stifling it — and that their innovation ecosystems can remain both dynamic and principled.

Pillar Four: Modernizing Alliances for Mutual Advantage

Alliances built for the 20th century must adapt for the 21st. They must collaborate on supply chains, technology standards, and infrastructure support alongside military strength. They must empower middle powers and give voice to emerging democracies. Shared burdens must mean shared voice.

The question here is: In what ways must alliances be modernized to integrate economic and technological strength alongside military power? Deterrence is necessary, but not sufficient. Alliances must evolve into engines of resilience and innovation if they are to endure.

Why Development Matters

Joining with the Development Research Institute is no accident. Strategic competition and development are inseparable. Nations will align with those who deliver tangible benefits — electricity, broadband, jobs, education — not just promises of abstract order. Development is not the soft edge of competition. It is the front line.

That is why we are thrilled to integrate WISC’s geoeconomic lens with DRI’s long tradition of development scholarship. It will allow us to bridge strategic debates with the lived realities of communities across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, where the contest is being decided.

Closing: Gratitude and Purpose

As we relaunch WISC at NYU, we do so with deep appreciation for Sadek Wahba’s support and vision. His commitment makes this work possible. We do so with enthusiasm for our new colleagues at DRI, whose scholarship and global networks enrich our mission. We welcome our WISC Global Fellows and our Global Advisory Council, whose expertise will extend our reach. And we do so with clarity: in strategic competition, the side that asks the right questions and builds on the right pillars will shape the century.

Our task is not simply to analyze the contest. It is to provide frameworks that help democracies win it — by wiring the world with freedom, resilience, and opportunity.

In line with my belief that responsibly embracing AI is essential to both personal and national success, this piece was developed with the support of AI tools, though all arguments and conclusions are my own.