U.S. allies have long balanced between leaning on American leadership and resisting its immense gravitational pull: political, economic, and structural. Historically, the United States invests at a scale no other democracy can match, spending hundreds of billions annually on defense-linked research and tens of billions more on civilian science through agencies like the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. These budgets dwarf those of even its closest allies. Many nations, limited by population, fiscal constraints, or social priorities, maintain only modest research capacity. The result is a structuralThe post When Trust Becomes Strategy: Rethinking America’s Innovation Posture appeared first on War on the Rocks.