Sanghyun Han is a Ph.D. candidate in International Affairs, Science, and Technology at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, Georgia Tech. His research interests lie in technology and statecraft, where his dissertation examines conditions under which a state pursues technology autonomy in the early period of dependence. His broad research interests lie in economic statecraft, emerging technologies, the economy-security nexus, and US-China competition, where his research is published in Business & Politics, Korean Journal of International Studies, and The National Interest in addition to the two chapters for edited volumes. Sanghyun also worked with various organizations in both Seoul and Washington D.C., where he was an inaugural cohort of the CSIS Korea Chair’s NextGen Young Leader and KF Global Challenger Fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Indo-Pacific Security Initiative (then Asia Security Initiative), including the National Bureau of Asian Research, the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security, and the East Asia Foundation. He holds an M.A. in International Relations from Seoul National University and a B.A. in International Studies from the Catholic University of Korea.

Why do some states treat technological dependence as a political and security problem while others tolerate or even embrace it? While technology operates as a power base and helps constitute structure, the early stage of technological development tends to produce asymmetry between states: a primacy state that innovates, uses, and exports the technology and dependent states that adopt and rely on foreign supply. This project advances systemic theory by integrating the risks and utilities of technological power to explain a dependent state’s decision. It begins with two core attributes of the primacy state from a dependent state’s perspective: the reliability of existing dependence and the alignment between current application and the strategic use of technology. To probe the theoretical mechanism, this article examines the case of the Global Navigation Satellite System, focusing on the dependence of the European Union and Japan on the US GPS in particular. The EU pursues developing an autonomous global navigation system called Galileo because it is concerned about US control of unreliable systems and the expected strategic utility of such a system is misaligned with merely getting precise place, velocity, and position data. On the other hand, Japan’s understanding of a reliable relationship with the US, along with its alignment between data collection and a focus on value-added downstream markets, led to continued dependence. It contributes to scholars by highlighting a dependent state’s calculation of risk and utility derived from technological dependence.

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