Competition for technological supremacy is intensifying between the United States and China, leaving Canada and other middle powers stuck in the crossfire. Middle power countries like Canada closely monitor the combative dynamics between Beijing and Washington for fears of entering an era of renewed great power competition as a new Cold War. Heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic as China and the United States compete to vaccinate their population and accelerate a post-pandemic economic recovery, both countries continue to be locked in prolonged conflict with very little progress made on de-escalating tensions.

In the first instalment of the Canada Institute's Thinking Canada series, Schwarzman Scholar Darren Touch writes on the potential for US-Canadian strategic alignment and collaboration in research and development, arguing that both countries need to overcome a fundamental difference on deepening cross border collaboration driven in part by the United States' techno-nationalistic ambitions.