"Non-Decision Decisions In The Huawei 5G Dilemma: Policy In Japan, The UK, And Germany" - By CWP Alum Alanna Krolikowski And Todd H. Hall
Huawei, the telecommunications company based in the People's Republic of China (PRC), has presented the governments of several middle powers with a policy dilemma. On the one hand, Huawei's affordable 5G network technology is attractive to telecommunications operators in these countries, which do not have domestic producers of this equipment. On the other hand, the U.S. government and intelligence agencies in other countries maintain that Huawei gear presents intolerable network security risks, a charge that the PRC government and Huawei forcefully reject as they insist Huawei merits access to foreign markets. Facing the question of whether and how to allow the installation of Huawei's 5G equipment in their domestic networks, the governments of Japan, the United Kingdom, and Germany have been caught between the competing demands of the two rivalrous superpowers and faced internal divisions among communities of government experts. At first glance, Japan, the UK, and Germany each appear to have responded to the Huawei dilemma in a different way. The Japanese government moved quickly and without formal announcement to exclude Huawei from its market, while publicly denying a ban. The UK government initially allowed Huawei to supply some of its national 5G infrastructure, but then reversed itself to ban the company's equipment outright after a U.S. regulatory change. The German government has yet to officially ban Huawei, but has taken successive steps to curtail the PRC company's continued involvement in its domestic networks. In spite of their apparent differences, the three national responses to the Huawei dilemma share a fundamental commonality: all amount to ‘non-decision decisions’ on the question of whether and how to allow Huawei to supply domestic 5G networks. In one way or another, each government avoided making policy decisions that were either explicit, definitive, or singular on the issue, but nonetheless reduced the likelihood of Huawei's participation in its domestic 5G infrastructure. After developing the concept of a ‘non-decision decision,’ we explain why these maneuvers are not isolated responses to a specific policy conundrum, but may presage a mode of middle power coping with competing demands from two increasingly rivalrous superpowers.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 February 2023
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/japanese-journal-of-political-science/article/abs/nondecision-decisions-in-the-huawei-5g-dilemma-policy-in-japan-the-uk-and-germany/4D91F5C9BF54DE8F0EA1B3C2CF3CB55B#
Dr. Alanna Krolikowski is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T), where she specializes in policy for science, technology, and innovation. Her research and teaching focus on policy for space activities, the Chinese and U.S. innovation systems, and China’s foreign relations.
Dr. Krolikowski’s research has been published in the academic research journals Space Policy, Global Policy, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (A), the Journal of International Relations and Development, the Chinese Journal of International Politics, New Space, and the International Studies Review. She has twice testified before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission for the U.S. Congressional record and is a frequent contributor to news coverage of international developments in outer space.
Before joining Missouri S&T, Dr. Krolikowski was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and the University of Alberta’s China Institute and a visiting professor in the society and economy of China at the University of Göttingen.
Professor Hall earned his PhD from the University of Chicago in 2008 and has held postdoctoral fellowships at Princeton and Harvard, as well as visiting scholar appointments at the Free University of Berlin, Tsinghua University in Beijing, and the University of Tokyo. Prior to joining the University of Oxford, Professor Hall held the position of Assistant Professor in Political Science at the University of Toronto (2010-2013). Research interests extend to the areas of international relations theory; the intersection of emotion, affect, and foreign policy; and Chinese foreign policy. Recent publications include articles in International Organization, International Security, International Studies Quarterly, International Studies Review, Political Psychology, Political Science Quarterly, and Security Studies. Professor Hall has also published a book with Cornell University Press, titled Emotional Diplomacy: Official Emotion on the International Stage, which was recently named co-recipient of the International Studies Association's 2016 Diplomatic Studies Section Book Award.
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