09 November 2020

Biden wins US election, would invest in ‘quantum computing, AI, 5G' tech

by Daniel Wasserbly

President-elect Joe Biden, who defeated incumbent Donald Trump in an election held 3 November but not clearly decided until 7 November, has said he will seek arms control deals and investments in several high-tech areas.

Joe Biden wins US election (Janes)

National security matters did not factor much, if at all, into either campaign. Regarding current operations, Biden has said he believes the United States should “bring the vast majority of our troops home from the wars in Afghanistan and the Middle East and narrowly define our mission as defeating al Qaeda and the Islamic State”.

The president-elect wrote in Foreign Affairs magazine earlier this year, “We should also end our support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen. We must maintain our focus on counterterrorism, around the world and at home, but staying entrenched in unwinnable conflicts drains our capacity to lead on other issues”.

Biden suggested that, as “a cornerstone of my presidency”, he would invest in research and development for “clean energy, quantum computing, artificial intelligence [AI], 5G,” and other infrastructure and medical technologies.

He is likely to seek to rebuild strained ties between the US and NATO allies, and has said he would seek arms control deals.

“I will also pursue an extension of the New START treaty, an anchor of strategic stability between the United States and Russia, and use that as a foundation for new arms control arrangements,” he wrote in Foreign Affairs . “And I will take other steps to demonstrate our commitment to reducing the role of nuclear weapons. As I said in 2017, I believe that the sole purpose of the US nuclear arsenal should be deterring – and, if necessary, retaliating against – a nuclear attack.”

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