Philip Nock is a research fellow in the research group ‘Infrastructures of China's Modernity’ at CASSIS and a visiting scholar at the American-German Institute in Washington, DC until the end of October 2024. He studied ‘History, Politics and Society’ at the Universities of Bonn and St Andrews (UK) and completed his Master's degree in ‘Political Science’ in Bonn and Toronto. Philip Nock is doing his doctorate under the supervision of Prof Xuewu Gu and Prof Maximilian Mayer. He is also part of the research collective "The Second Cold War Observatory²."

Before joining CASSIS, Philip Nock worked as a research assistant at the Chair of International Relations/Centre for Global Studies at the University of Bonn and as a desk officer in the Europe and International Affairs Department of the State Chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia. Furthermore, he gained additional practical experience in Berlin and Brussels at think tanks, non-governmental organisations and in the Bundestag.

Awakening to the Era of Weaponized Interdependence? Global Semiconductor Production Networks, Sino-US Tech Competition, and European Responses

Digital technologies have become an increasingly contentious issue in international politics, particularly in relation to Sino-US relations. After the so-called ‘chip shortage’ at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic affected entire supply chains and industries, the high geographical concentration of global semiconductor production in East Asia came into the spotlight. As a result, decision-makers around the world began to reflect on the consequences of this (inter)dependency on the security and resilience of semiconductor supply chains and production networks and the role that states must play to reduce such vulnerabilities. For example, the concepts of de-risking and reshoring (i.e. home, near and friend shoring) have received a great deal of attention, which ultimately led to the US Congress passing the CHIPS and Science Act in 2022 and the European Parliament passing the EU Chips Act in 2023. At the same time, the Chinese government announced additional investments totalling USD 143 billion to strengthen its domestic semiconductor industry.

Against this background, Philip Nock analyses in his dissertation the British, Dutch and German integration into the global production networks of semiconductor technology and how these states adapt their policies in light of increasing external pressures. To this end, Philip Nock develops a two-step theoretical approach. He examines the mechanisms of action with the help of weaponised interdependence and the political reactions in the case studies with the help of a neoclassical realist model. Methodologically, this study is based on analysing policy documents and conducting expert interviews.

• Nock, P. (2024, December 20). Transatlantic cooperation in the chip war. American-German Institute. Online publication. Link⁶
• Mayer, M., & Nock, P. J. (2024, December 9). Digital fragmentations, technological sovereignty and new perspectives on the global digital political economy. Global Political Economy. Early View, 1–12. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1332/26352257Y2024D000000029. Link⁷
• Nötzold, A., Fels, E., Rotter, A., & Brake, M. (Eds.). (2024). Strategizing about outer space: European powers and their space strategies in the context of U.S.-China competition. In Strategischer Wettbewerb im Weltraum: Politik, Recht, Sicherheit und Wirtschaft im All. Springer VS. Wiesbaden. Link⁸
• Nock, P., et al. (Eds.). (2023, December). European technological autonomy - Realities, aspirations and illusions. In Bonn Vision Lab - Envisioning Zeitenwende. Polis 180 - Regiogruppe Rheinland.
• Schindler, S., Alami, I., DiCarlo, J., et al. (2023, September). The second cold war: U.S.-China competition for centrality in infrastructure, digital, production, and finance networks. Geopolitics. Link⁹
• Schranner, M., & Mayer, M. (2022). Über die Zukunft gibt es keine Tatsachen, nur Interpretationen. Blog post for Summer of Security 2022, Polis 180. Link¹⁰
• Schranner, M., et al. (2022, November). Where are we heading? Eine junge Perspektive. 49security. Link¹¹
• Cramer, K. C., & Mayer, M. (2022, May). COVID-19 border restrictions and cross-border care relations: The cases of Germany and Vietnam. Working Paper Series: Politics of Pandemics Care 2. Link¹²
• Cramer, K. C., & Mayer, M. (2022, April). Politics of pandemic care: Exploring disruption and response in international cross-country comparison. Working Paper Series: Politics of Pandemics Care 1. Link¹³
• Heidbrink, C., & Mayer, M. (2021, September). Der US-Iran-Konflikt und die fehlenden Gesichter der Macht. Österreichische Zeitschrift für Politikwissenschaft, 50(3). Link¹⁴
• Gu, X., Heidbrink, C., Huang, Y., Ohnesorge, H. W., & Pustovitovskij, A. (2019, October). International competition for global navigation satellite systems (GNSS). Center for Global Studies. Link¹⁵
• Gu, X., Heidbrink, C., Huang, Y., Ohnesorge, H. W., & Pustovitovskij, A. (2019, May). Geopolitics and the global race for 5G. CGS Global Focus. Center for Global Studies. Link¹⁶
• Bendiek, A., Geogios, M., Schenuit, F., & von Daniels, L. (2018, October). EU-Canada relations on the rise: Mutual interests in security, trade and climate change. SWP Working Paper, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, Research Division EU/Europe, WP Nr. 03. Link¹⁷
  
  
  

Last updated: January, 2025