As India and China have roared out of the shadows and entered the economic elite, the global landscape has been upended, leaving America's position in the new order deeply uncertain. Technological innovation---the generation and diffusion of original ideas, particularly those with uses in science and tech---is the new currency that increasingly decides whether a nation will prosper. The question is no longer where things will be built, but instead where and how the innovations that fuel growth over coming decades will emerge.China's growth over recent years has been aweinspiring, and many Asian economies have successfully emulated its upward course, investing heavily in research and development along the way. China leads the world in specialized areas of nanoscience and is not far behind in most other key scientific fields. China and India each produce a quarter of the world's supply of graduate-level educated scientists and engineers.Has America already lost the innovation race? In this brilliant book, Adam Segal of the Council on Foreign Relations argues persuasively that we are looking at the entire challenge the wrong way and that at this stage every major player has strengths and weaknesses. He adapts the game theory questions of the Cold War into the networked era, where the danger a Chinese-made router poses to cybersecurity may be more relevant than the threat of a multi-ton bomb, where scientists not generals are the true stars, and where innovation is the raw ore of advantage.To really understand innovation, Segal explains, we must break it down into component parts: the software and hardware of innovation. While Asia has excelled at developing the "hardware"---communications, advanced education, basic research, and infrastructure, coupled with low-cost labor---it has lagged behind in spurring forward the "software," the complex web of relationships between private and governmental organizations that creates the structure for innovation to flourish. To put it another way, a bunch of advanced equipment and PhDs does not guarantee a Silicon Valley---and the challenge of creating the next Silicon Valley is of vital importance to any nation that aspires to superpower status.Advantage outlines an ambitious and compelling agenda for American innovation in the era of globalization that leverages the advantages America still holds and addresses America's vulnerabilities. Segal's approach calls for the development of innovation systems fueled not by Washington but by highly localized clusters of academia, business, and industry that serve as nurturing communities where game-changing new ideas and technologies can bloom. Only those who take risks will prosper, and at stake is far more than who will make the next-generation big-screen TVs and mobile gadgets. With up-to-the-minute economic and political information, Segal delivers a blueprint for American relevancy in the age of innovation. Read Less