Catch-up da pesquisa e desenvolvimento de microchips: uma análise dos esforços brasileiros sob a perspectiva do poder global

Abstract

This work aimed to understand how the Brazilian State implemented technological catch-up strategies for semiconductor microchips between the years 2000 and 2020. The microchips were selected for the research because they are fundamental components for all complex weapon systems and the highest technological intensity assets of modern societies. The chosen time period was due to significant national conjunctural differences it presented. A historical-bibliographic review was conducted using secondary sources, and the systematics were analyzed under the theoretical framework of Global Power by José Luis da Costa Fiori within a realist perspective of International Relations and the body of knowledge from the Fundamentals of Power of the Brazillian War College. First, it was verified how technological advances are fundamentally tools for the composition, maintenance, and expansion of power and wealth accumulation in the power game of the International System, making considerations about the Defense Industrial Base and how technology permeates polemology. Then, it was shown how the pursuit of national technological sovereignty would lead to strategic autonomy in the global power game and how this movement depends on an arrangement between the agents of the Triple Helix of Innovation (government, academia, and industry) that fosters the formation and retention of human capital to master critical technologies through proper management of investments in Science, Technology, and Innovations. At the end of the research, a brief historiographic review of the microchip was conducted to understand how it became a strategic asset of the most powerful nations and how they restrict the domain of Research and Development in the context of the World Technological Frontier. Finally, it was deliberated how Brazil has been trying to break this system through investments that, although insufficient and inconsistent, indicate that the Brazilian State and the Brazilian nation see the microchip as fundamental to achieving the National Objectives advocated in its Federal Constitution, which is the conclusion this research has led to.