3--- Link--- Tech leadership is irrelevant to military power
James Andrew Lewis, 2024 - Senior Vice President; Pritzker Chair; and Director, Strategic Technologies Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies “America is Losing the Shoe Race With China” 4/1, https://www.csis.org/blogs/working-papers/america-losing-shoe-race-china //DH
Nor does technological “leadership” guarantee military advantage. Other factors determine military success, the most important being political will, leadership, and strategy. An opponent that has an advantage in these areas will be able to resist and thwart a more technologically advanced opponent (the Taliban, for example). Advanced technology in the service of flawed strategy will not change outcomes. There is an assumption that technology provides an advantage and, in a contest, where other factors are equal, technological leadership can be critical, but in most situations this technological advantage is only one factor among many in determining effectiveness. Specific quantitative measures may not actually measure what we want to assess. It may be better to ask what nations want (wealth, international influence, military power) to determine the contribution of a basket of technologies.