A new article from Zakir Rzazade, a predoctoral researcher at the PRCP, called "Leading through tech? Experimental evidence on the effect of military-technological capabilities on international status" in the Journal of Strategic Studies, finds that states do gain international status from advanced military and technological capabilities. But how they acquire those capabilities matters more than previously assumed.
Using two conjoint survey experiments among American respondents (N = 1,002 and N = 501), the study tests the long-held but never empirically verified assumption that "technology buys status." The experiments find that countries seen as leaders in AI development, as well as those possessing emerging military technologies (drones, hypersonic missiles, autonomous weapons) and traditional platforms such as aircraft carriers, are consistently rated as higher-status than those without such capabilities.
Crucially, the study identifies what Rzazade calls a "domestic premium": states that produce these capabilities indigenously receive significantly larger status support than states that purchase them from abroad, and this domestic advantage is especially pronounced for emerging technologies compared to legacy platforms.
As artificial intelligence and unmanned systems increasingly define great-power competition, understanding which acquisition strategies actually translate into international prestige will be crucial for states weighing costly investments in indigenous defense industries against cheaper imports.