This volume describes American and European reactions to the Japanese supremacy in core technologies, focussing on the emerging idea of economic national security and an active role of the state in mediating enabling technologies. The "Strategic Defense Initiative" (SDI), the U.S. semiconductor program SEMATECH, and the European R & D initiative EUREKA serve as case studies on how states try to promote knowledge-based technologies in strategically relevant areas. A theoretical chapter analyzes changes in stateness and an emerging new type of political economy within the context of globally-oriented international competition.