The United States and its allies are in a strategic competition with China in which the race to develop and deploy emerging technologies will play a decisive role. Pillar Two of the trilateral AUKUS agreement, which focuses on jointly developing advanced capabilities between the three countries, holds the potential to supercharge progress.

In the short term, AUKUS could improve interoperability among its partners in realms such as electronic warfare (EW) and command and control (C2). In the longer term, AUKUS could catalyse the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies among its partners and into defense and security applications—but only if these countries act now to harmonise their approaches and consult experts.

To realise the full potential of Pillar Two, the United States should reassure its AUKUS partners by taking radical steps to overcome barriers to cooperation, improve information sharing, and reform export controls. Above all, the success of AUKUS Pillar Two will depend on turning the strong political ties between the three nations into a new collective mindset to treat the agreement as an opportunity to find marginal—or even transformative—gains in the strategic competition with China.