What’s Next is a biweekly conversation between SDxCentral CEO Matt Palmer and a senior-level executive from the technology industry. In each video, Matt has an informal but in-depth video chat with a fellow thought leader to uncover what the future holds for the enterprise IT and telecom markets — the hook is each guest is a long-term acquaintance of Matt’s, so expect a lively conversation. This time out, Palmer spoke with Dmitri Alperovitch, the founder of CrowdStrike and an internationally recognized thought leader on geopolitics and national security currently serving as the co-founder and executive chairman of Silverado Policy Accelerator, an innovative non-profit think tank focused on advancing American prosperity and global leadership in the 21st century and beyond. Alperovitch is also the author of a new book “World on the Brink: How America Can Beat China in the Race for the Twenty-First Century” about the grand strategy for victory in the Cold War II with China. Editor’s note: The following is a summary of what Palmer and Alperovitch discussed, edited for length. To hear the rest, be sure to watch the video. Matt Palmer: Could share your perspective about why we see this risk and how the U.S. should be engaging with China ... and what that means for us? Dimitri Alperovitch: The book is called “World on the Brink: How America Can Beat China In the Race for the 21st Century,” and it just became a national best seller. So I'm very proud of that. And really it used two fundamental concepts. One is that we are, I think, unquestionably in a Cold War II with China. Not 2.0, this is not a continuation of the first one. It's a different conflict entirely, one that has enormous similarities with the first one, but also has some differences. Some of the differences are not even that positive, namely, that in addition to a trade war and economic war and arms race, space race and so forth, we also have a tech war. Of course, that's playing out in the semiconductor space, in artificial intelligence and a whole slew of other critical technologies. And then the second concept from the book is that we are on a path to potentially a catastrophic war over Taiwan, that Taiwan is sort of the new West Berlin of this cold war. West Berlin, for those that don't remember, almost took us to an existential nuclear conflict with the Soviet Union in 1961, when President Kennedy went on American television in the summer of that year and warned America that we're gonna fight for West Berlin, this outpost, surrounded by East Germany. And we're gonna risk nuclear conflict with Moscow over it. And Taiwan is that place today. Of course, it has tremendous importance to us from a geopolitical perspective, but also just as importantly, for your audience as the place where we manufacture so many semiconductors — 90% of the most advanced chips, but also 40% of what I call foundational chips, essentially 20 nanometers and above — and is absolutely vital to the world economy. So the book is really a grand strategy book that tries to raise alarm bells about this coming conflict, and a grand strategy for how to deter it and how to ultimately win the cold war against China. Watch the full video for the rest of the conversation between these old friends and colleagues, who also happen to be tech visionaries.