The Great American Industrial Renaissance
Last week, I dedicated my column to American soft power in “A Bridge of Hope to Ukraine.” This week, I turn to the harder edge of power: rebuilding American industrial might so that we can once again serve as the arsenal of democracy in a mounting global struggle.
After Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt turned to William S. Knudsen of General Motors to convert American industry to war production. By the end of World War II, the United States had built nearly 300,000 aircraft—at times producing one every 90 seconds. A “dollar-a-year man,” Knudsen proved that America could outproduce all its enemies combined.
Today, the drums of conflict echo again—in Ukraine, the Middle East, and across the Taiwan Strait. This war spans new domains: energy, space, currency, technology, and kinetic force. The arsenal of the future is not tanks and battleships, but guided missiles, drones, missile defense systems, directed-energy weapons, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and fusion energy.
Three billion years ago, life crawled out of the ocean onto land. Today, it seeks to leave Earth. Highland Institute’s Security Forum is convening leaders to explore this frontier and build the infrastructure that will define it.
Sinco International, the parent company of Highland Institute, plans to engage by investing in advanced manufacturing, including machine shops producing critical components for aerospace systems, from SpaceX rockets to U.S. missile defense platforms such as THAAD.
Since World War II, America has spent its peace dividends and lost four major wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Our adversaries are watching.
Reindustrialization is no longer optional. It requires capital, policy alignment, and national will to target investment in domestic manufacturing, secure supply chains, and technological dominance. Without it, deterrence fails.
Empires do not fall in a single moment—they erode through complacency. The question is whether we can rebuild in time.
— Sina.