About the Krach Institute

An eye-opening trip to China

In 2017, DocuSign CEO Keith Krach went on a “listening trip” to explore whether his company should enter the China market. What he experienced there was eye-opening. He heard members of the CCP Politburo fiercely criticize the U.S. and he saw technologies that could be used in alarming ways against the United States and its allies. Krach wondered what was being done in Washington D.C. about the situation.

[Image: Krach with Fortune CEO Alan Murray at Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference in Guangzhou, China, December 5–6, 2017]

Mission to combat CCP aggression

A January, 2018 meeting in Washington D.C. led to Krach being asked to serve his country. On June 20, 2019 he was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as Under Secretary of State, charged with developing and operationalizing a global economic security strategy that would drive economic growth, maximize national security, and combat the CCP’s economic aggression.

[Image: Krach, with wife Metta, sworn in as Under Secretary of State by Deputy Secretary John Sullivan, June 21, 2019]

Battleground: 5G

The first battleground was 5G telecommunications. By early 2020, most of the world was convinced it was too late to prevent Huawei and other 5G vendors sponsored by the CCP from dominating the next generation of global telecommunications. But Washington officials of both parties feared that this would give Beijing the ability to control—and even deny the US and its allies access to—the 5G networks that drive global commerce and enable the projection of military power.

Birth of Tech Diplomacy

Krach combined his extensive technology expertise and the strategies he used as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur with traditional foreign policy tools to combat the threat. He assembled a diverse group of a dozen results-oriented, seasoned experts from outside of government and paired them with State Department’s foreign service officers. Together they created and executed a strategic plan that targeted Huawei and the CCP’s weak spot: TRUST. This was the genesis of Tech Diplomacy.

[Image: Krach’s team of seasoned experts granted authority to take action on 5G, March 5, 2020]

Creation of the Clean Network

Krach’s team saw that the way to stop Huawei’s domination of 5G was to create a Clean Network of countries and companies that would agree to a set of shared Trust Principles. These standards must be met by any technology deployed within the network. With the foundation in place, the team launched an aggressive plan to build the network.

CCP Ambitions Frustrated

The Clean Network team raced around the globe—at the height of the COVID pandemic—visiting leaders of companies and countries in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America. Through a series of strategic chess moves, executed with lightning speed, the team rapidly expanded the Clean Network. In just six months, the Network grew to include 60 Clean Countries, more than 200 Clean Telcos and dozens of industry leading Clean Companies—representing more than 2/3 of global GDP. All were committed not to deploy untrusted tech from Huawei and other CCP-backed vendors.

A Foundation to Build On

Former U.S. National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster said, “The Clean Network’s defeat of the Chinese Communist Party’s masterplan to control 5G communications was the first time a government-led initiative proved that China’s economic warfare is beatable—because it exposed the CCP’s biggest weakness: lack of trust.”

The Clean Network succeeded in achieving its three objectives: Proving that China Inc. is beatable by defeating the CCP’s master plan to dominate 5G; delivering an enduring model for competing with China in the future; and establishing a beachhead that could be expanded to other vital tech sectors because they all pose the same challenges. Read the full Clean Network story here.

[Image: Keith Krach in conversation with fmr U.S. National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster]

The Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue—Ensuring that Technology Advances Freedom

Keith Krach returned to the private sector committed to the work of ensuring that technology advances freedom, not authoritarianism. Krach, along with Mung Chiang, former member of the Clean Network team and current President of Purdue University, founded the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue in July 2021 to carry on the mission.

[Image: Krach Institute CEO, Michelle Giuda, with Institute co-founder and chairman, Keith Krach, and co-founder and president of Purdue University, Mung Chiang.]