Very few countries have vast global interests, you can count them on one hand. Of course the US has extensive global spying efforts and of course its spying activities do not compare to smaller nations, nations with smaller economies, nations with a fraction of the military responsibilities that the US has, and so on.

The US doesn't have any interest in what direction allies and enemies go with their military hardware, such that espionage would be warranted to know in advance if at all possible? Is that a joke?

Macron has been saying variations of this: "Europe can no longer rely on the United States for its security" - for the past several years (pushing for his pet European defense force idea). Do you know what that means? That's one of the world's most powerful nations openly admitting Europe presently depends on the US for its security. That has been true for over seven decades now. That's a massive responsibility, and the same is true for the US in Asia. Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand all depend on the US for their security in one form or another (against China specifically and going forward in particular, as China will grow far more powerful and threatening). Numerous other nations in Asia will join that list, eg Vietnam will come to depend on the US as a military hedge against China.

Now kindly point out all the other various nations that have similar global responsibilities on their shoulders.

Then good for the NSA, spying is their job, for the advancement of American interests[0].

[0] The point of 'playing' international politics - the advancement of one's country's interests.

> The NSA has a budget bigger than entire countries economic output. Not everyone spies on everyone to the same extent.

Doesn't it fall into second half of his opinion? "except those who cannot muster the resources to do so".

Not that I necessarily agree, but I see no contradiction.

Because they don't have the capacity. And NSA doesn't steal Huawei IP on behalf of Cisco, quite the opposite.

Cisco is not part of the military industrial complex.

Boeing or Lockheed Martin on the other hand, I'd be extremely surprised if our intelligence agencies didn't give them stolen tech.

it's hard not to be part of the MIC...

I'd be extremely surprised if any tech that is stolen is better than what they have / are working on. There is lots to criticize about America, their funding and continuous innovation in war tech is not one of those things.

Assuming we’re talking about military tech. Why should they? What tech is the military and defense industry lacking in that would provide a battlefield advantage that other countries have?

There’s only a handful of non-US weapon systems that can potentially compete with US weapon systems.

As for the American military being top dog by a long mile... that seems true, but you don't stay that way by being complacent.