It was founded and directed by physicist Michael C. Sekora to determine why the United States was unable to maintain economic competitiveness—and to rectify the situation.
The conclusions that the Socrates team derived about competitiveness in general and about the U.S. in particular were in almost all cases in direct opposition to what the professors, economists and consultants had been saying for years, and to what had been accepted as irrefutable underlying truths by decision-makers throughout the U.S.[1]When Reagan's presidential term ended and the Bush administration came to the White House, Project Socrates was labeled as "industrial policy", and began to fall from favor.
At the time, the intelligence agencies of the Soviet Union like the KGB and GRU were very aggressive in their efforts to acquire technology from the United States as well as from various other western countries like France and Germany.
[citation needed] Sekora concluded that in order for the United States to remain competitive, economically and militarily, the United States must abandon its simplistic approach to technology and execute strategies that managed the flows of technology into and out of the country in a manner that was superior to that which was executed by all its military competitors and commercial adversaries.
[9] Project Socrates identified five key mental shifts which had to take place in order to restore the United States' competitive edge:[10][11]