You are quite right. The nations with the greatest technological edge will dominate the world. They will get to set the priorities and reap the rewards. And don't forget nanotech. The convergence of synthetic biology and nanotechnology will be a new phase for life as we know it. There is a lot of power, and terrible responsibility for who has this future technology. If the U.S. does not invest in it, we will be at the mercy of those who do. If we hamper research, or even shut it down, like we have in the stem cell debate, because of ethical considerations, we WILL fall behind those nations that are not so shy. I'm not saying its right or wrong, but that someone is going to let more genies out of more bottles and we should be positioned to be the ones in control of those genies, and not be the ones under control of those with the genies.
For example, what would the world be like if Stalin or Hitler invented the A-bomb, but we didn't because it was too horrible of a weapon?
Yep. Toss superintelligent AIs into the mix (we'll have sufficient hardware in a decade or less, software is harder but progress is being made) and things get really interesting.