The modern age is characterized by technological advances and a world that is ever shrinking. Staying connected is within finger-reach via smartphone, smart accessories, tablets, and otherwise. That fact changes the way that people communicate but it also changes the way that companies and even countries stay informed.
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The Age of Networks
In many ways, this is the age of networks. Creating and maintaining relationships and connections have to have international relations in mind to a degree if they are going to be effective. This reality creates different challenges but it also powers sources of strength that would not exist otherwise. That power is as concentrated as it is distributed — and it is completely different from the systems that came before it.
Traditional assets like land have less value when all you need is an internet connection to have a voice. Plus, thanks to social media, many of the traditional ways of spreading information no longer come with a price tag. From an individual level to a national one, understanding and embracing the age of networks is the only way to flourish.
A Lesson from History
After the end of the Cold War, globalization was a key focus for many entities and the way that they approached the breaching of borders was through an approach that author and co-CEO of Kissinger Associates Joshua Cooper Ramo calls the Washington Consensus. This way of thinking prescribed a singular economic model for realizing growth and “it was matched by ideas like Democratic Peace Theory, which suggested that the rapid development of a single political model for domestic order was not only desirable but possible,” Ramo explains in an interview with The Diplomat. But that was then.
“Today, we live in a world in deep crisis. And much of this comes from the over-simple assumptions baked into universalizing ideas about political and economic structure,” Ramo continues. “What works in the financial markets of London, we now all see, is not such an easy match after all for the puzzles of Greek finance.” He illustrates this concept with a simple analogy: “The political solutions that have buttressed several hundred years of European history cannot be installed as easily as a McDonald’s in the countries of the Middle East.”
Addressing the Challenge of Unique, But Connected Networks
Ultimately, the age of networks operates differently on a fundamental level than anything that came before and that means that this new reality requires more novel solutions. Many of the economic tools that companies and countries have relied on in the past are simply no longer valid.
Modern systems need to tap into the benefits of these complex interactions while managing its risks. Take Brexit for example. The United Kingdom is trying to break away and terminate its connections to the EU and the continent as a whole in order to manage the challenges that those connections represent. At the same time, other groups, like the Trans-Pacific Partnership, are trying to bolster connectedness in a way that provides even greater benefits in an efforts to outweigh any risks.
Finding a Way Forward
In many ways, both are wrong because both strategies fail the acid test of domestic politics — and they are not alone. Nations and companies everywhere are failing because the problems they treat tend to get worse the harder they try to make them better. At the same time, those entities are looped into a myriad of different networks that seem to grow and evolve by the minute. Having a “seventh sense” for connectedness can help companies find their way out of old ways of thinking and on to greater prosperity.
About Carson Derrow
