This is an idea I've been thinking about for some time, but our current crisis motivated me to finish writing it. Very pleased to share my first article with @ForeignPolicy. I hope you'll read and share it. https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/04/06/america-united-states-national-security-apparatus-software-outdated-upgrade/

States are tools forged by communities to protect and advance their shared interests. They are systems superimposed over nations to facilitate the flow of information. All states are locked in competitive co-evolution with other states in what is now a global metasystem.

Those states whose structures—or operating systems—delay the delivery of information, dilute it, or misinterpret it, will make suboptimal decisions and may even be eradicated.

Something that isn't in the final piece, but I did think about: History is replete with examples of states with more efficient information-management systems defeating those with less efficient ones.

The ancient Athenians, for example, invented the concept of citizenship and transformed their politeia into a complex adaptive system that allowed it to defeat the Persian Empire.

England’s Glorious Revolution strengthened the role of Parliament and established the processes that allowed Britain to become ‘Great.'

Japan’s systemic reforms during the Meiji Restoration propelled it to back-to-back victories over Qing Dynasty China and the administratively backward Russian Empire.

Perhaps most saliently, it was America’s own monumental marshaling of outside the box brainpower that led it to victory in the Second World War.