Globalization is a complex system

The worldwide connectedness of supply chains and travel patterns is a complex system of flows, stocks, and myriad dependencies. This connectivity reflects and shapes the balance of power of the various nodes within the network.

Connectivity is thus intensely geopolitical even as it changes the role of borders. When we map functional geography—transportation routes, energy grids, forward operating bases, financial networks, and Internet servers—we are also mapping the pathways by which power is projected and leverage exercised. American officials speak about accommodating China’s rise as if the global system has an entrenched essence that prefers American leadership. But the system wants only one thing: connectivity. It doesn’t care which power is the most connected, but the most connected power will have the most leverage. China has become a welcome and popular power in Africa and Latin America because it has sold them (and often built for them) the foundations of better connectivity. Ethereal concepts such as “soft power” are a pale substitute for the power of connectivity.^[1]

Connectivity is the main cause of this complexity. Globalization is almost always written about in terms of how it operates within the existing order rather than how it creates a new one. Yet connectivity is the change emerging from within the system that ultimately changes the system itself. Its networks are not merely conduits of connections, but the power of the network itself increases exponentially as the number of nodes increases (Metcalfe’s law).^[2]

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