Linked

"Linked is about how to understand the world in terms of networks. To understand network science the first thing to do is to visualise the world the way you visualise the Internet or even the universe – hubs of infinitely intersecting networks. As the author says, everything can be reduced to links and nodes. This book is a very accessible introduction to the science of networks and to how to think about everything from anthills to traffic jams to complex conflict from the perspective of network science. It offers some of the tools for how to think about what you’d call in foreign policy “multi-stakeholder alliances”, which is a big clunky phrase for things like GAVI, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation, or the International Campaign to Ban Landmines or countless other smaller public-private partnerships. These are all ways of assembling many different actors – governments, NGOs, corporations, foundations and universities – into large alliances, campaigns or networks to solve problems David Brooks, in that article, quotes an article I wrote in 2009, which said that the world is a set of intersecting networks, power comes from being as close to the centre of those networks as you can and the United States is the most connected nation on earth by virtue of our people, our geography and our technology. The United States should be thinking about how to maintain the central position we have and how to strengthen the networks we’re part of."