We live in a modern, networked world where companies are now more powerful than governments and entrepreneurs can move products and money around the world in the blink of an eye. And yet we still believe in the notion of nation-states, political borders and foreign affairs diplomacy.

Politically our 21st century world is still being run with tools and techniques that originated in the 17th century – and the poor results are clear to see all around us.

What’s missing are new policy tools that can be used in a networked, 21st century world.

Prof Anne-Marie Slaughter wrote a book entitled ‘The Chessboard and the Web‘ in which she explored possible solutions to this issue.

In a genuinely globalized world where everyone and everything is connected, the relevance of nation states is coming under scrutiny from above and below. Many people – especially the newly digitally empowered – are less wedded to the idea of a nation state than were their predecessors. Turning to internet-enabled communities, they are seeking out alternative identities, whether animated by faith, ethnicity, language, class or sexuality.

Augmented by social media, the fault lines of identity politics are exerting new pressure on nation states and traditional political parties. Globalization, which at one time played a unifying force, is triggering ever greater localization. via

Here she is discussing the book and her ideas:

What’s clear from her presentation is that the world is lacking in the ability to apply systems thinking to our issues. The old ways of thinking are outdated and frankly the cause of many of our current issues. We need new tools.