Balaji and Steven Glinert on Network States, Supply Chains, and Allied Coalition Strategy
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On the left, there's a lot of people who think you can just push a button to, like, end homelessness, end poverty, just take all of Elon's money, and they just don't do any math, and they don't have any understanding of scarce resources. Scarce resources in the physical world. They don't understand scarce resources monetarily. Right? They just think it was a cornucopia, a bounteous mother, government is G O V is G O D. Government is God, but the bounteous mother form of God, which can just hand out everything. Right? And the rightist, while moralistic often, is subject to a different but symme
Who has more power today? Nations or networks? For decades, the Internet has connected people across borders, creating new communities, markets, and institutions that don't neatly fit inside traditional states. At the same time, global power is shifting as China expands its industrial capacity and countries rethink alliances, supply chains, and economic strategy. The result is a growing debate about what comes next: a world organized primarily by nation states or one increasingly shaped by digital networks that operate across them. Theo Jaffe and Sofia Puccini speak with Balaji Srinivasan and
are live in the Situation Room. Today is Thursday, May 28.
Alright. So can I show some slides, or should I get started? Go ahead. You should probably
talk about where this came from and why we're both what the hell you've raised online the last couple of days too.
No. I'm with you. Al Hellman helmet guy.
The thing is so this guy actually had a decent TikTok, which I'll talk about in a second, by the way, which is funny. Basically, he has like a million followers on TikTok since 2022. He has never been a jingoistic nationalist on TikTok. In fact, I actually can't think of a single pro American thing or anti Chinese thing he's ever posted on TikTok. So all the patriotism, Uber patriots, whatever kind of thing, Uber nationalism is only on X. And the persona on TikTok is a completely different person. And I didn't actually understand that until actually a few hours ago or whatever when he has he h
Yep.
Basically, there's a version of tit for tat where you start out nice. I will basically cooperate with someone who will cooperate with me. I always start out nice. Steve, I mean, whatever. You've seen me in business over the years. I always, always start good. You're also
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