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symphonic effort, each note and instrument in place. Grand strategy tells us what to
do at every moment.

Any policy, then, must begin with a summary of our aims: “We believe the world is
entering a period of profound change that demands a shift in global arrangements.
We are building a gatekept order consistent with our values. We welcome others to
participate in it – but with conditions. We will resist attempts to force nations into
any gatekept order; we will fight any forces that threaten disruption of the overall
system.” The China policy that emerges from this view is clear enough: We will not
contain China. We will not force China to change. Rather we will develop a profound
gatekept network for our own operation, one that layers together all the concerns of
economics, trade, security and technology – as if we were designing a technical
system for fast, constant links. We will include other nations that want to be a part
of it, as long as they are willing to bear certain costs. China is welcome to develop
her own system and see whom she might attract inside. She will not be permitted to
compel nations to join. And: If China wants the benefits of a US-led order, then
Beijing must be prepared to support the maintenance of that order. That means
deeper cooperation on everything from nuclear proliferation to the establishment of
new international bodies for connected finance, biological research or nuclear de-
proliferation.

Such an approach resolves, in an instant, the contradictions of our current policy.
Here is our gated order, we can say, join if you wish and on the terms we both consider
best. We should remember: China has much to worry about. Disorder would land on
her own hopes for peace and development with a profound, possibly crushing
pressure. The international order is not working as well as it might. It does not
appear engineered for new stresses. It is in cooperation for the reform of that
system that the two nations share an urgent interest. And it is in a successful
defensive posture of a gatekept, network order that Washington can cultivate the
linked, leveraged moves that will encourage this to happen. While there might be a
temptation to play this game in that old Lloyd George sort of way – “We need the
Middle East. Grab it. We need digital currency mastery. Take it!” – such efforts will
only assure final, fatal collision between the two powers. We need a gatekept order.
Build it. That is enough.

What the Seventh Sense statesman sees, in the way a Seventh Sense entrepreneur or
terrorist or researcher can, is the pulsing network logic that is at work breeding a
new world – like it or not. And our policy has to aim for that future state, not for
what we have today. If this sounds difficult, you should know that in most complex
adaptive systems these kinds of adjustments frequently occur. Rainforests. Traffic
jams. The human brain. Anyplace connections are knit and reknit at light speed can
exhibit a pattern of rapid redevelopment: The world changes. The network and its
various pieces hum, in response, to a new order. Climate shift in the Amazon, for
instance, produces drier air. The pollination cycle shortens. Flowers must adjust by
growing longer leaves to protect their moisture. Birds that rely on the flowers
develop longer, sharper beaks in response. In this way bird and flower each become
better suited to a warmer age. They co-evolve. We see this sort of interaction in

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