Welcome to Force Distance Times. We’re a solutions-focused magazine dedicated to industrial dynamism, the thesis that production is power – and the proposition that America can still make. We publish fresh frameworks for and insight into the process and its context. And we serve as a meeting place for dialogue about solutions to a broad set of industrial, political, and geopolitical problems.
Making matters. A century ago, US industrial dynamism turned the American dream into a reality. It fueled jobs, innovation, and growth. Americans built businesses, broke molds, and made a difference at home and abroad. Industrial dynamism transformed the United States of America from a far-fetched experiment into an international ideal.
Yet eventually things changed. Complacency kicked in and America stopped making. Like any incumbent, the US lost its edge, its urgency, and itself in a stretch of stability at home and peace abroad. But US industrial dynamism is not gone. America has not lost its strengths. And it is clear – beyond clear – that now it’s time to reactivate those strengths; to build a future that works.
Navigating our site
On Force Distance Times, you’ll find regular commentary, from both guest authors and our core team, as well as a weekly briefing, published every weekend, covering the important and overlooked in the week that’s done.
We divide our commentary into three fields: factors, markets, and wildcards.
- Factors are the basic building blocks of production: Land and labor, energy and resources, technology and data.
- Markets are the rules and systems according to which factors are produced and exchanged: Think capital markets, for example, but also regulatory regimes and geopolitical competition – or collaboration.
Together, markets and factors form the foundation of economics, society, and security. Their trends define global trends.
- Wildcards are what upset these trends. Whether ideas, events, or frameworks, these are the developments that threaten, or promise, to turn everything on its head.
Joining the conversation
We exist because we see enormous challenges ahead, but also because we think that they can be met. And we exist because we think the process demands a conversation. To join that conversation, please feel free to submit commentary, to submissions@forcedistancetimes.com or via our submission portal. If you want to start off just by listening, you can follow us on Twitter or Facebook, or subscribe for regular updates here.
(Photo by Deva Darshan / Pexels)
