Starfish and Spider: Post #5

Taking on Decentralization: The authors offer a few tips for taking on decentralized competitors. In short, they suggest: 1) Centralize them (how introducing property rights changes the equation); 2) Decentralize yourself (if you can’t beat them join them). To this last point, consider al Qaeda or the Taliban as very good examples of starfish….albeit ones with clearly evil intent. If a conventional army tries to fight them, you can see the results. Just look at Vietnam for a projection of the possibility of success. What beats such “evil” starfish will be other starfish—drones, Special Forces, etc.—not conventional warfare.