Any epoch has an underlying currency that determines how power is distributed, partnerships are formed, and international relations are managed. In the distant past, it was fertile land. Then it was mineral resources. More recently, it has been demography, innovation or creativity that determined value, national purpose, and global power.

As old orders replace themselves, new economic forms emerge. The emergence of the information age gave us the data economy and the attention economy. In today’s world — decoupled, divided, atomistic — another term must receive our consideration: The affection economy.

Success today — in trade, in innovation, in the creation of value — depends upon how skillfully you curate a community, how effectively you kindle kinship, how carefully you nurture cohorts. Cohorts, kinships, communities: They are the building blocks of co-operation and economic success.

We have already seen glimmerings of this understanding permeate even the most rational, realist spheres of international relations. What, after all, do we mean when we speak of “like-minded” nations? Like-mindedness creates commonality. It creates a shared purpose and ensures a common direction. It means trust endures even through the temporary turbulence of the sort that the American president is currently inflicting.

The affection economy has visible effects on the corporate world as well. Both companies and countries compete for........

© Indian Express