https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!fh8p!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa16a6019-6ef4-492f-a331-088e2a13f42a_1672x941.webp 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!fh8p!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa16a6019-6ef4-492f-a331-088e2a13f42a_1672x941.webp 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!fh8p!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa16a6019-6ef4-492f-a331-088e2a13f42a_1672x941.webp 1456w" alt="Anne-Marie Slaughter beside A New World Order, with U.S., India and Texas imagery." width="1456" height="819" data-attrs="{"src":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/a16a6019-6ef4-492f-a331-088e2a13f42a_1672x941.webp","srcNoWatermark":null,"fullscreen":null,"imageSize":null,"height":819,"width":1456,"resizeWidth":null,"bytes":244448,"alt":"Anne-Marie Slaughter beside A New World Order, with U.S., India and Texas imagery.","title":null,"type":"image/webp","href":null,"belowTheFold":false,"topImage":true,"internalRedirect":"https://thealignmentarchive.substack.com/i/218665631?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa16a6019-6ef4-492f-a331-088e2a13f42a_1672x941.webp","isProcessing":false,"align":null,"offset":false}" />
Texans have watched North Texas change quickly.
Across Richardson, Plano, Frisco and Irving, Indian businesses, technology companies, temples, professional networks and university ties have become much more visible. So we asked a simple question: why did this happen so fast?
That question led to Governor Greg Abbott’s India missions.
In 2024, Abbott led his second economic-development mission to India, organized by the Governor’s Economic Development & Tourism Office and the Texas Economic Development Corporation. His office said the purpose was to encourage trade, job creation and capital investment by Indian companies in Texas.
Then Montana Governor Greg Gianforte announced nearly the same kind of trip — businesses, universities, critical minerals, manufacturing, quantum, photonics and bioscience.
Different state. Same structure.
So we traced it backward.
And almost immediately, we landed on a woman named Anne-Marie Slaughter.
In 2004, Slaughter published a book about an emerging system of international governance built around networks of government officials operating across borders.
The title was:
A New World Order.
Yes, really.
And that wording is not being imposed on her by critics. Princeton’s own description of the book said Slaughter believed a “new world order” based on government networks was already emerging and argued for expanding the practice of global governance.
https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!aEZ1!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbae4b413-e6ca-41ab-9274-7b7e10355405_2530x2466.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!aEZ1!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbae4b413-e6ca-41ab-9274-7b7e10355405_2530x2466.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!aEZ1!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbae4b413-e6ca-41ab-9274-7b7e10355405_2530x2466.png 1456w" alt="" width="1456" height="1419" data-attrs="{"src":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/bae4b413-e6ca-41ab-9274-7b7e10355405_2530x2466.png","srcNoWatermark":null,"fullscreen":null,"imageSize":null,"height":1419,"width":1456,"resizeWidth":null,"bytes":676035,"alt":null,"title":null,"type":"image/png","href":null,"belowTheFold":true,"topImage":false,"internalRedirect":"https://thealignmentarchive.substack.com/i/218665631?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbae4b413-e6ca-41ab-9274-7b7e10355405_2530x2466.png","isProcessing":false,"align":null,"offset":false}" />
Slaughter’s idea was not one centralized world government. Her model was more subtle.
She argued that governments could be broken into their individual parts — regulators, courts, agencies and other institutions — which could then work directly with counterparts across national borders.
National governments would remain, but more governance could occur through the networks connecting their internal pieces.
Her own academic work used phrases including “global government networks,” “disaggregated sovereignty,” and “disaggregated democracy.” She also recognized the obvious problem: if authority moves into networks, who holds those networks accountable?
Five years after publishing A New World Order, Slaughter entered Hillary Clinton’s State Department as Director of Policy Planning.
The State Department’s own historical record lists her in that role from 2009 to 2011, and an archived State Department biography also lists A New World Order among her books.
That is where the theory becomes much more interesting.
Clinton’s State Department began pushing 21st Century Statecraft, expanding diplomacy beyond the traditional model of Washington talking to foreign capitals and into businesses, universities, technology, civil society and subnational governments.
Then came Reta Jo Lewis.
Lewis became the State Department’s Special Representative for Global Intergovernmental Affairs. Her job was to build strategic relationships between U.S. state and local officials and foreign counterparts.
And this was much bigger than India.
Lewis’ later German Marshall Fund biography says she served as the State Department’s lead interlocutor in negotiating and executing agreements designed to solidify subnational cooperation with the BRICS countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — as well as selected European countries.
https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!r_n1!,w_848,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8b48a06a-a125-46b7-82da-e73fead1fca3_2490x2630.png 848w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!r_n1!,w_1272,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8b48a06a-a125-46b7-82da-e73fead1fca3_2490x2630.png 1272w, https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!r_n1!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8b48a06a-a125-46b7-82da-e73fead1fca3_2490x2630.png 1456w" alt="" width="1456" height="1538" data-attrs="{"src":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/8b48a06a-a125-46b7-82da-e73fead1fca3_2490x2630.png","srcNoWatermark":null,"fullscreen":null,"imageSize":null,"height":1538,"width":1456,"resizeWidth":null,"bytes":690851,"alt":null,"title":null,"type":"image/png","href":null,"belowTheFold":true,"topImage":false,"internalRedirect":"https://thealignmentarchive.substack.com/i/218665631?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8b48a06a-a125-46b7-82da-e73fead1fca3_2490x2630.png","isProcessing":false,"align":null,"offset":false}" />
The German Marshall Fund, where Lewis later served, also featured this video on its homepage:
Watch on YouTube
In January 2011, Hillary Clinton and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi established the U.S.-China Governors Forum to Promote Sub-National Cooperation.
Brazil followed with formal state and local cooperation agreements.
And then there was India.
On August 2, 2011, the State Department recorded:
“U.S.-India State-to-State Engagement Begins in New Delhi.”
Lewis traveled throughout India promoting relationships among government, business and academia around trade, infrastructure, education, science, technology and investment. The official State Department archive places the India initiative alongside the China governors forum and Brazil cooperation efforts.
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Now look at what else happened in 2011.
On June 15, President Barack Obama signed Executive Order 13577, creating SelectUSA inside the Department of Commerce.
The order said the United States faced growing global competition for investment and needed a federal system to help win it. SelectUSA would support business investment and help investors connect with American state and local economic-development organizations.
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So by the summer of 2011, several pieces were operating at once.
Clinton’s State Department was building subnational diplomacy. Lewis was connecting American states and cities with counterparts across BRICS countries. Obama had created a federal rail for directing global investment toward American communities. And the State Department was explicitly launching U.S.-India state-to-state engagement.
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