New World Order
The Return of Hard Power and Soft Beliefs
A research memo about the collision of power, ideology and digital infrastructure.
New World Order is a 35-page research memo about what happens when power, infrastructure and ideology collide. It’s the result of a 6 month research project we started in early 2025 when US President Trump’s inauguration, surrounded by tech CEOs, indicated a shift in the architecture of power.
We called it “New World Order” for two reasons: one, we felt, like many others, overwhelmed by what was happening in the world and wanted to give ourselves a format to reflect on it. And two, that nothing interesting was happening in “the culture” anyway. On the contrary, we found that the ideas, strategies, and techniques coming out of economics, geopolitics, and infrastructure were far more thought-provoking than those coming out of trad culture (art, music, film, criticism) or the so-called creative class right now.
This memo is divided into two chapters:
HARD POWER, consisting of an analysis of nations, companies, and individuals exerting their power and ideologies through a new type of worldbuilding.
And the SOFT BELIEFS that emerge amidst these power struggles where people navigate a shifting environment through strategies like speculation, aggregation, and indexing.
What we enter is the age of NETWORKED REALISM where the internet doesn’t flatten the world anymore—it reveals just how uneven it always was and accelerates how strangely shaped it could be.
This is a manual for anyone trying to make sense of the present. It contains ideas, context and language to participate in shaping the world that emerges in front of our eyes.
New World Order 2025 is a manual for anyone trying to make sense of the present. It contains ideas, context and language to participate in shaping the world that emerges in front of our eyes.
Released by co—matter on Metalabel on July 17 2025.
First edition digital PDF limited to 1000.
The roundtable call on July 29, 2025 is specifically targeted at companies, organisations and individuals who're interested in the practical implications (communication, positioning, strategy) of the ideas presented in this memo.
The physical editions (riso print and t-shirt) are beloved collector editions to manifest this release in physical form. ATTENTION: They can ONLY be picked up at our studio in Berlin (no shipping) because we believe in IRL encounters and local supply chains.
Every item comes with the digital PDF included.
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Last updated: April 22, 2025 ■ 11:11am