Announcing a Boyd Institute maritime initiative

We need to revolutionize U.S. maritime capabilities before it's too late. Here's where we are focusing.

The Boyd Institute is launching an initiative focused on the maritime sector. Here are the details….

Boyd Institute Context

As many of you know, the geopolitical environment is getting more intense by the day. We believe America and allies need to get serious about winning the future.

The Boyd Institute’s mission is to identify and advance asymmetric solutions to strategic issues facing the U.S. and allies. Channeling John Boyd’s spirit and principles, our vision is to improve our capacity to solve important problems.

Why Maritime?

The Houthi attacks in the Red Sea have exposed deficiencies and vulnerabilities in the maritime system. This system is critical to global trade and geopolitics, yet American-led maritime capabilities are lacking. The focus of this initiative is thus, what are asymmetric solutions to advancing the future of maritime for America and allies?

Three focus areas

Over the last several weeks, we have held a series of discussions with some of the smartest and most innovative minds in the maritime sector. Three areas for asymmetric opportunities have emerged. In the coming weeks, we will develop and concretize idea statements focused on each of these areas.

1. Sparking Innovation

The first idea we are fleshing out is essentially an X prize for maritime innovation in the commercial (not defense) sector, likely with a focus on cost, pollution, and speed per ton. Just as an X prize laid the groundwork for space innovation, with Space X being the output, we believe there may be a similar opportunity to jolt innovation in the maritime sector. We will share with you our initial cut on this next Monday.

2. Policy Modernization

The second focus is on policy. We’d like to answer the following questions: Can the 100+ year-old Merchant Marine Act of 1920 be overhauled and reformed to encourage innovation in the American Maritime arena? What can be done to reform US flag laws like the Jones Act and similar cabotage provisions in dredging and passenger cruise shipping that limit American access to global shipping markets and capacity building? Are US regulatory structures still suited for the maritime world we would like to see? We’d like to crystalize a vision for policy reforms, understanding that much of the intellectual ground work has already been laid. Then we’d like to find asymmetric opportunities to advance these policy ideas.

3. Commercial Innovation

The third focus is commercial innovation. This is pretty broad but some of the questions that come to mind include: Where are the lever points to accelerate commercial maritime? Who is the Elon Musk of maritime, and what is the Space X of the sector? What are some innovations that leapfrog the current system and how can they be accelerated? How can we build greater industrial capacity?

Next Steps

Over the coming weeks, we will share with you preliminary ideas related to these three areas. We also intend to explore international perspectives on maritime, focusing on the UK and Australia.

We are a young organization and inventing this model as we go. With your support, I am confident we will find our way to having meaningful impact.

(Note - I recognize we live in a Power Law world. This is baked into the Boyd Institute model. We are ok with developing nine dumb ideas if the tenth one can have asymmetric impact!)

Thank you, and feel free to share any suggestions in the comments section.