Welcome to the Boyd Institute!

Accelerating solutions to win the future

I am thrilled to welcome you to the Boyd Institute. Our mission is to accelerate solutions to win the future. That might mean mining asteroids for resources, open-sourcing the monitoring of oceans, or leveling up a geopolitical alliance. We aim to shape the future just beyond the horizon with a focus on space, sustainability, geopolitics, and tech governance.

Our aim with this Substack newsletter is to share our work, connect with others, and make space for bold, creative, and sometimes crazy solutions. For the time being, you can expect to receive one email per week on Mondays. We will call this our “Monday Mandate.” The Monday Mandate will spotlight a specific action or policy we propose.

The personal backstory

Two years ago, in the wake of Covid and January 6th, I was disoriented politically, burned out from parenting under lockdowns, and not sure how I wanted to contribute to the world. Culture war noise was at fever pitch. As a gay dad in Florida, I felt caught in the cross-fire. Instead of fighting over who gets to use a bathroom, why weren’t we arguing over how to get to Mars or how to bring healthcare to more people? 

In November 2021, I had an epiphany. I was running along the Intracoastal Waterway in Florida. It was sunny, windy, and marginally less sweltering than usual. I was 20-minutes into the run and my mind had surrendered to an endorphin-fueled, dream-like state. Sweat dripped down my temples. As I turned to ascend the bridge crossing the choppy water, a thought floated into my body as if airdropped from the universe: Solve Real Problems. I stopped and let myself absorb the message. Solve Real Problems. 

As cliche as it sounds, it was a moment of clarity after a period in the wilderness. I set an intention there on that bridge, in my blue Nikes and black Ray-Bans: If I was going to re-engage with the political world, I would focus on solving problems of importance to the future, beyond the scope of partisan politics.

Creating the institute

Several months later, in February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. It became clear geopolitics was intensifying and that America and our allies must get serious. Through friends, I had connected with Terry Dunmire (who’s now on The Boyd Institute board), an international lawyer and investment banker with strong ties to Africa as well as the DC political establishment. Terry was a guide and mentor as I undertook some projects to help the country and this administration.

Through Terry, I connected with two others with deep military and policy experience: John Wilkinson, a retired Air Force general (who’s now on The Boyd Institute board), and Peter Varnish, a retired Royal Navy officer and technologist (who is now The Boyd Institute’s UK advisor). 

In March 2023, I formally created the Boyd Institute. I was touched that Terry, John, and Peter were willing to participate as board members and advisors. 

The name of the institute was inspired by John Boyd, a fighter pilot and maverick thinker who popularized maneuver warfare and a decision-making framework called the OODA loop. Boyd’s focus on navigating volatile and complex environments is clearly relevant to today’s era, perhaps more than any before.

Since creating the institute in March, we have quietly worked on projects related to a few areas: space, natural resources, Indo-Pacific geopolitics, and technology governance. We have done some cool work. I am excited to share it with subscribers to our free newsletter, so be sure to sign up.

Positioning and core beliefs

Our vision is to make a creative space to accelerate solutions. I once described the Boyd Institute to a friend as “IDEO for strategic issues” (IDEO is a creative consulting company that popularized design thinking) — part think tank, part design studio. 

Unlike traditional think tanks, we will be lightweight and tech-savvy. We will operate on quarterly cycles or “sprints,” to borrow a term from agile software development. We will leverage emerging commercial technologies and innovative problem solving methods like applied complexity and design thinking.

Many of today’s challenges don’t fit in neat boxes and thus call for unorthodox solutions that integrate policy, technology, and other domains. We believe in building bridges between worlds and communities, and in smashing silos that slow things down. 

At the highest level, our aim is to achieve two things. First, we want human flourishing amid a growing global population. This means making sure humanity has access to clean air, water, food, energy, and abundant resources. In short, we are humanists. 

Second, we want the USA and allies to succeed in the world. Thus, we are affirmatively pro-America and broadly pro-AUKUS and pro-NATO as well. We believe Pax Americana and human flourishing are imperfectly but meaningfully aligned, much more so than any other alternative.

Although critical of sclerotic politics, we believe in the value of smart policy and state action in addition to commercial and scientific innovation. Thus, our focus is on working through the system and adjacent to it, not around it. I mean, we are a policy institute. 

Ideologically, it is fair to say we have a bias toward markets and liberalism, and are, at root, empiricists. But we are not dogmatic. Most of the issues we focus on are beyond the reach of partisan politics. We welcome views from across the political spectrum.

It is also fair to say we are pro-technology, but not blindly. We recognize technology’s essential role in creating an abundant future. We want to accelerate it. And yet we appreciate risks, effects, and geopolitical considerations. Aligning the vast powers of technology with human flourishing and democratic traditions is an important, ongoing conversation for us.

Current focus areas

Currently, we are focused on five global-scale challenges:

🛰️ Cleaning space debris - creative ways to address space debris as satellites launch exponentially over the coming decades

🚀 Unleashing asteroid mining - frameworks to unleash space exploration and asteroid mining in a way that benefits humanity and helps solve some Earth-bound resource problems 

🌳 Leveling up natural resources intelligence - better ways to track natural resources to make smarter decisions, protect the environment, and support developing countries

🌊 Strengthening AUKUS - ways to bring more stability and security to the Indo-Pacific region, including advancing the technical capabilities in Pillar II

🖥️ Improving technology governance - ideas to reconcile technology and statecraft to benefit to humanity and advance geopolitical competitiveness

Every quarter, we will reexamine this list and refresh it as necessary.

Although the issues we focus on are serious, we try not to take ourselves too seriously. We believe play is essential to creativity.

Subscribe and follow us 

We are a young organization — a project, really. But we know there's a need to fill. I hope you will subscribe to our free newsletter and follow our work. The emails you receive will initially include “Monday Mandates.” In early 2024, we will launch a podcast and may explore other content forms.

We at the Boyd Institute want to move fast and build the future. We want to do it boldly, creatively, and responsibly. Thank you for your interest and support!

— Jeff Giesea