Introducing Formation – Conversations Shaping the World
A service of Linktank
Welcome back to Linktank.
You’re receiving this because you once valued what we built: a trusted way to discover policy conversations that matter.
We paused a few years ago, but the need hasn’t gone away. If anything, it’s grown. Think tanks publish more research than ever, yet finding the signal through the noise gets harder by the day.
Formation is how we’re solving that—starting now.
Twice a week, we scan global think tanks and policy organizations to surface the conversations shaping decisions before they hit headlines. We connect contrasting perspectives, add just enough context, and deliver it in a format you can actually use.
This is Issue #1. The full Linktank platform follows soon, but Formation gives you immediate value while we build.
Here’s what we need from you: Tell us what works. Hit reply with one sentence on what would make this indispensable. And if you think this will benefit friends and colleagues, please pass it along.
Let’s get started.
– Bilaal
Featured Analysis
AI’s Policy Moment: From Government Adoption to Geopolitical Competition
The convergence of government AI deployment, U.S.-China rivalry, and economic transformation is reshaping how nations compete and govern. As Washington experiments with “government by AI” and Beijing focuses on industrial adoption, the question isn’t whether AI will transform statecraft – it’s who sets the rules.
New White House AI policies introduce “government by AI” with the Trump administration’s approach marking a significant shift toward using AI systems for federal decision-making, raising questions about accountability, transparency, and the delegation of governmental authority to algorithmic systems. | Lawfare
Autonomous AI systems are being designed with emotional intelligence capabilities, arguing that the next generation of business automation will require nuanced understanding of human context rather than pure optimization, with implications for customer service, HR, and strategic decision-making. | World Economic Forum
U.S.-Gulf AI deals project power through “silicon statecraft”, with Washington leveraging technology partnerships to build influence in the Middle East while Gulf states pursue diversification and strategic autonomy, creating new patterns of alignment that bypass traditional security arrangements. | War on the Rocks
While China may lag in frontier model development, its strength lies in rapid deployment across industries and government services, creating a different competitive dynamic than commonly understood. | NBER
In the AI-robotics revolution, Southeast Asia faces critical choices as the China and US vie for technological partnerships and influence, with implications for manufacturing, supply chains, and regional autonomy. | ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute
Noah Smith explores “The third magic” of AI economics, arguing that after the first magic of automation and second magic of prediction, AI’s emerging capability to generate novel solutions and creative outputs represents a fundamental economic shift that existing frameworks struggle to capture. | Noahpinion
“Rows of servers and racks of graphics processing units now carry
as much strategic weight as military bases once did.”
– Kody McKinley, War on the Rocks (Oct 6, 2025)
Global Signals
Weekly signals with recent, policy‑relevant perspectives
Economic Resilience & Development
Good policies and good luck helped emerging economies better resist recent shocks, with analysis showing that improved macroeconomic frameworks, stronger institutions, and fortunate timing on commodity prices allowed many developing nations to weather global turbulence. | IMF
U.S. foreign policy shifts reveal who bears the burden of aid cuts, tariff changes, and diplomatic realignments, with preliminary data suggesting low-income countries and multilateral institutions face the steepest costs while geopolitical rivals see minimal impact. | CGD
Predictions for the global development sector anticipate continued pressure on traditional aid models, growing South-South cooperation, and increased focus on climate adaptation financing as donor governments face domestic political constraints. | SID-US
Security & Conflict
A desperate race for drone defenses is accelerating across Europe as Ukraine’s experience demonstrates how cheap, proliferating unmanned systems overwhelm traditional air defense architectures, forcing NATO allies to rethink protection strategies for critical infrastructure and forward bases. | CEPA
Criminal networks as instruments of hybrid warfare in Europe examines how state actors increasingly weaponize organized crime for sabotage, assassination, and destabilization operations, blurring lines between intelligence tradecraft and criminal activity in ways that challenge legal frameworks and attribution. | Lansing Institute
Two years after October 7, the region sits between disorder and transition, with the Middle East experiencing fundamental reshuffling of alliances, weakened Iranian influence, Israeli assertiveness, and uncertain Palestinian futures that defy simple narratives of stability or chaos. | Al-Majalla
Climate & Energy
Inside Climate News: Global decarbonization faces a critical juncture as a new climate policy report shows the gap between pledges and implementation widening, with fossil fuel infrastructure continuing to expand even as renewable capacity grows, suggesting the transition will take longer and cost more than optimistic scenarios assumed. | Inside Climate News
Domestic Policy (US)
Reframing “disconnected youth” analysis challenges the single metric approach, finding that community factors and veteran status matter more than traditional employment-education indicators, suggesting interventions should target marginal attachment contexts rather than categorical definitions. | RAND
Teacher and student absences before and after the pandemic reveal chronic absenteeism has become structurally embedded rather than a temporary disruption, with implications for learning loss, school funding formulas, and the viability of traditional attendance-based education models. | AEI
Broadening the reach of prescription drug inflation rebates explores how Medicaid’s inflation penalty mechanism could be extended to Medicare and private insurance to constrain pharmaceutical price growth, though implementation faces pharmaceutical industry resistance and actuarial complexity. | Brookings
Technology & Regulation
The DOJ is evolving their approach to cryptocurrency cases, with increased coordination between criminal and civil authorities signaling a maturation of enforcement priorities beyond fraud prosecution toward systemic market integrity. | Pillsbury Law
🗓️ Spotlight Event
Are Geopolitics Leading to the Fragmentation of the International Financial System?
October 20, 2025
10:00–11:30 AM ET
Brookings’ Hutchins Center hosts CEPR’s Geneva Report authors on how sanctions, trading blocs, stablecoins, and evolving payment rails are reshaping cross‑border finance and currency roles, mapping the emerging fault lines and operational mechanics of a more segmented global system.
Have a take? Add your perspective in Substack Notes and see how others weigh in.
Thanks for reading Issue 1 of Formation.
We built this to make policy debates scannable, not to chase headlines. Every edition surfaces patterns from dozens of sources so you don’t have to.
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Have a great week,
The Formation Team