It seems a long time ago when Economist Kenichi Ohmae foresaw a shift in The End of the Nation State, arguing that cross-border metropolitan regions — not nation-states — would become the primary engines of growth and innovation.
The San Diego-Tijuana region exemplifies this model today: a deeply integrated binational economy spanning logistics, biotech, advanced manufacturing and culture. Its economic logic increasingly bypasses national capitals, operating instead through regional networks and global supply chains.
Today, powerful regions in California like San Diego-Tijuana, San Francisco and Los Angeles, as well as others across the country in Seattle, Boston, Austin, Miami and Research Triangle Park, are developing climate policy, attracting investment, coordinating infrastructure, expanding research partnerships, and building globally competitive economies. In many cases, they are no longer waiting for Washington — they are moving ahead on their own. Innovation, investment, and economic growth are increasingly concentrated in metropolitan regions which are competing globally for talent, capital, technology and investment.
They often collaborate directly with one another while maintaining relationships with international partners. Despite the celebrations of our 250th anniversary, newspaper headlines suggest an America trapped in political gridlock. Congress struggles to pass major legislation. Partisan conflict increasingly overwhelms practical problem-solving.
Americans look to Washington for solutions, but too often find stalemate instead.
More than forty years ago, journalist Joel Garreau argued in The Nine Nations of North America that the continent functioned less as a unified political system than as a collection of regional economies defined by culture, infrastructure and trade rather than state borders. When I read Garreau as a young Washington lawyer while living in Washington after serving in the federal government, I was intrigued but skeptical. His thesis struck me as overly simplistic. Not so today.
While Washington remains consumed by partisan conflict, a thriving “Regional America” is quietly becoming the principal arena where much of the nation’s future is being shaped by states and metropolitan regions assuming responsibilities. And while national politics dominates the news, another America is quietly emerging.
For decades we have thought of San Diego, for example, as simply another large American city. But it has evolved into something much more significant: a globally connected metropolitan region whose economic future depends as much on its relationship with Tijuana, Latin America and the Pacific Rim as it does on decisions made in the nation’s capital.
Stretching across an international border, this metropolitan economy has become one of North America’s most dynamic centers for biotechnology, advanced manufacturing, defense innovation, research, tourism and cross-border commerce. Its future increasingly depends less on decisions made in Washington or Mexico City than on the ability of regional institutions, universities, businesses and local governments to work together.
I have watched this transformation unfold over four decades — from my years in Washington, serving in the White House and at the FCC, to my work at San Diego State University helping shape the idea of the “creative city.” The lesson has become increasingly clear: the places that thrive are not those that wait for national direction. They are the regions that build their own futures through innovation, collaboration and global engagement, and possess both the capacity and the urgency to act.
This is not an isolated phenomenon. It reflects a broader shift in how America functions. The United States is not becoming less important as a nation. But it is becoming more regional in the way it governs and competes.
Economic competitiveness increasingly depends less on political boundaries than on regional collaboration. Talent, ideas, capital, research and innovation flow across cities, counties, states and national borders. The metropolitan regions that recognize this reality will be better positioned to prosper.
Power is not leaving Washington. But much of the nation’s creativity, innovation and problem-solving capacity is increasingly being exercised elsewhere.
The result is not the decline of the federal government. National defense, foreign policy, monetary policy and many other responsibilities remain firmly federal. Rather, what is emerging is a more distributed system of governance in which states and metropolitan regions increasingly take the lead on economic development, innovation, education, environmental policy and quality-of-life issues.
The rise of Regional America may prove to be one of the most important political and economic transformations of the twenty-first century. Rather than resisting that change, we should recognize it, strengthen it and ensure that it serves both local communities and the nation.
John M. Eger is professor emeritus in the School of Journalism and Media Studies at San Diego State University. He served as telecommunications advisor to President Gerald R. Ford, legal assistant to FCC Chairman Dean Burch, and senior vice president of CBS.
