What is Social Strategy?
How people and institutions can shape strategic outcomes together.
Social strategy is a new approach to shaping the future — one that begins with people.
Instead of waiting for governments or regulators to act, social strategy empowers communities, institutions, local leaders and industry partners to define challenges, align interests, and take the actions within their reach to build momentum toward a better world.
This page introduces the principles and process behind social strategy — the foundation of everything we do at The La Jolla Center.
Why Social Strategy?
Most strategies are built from the top down — in capitals, headquarters, or boardrooms far from the problems they aim to solve.
But the Pacific’s most pressing challenges — from maritime security to climate resilience — demand cooperation across governments, industries, and communities. That kind of cooperation can’t wait for policy to work its way through political gridlock.
Social strategy begins where it’s needed most — with the people and institutions living these shared problems and enabling them to shape a better future.
It’s more than a method. It’s a new way of doing strategy for an interconnected world.
How Social Strategy works.
Real progress begins when people closest to a problem have the tools to work together. Our process gives them that structure with the following steps:
Define the Problem — Fellows and partners identify a real-world problem, map its context, and outline who is impacted and who can act.
Convene Stakeholders — We bring together those closest to the issue to align interests, define success, and understand the tools each member brings to the table.
Design the Strategy — Working group members identify ways to leverage their own capacity to act in order to bring about their desired end state.
Coordinate Implementation — Members of the group commit to execute their portion of the strategy, report back to the Center with successes and lessons learned to be built upon in future strategies.
Built on agency and accountability, our process empowers people to move the Pacific toward a more secure, prosperous, and cooperative future.
At The La Jolla Center for Pacific Strategy, we’re pioneering the field of social strategy — building the world’s first social strategy institute and advancing security, prosperity, and cooperation across the Pacific Hemisphere.
Where Social Strategy fits.
Social strategy works alongside official strategy — sometimes leading it, sometimes enabling it, and sometimes following through after it.
Lead — People on the ground identify new challenges or opportunities before governments do.
Enable — Local institutions, industry, and researchers turn official goals into practical cooperation.
Follow-through — Civic and professional networks carry momentum forward after political attention moves on.
Social strategy doesn’t replace government or official strategy — it complements it. By empowering societies to act strategically, the full weight of social capacity can be applied to shaping a better future for everyone.
Become a strategist.
Social strategy doesn’t happen through institutions — it happens through people. Sign up now to become a fellow or to join a working group.
