English Other Government / Politics

Hello everyone,

One of chapters in the book Thank You for Being Late by Thomas Friedman is titled Learning to ADD.
In this chapter Mr. Friedman talks about the World of Disorder (weak states like Syria or countries in Africa producing a lot of migrants wanting to get to Europe) and that geopolitics in this age of tehnological changes should be reimagined. Mr. Friedman also mentions "super-empowered breakers" (individuals or group of people who now have enormous possibilities thanks to technological advances like the Internet, mobile phones, social media etc).

This is how the chapter ends:

And we still cannot ignore the challenges posed to international order by our rival superpowers Russia and China, which, because they are authoritarian states, are not as vulnerable to disorder or breakers as are open societies in the West.

Add it all up, ladies and gentlemen, and what you have is a perfect example of a “wicked problem”—many stakeholders, but no agreement on the problem definition or on the solution. And doing nothing will become increasingly unsustainable.

So I repeat, what to do?

If I were reimagining geopolitics from an American/Western perspective in such a world, I would begin with the most honest statement I can offer: I don’t know what is sufficient to restore order to the World of Disorder—one should be very humble in the face of such a wicked problem—but I am fairly certain of what is necessary.

It’s a policy that can be called ADD, because those are its initials: amplify, deter, and ***degrade***.

My question is: How would English speakers interpret the word "degrade" (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/degrade)? With what meaning is it used and degrade what?

Thank you.