Quick Read. The more national capability a capital accumulates, the more efficient coordination can become—and the more dangerous a local failure can become.

Concentration creates two opposite effects

• Benefit: ministries, firms, universities and specialists communicate quickly.
• Risk: the same flood, blackout, attack, earthquake or transport shutdown can hit many critical functions simultaneously.

The redundancy audit

For government, healthcare, finance, aviation, data, water and power ask: Is there a geographically separate substitute? Is it genuinely independent? Can it take the full load? How quickly can authority transfer?

Small states make the problem visible

Malé, Thimphu, Dili and Bandar Seri Begawan expose the concentration problem clearly, but megacities such as Tokyo, Seoul, London and Delhi can also carry national single-point consequences because of the absolute scale of command functions located there.

Continue through How Capital Cities Fail and How Capital Cities Work.