Deep state is a term used to refer to a culture, system or network of political or economic organizations and individuals which can have certain embedded advantages through their access to privileged or concealed information, themselves being deeply entrenched in society, and having formidable and ongoing long-term interests. It is often associated with substantial reserve power which is unreachable by regular political processes, while its operations are non-transparent and are often rooted in corrupt practices. Thus, deep states typically cooperate with each other and in many cases might often be an unseen but very influential factor in global politics.

See also: collective intelligence, deep code, feedback loop, simulated thinking, unconventional warfare