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June 2003 issue

Real Politics
In his essay "The Pentagon's New Map" (March), Naval War College professor Thomas P.M. Barnett laid out a provocative view of the world, delineating countries where globalization hasn't taken root, constituting "the Gap," and suggesting that their lack of engagement with the rest of the world is a predictor of their potential for instability and belligerence.  The story continues to draw wide attention and a vigorous response from readers.

Barnett's map illustrates the old truth that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.  I do not question his motives; the tone of his article makes clear he believes that this policy will better the lives of others.  But it dooms our nation to perpetual war.  To say otherwise is to conclude wrongly, as Barnett himself points out, that globalization removes all sources of resentment and violence.  For many in the those countries receiving it, our "export of security" will be the same thing as American imperialism, no matter how much we claim otherwise.  Implementing this policy will, as Barnett said of cold-war-era containment, allow us to justify anything.  Expect decades of war and the erosion of civil liberties at home justified in the name of supporting that war effort.

Rudy Pyatt
Brooklyn, N.Y.

While I found Barnett's map to be a well researched and thoughtful account of the trouble spots in the world, I think he is leaving out a crucial point: Whenever the United States meddles in the affairs of another country, it makes things worse for that country and, ultimately, for us.  As Barnett admits, the Pentagon's plan to establish "strategic security" in global hot spots is a troublesome and risky venture.  We've made many mistakes in the past in regard to foreign policy, and it seems we still have not learned from them.

Patrick Garvey
San Anselmo, Calif.

The notion that military engagement is the key to shrinking a gap between stable countries and unstable ones is wrong.  Political and economic engagement will shrink the Gap; military engagement will likely enlarge it.  Barnett even warns about this, saying that the "resurgence of fundamentalists [in Iran] may be the price we pay to invade Iraq."  If the U.S. acts alone as a military force, it will turn more Gap countries against us and the Western world.

Jon Ball
New Orleans, La.

Barnett's piece is a wonderful framework from which to have coherent political discussions with friends on all sides of the landscape.  That said, I still cannot fully embrace the idea that we have made a fundamental decision to embrace free trade.  American protectionism remains rampant.  And has Barnett given any thought to extending this marvelous Core/Gap model to the populations of nations inside the Core?  Simply looking at the widening gap in the distribution of wealth in many of those countries would suggest something is going on that might be politically and socially worrisome.  To wage an effective campaign to shrink the Gap, we have to prove that we live our own values unflinchingly.  We have to demonstrate that we have a system that corrects itself over time, without vast social upheaval--something we have done quite well.

Robert Gehorsam
New York, N.Y.