Thomas P.M. Barnett
Pentagon's New Map | Blueprint for Action

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Introduction > interaction and feedback

I am very excited by this challenge.  I love to write on a daily basis, and hopefully this venue will work for both me and you—the reader. I am looking for interaction and feedback, because such give-and-take with the audience—via those several hundred PowerPoint presentations over the years—is basically how I gathered or generated all the material that became the book.  I have been a verbal blogger all my life, but now I hope to expand that conversation pool a whole lot.

April 2004

Email

Matthew Valokovic

Conan A. Heimdal

Reviewing the Reviews

Tristero

Strategy Page

Amazon.com

eMOTION! REPORTS.com

Junk Yard Blog

Publisher's Weekly

Kirkus Reviews

May 2004

Email

John G. Cox

Reviewing the Reviews

Steven D. Laib, J.D.,M.S. (IntellectualConservative.com)

Alan Caruba (National Anxiety Center)

Mackubin T. Owens (National Review)

Michael Rochmes (The Hill)

Miscellaneous reviews posted on Amazon

Terry Cochran (Intervention Magazine)

Jim Moore's Journal: Reporting on systems evolving

James Kielland on Amazon

Michael Barone @ U.S. News.com

Stan Crock (Business Week)

Heather Landy (Star-Telegram)

Tom Bowman (Baltimore Sun)

June 2004

Email

Charles Dean Conrad

Mike Downing

Joseph R. Gomez

 

Reviewing the Reviews

Karen Kwiatkowski (antiwar.com)

Mac Thornberry (Congressman, R-TX)

July 2004

Email

Michael Di Marino

Reviewing the Reviews

R. Grant Seals (Reno-Gazette Journal)

Booklist Reviews

Captain Robert B. Brannon, U.S. Navy (Proceedings)

Dean Barnett (www.Soxblog.com)

August 2004

Reviewing the Reviews

The Amazon tribe (1 of 4)

The Amazon tribe (2 of 4)

The Amazon tribe (3 of 4)

The Amazon tribe (4 of 4)

September 2004

Reviewing the Reviews

Zachary T. Irwin (Library Journal)

Col. Randal T. Fullhart (Air & Space Power Journal)

Alan L. Gropman (Washington Times)

Don Morrissey (Public Governance Institute)

Bob Slone (Lancaster County Democrat [PA])

Linda Turley Hanson (East Valley Tribune [AZ])

John D. Heel (Christian Science Monitor)

Steven Martinovich (Enter Stage Right)

October 2004

Reviewing the Reviews

Yet another tribe of Amazons (early August through mid-Sept)

Another tribe of Amazons (mid-Sept through early Oct '04)

Joseph Stromburg (LewRockwell.com)

Yoel Sano (Asia Times Online)

November 2004

Reviewing the Reviews

Milo Clark  (Swans.com)

James P. Pinkerton (The American Conservative)

Chet Richards (Defense and the National Interest)

December 2004

Reviewing the Reviews

James C. Bennett  (The National Interest)

Mark Safranski  (History News Network)

Thomas P.M. Barnett: The Worldchanging Interview

WorldChanging Interviews

Prof. Thomas P.M. Barnett, Senior Strategic Researcher at the U.S. Naval War College, is maybe the hottest military thinker in the world right now. His work, which focuses on the connections between development and security, and in particular his book, The Pentagon's New Map: War and Peace in the Twenty-First Century, has become deeply influential with forward-thinking members of the military. Whether or not Worldchanging readers agree with what he has to say, Prof. Barnett's vision for the future of the U.S. military is worth knowing about.

Alex Steffen: What do you mean when you talk about "the Gap" and "the Core?"

Thomas P.M. Barnett: Let me back up and explain how I got here. . . [full text]

Email: Chris Truty

Good morning Tom,

I'm about two-thirds of the way through PNM and am really enjoying it.  I'm an officer in a suburban Chicago fire department and recognize the ruleset dilemma in our profession as well as homeland security.   9/11 turned this profession upside down as well.  Thanks to you for putting it into words for me.

Some observations about your book...

First, reading your book tells me that John Kerry, in as concise and "soundbitish" way possible in a political campaign, tried to extoll your philosophy, or a variation of it, in his campaign.  He could never do it justice and ended up maligning the whole concept.  Being a conservative Republican, I'll be interested in knowing what that party's position and philosophies are on the security and foreign-policy initiatives that you present as well as any visions of the future that they may have.   Any sources that you have on this, allowing us (readers) to put your plan within a set of available options could strengthen your hand.

Second, one of the things that to this point you don't address is the negative effects of globalization and maybe you'll address this later in the book.   I would agree with you that the main source of the global insecurity in disconnectedness from globalization.  However, you appear to gloss over what appears to be either legitimate anti-globalizaton reasoning or concerns with globalization.  I don't believe that you're advocating that globalization doesn't bring its own set of problems but I do believe these issues are some of the stumbling blocks that will need to be addressed both here and abroad and for some people ARE deal-breakers.  So I would think you would want to address them.  Here are the two biggies that  I have come up with.

* Cultural diversity versus assimilation.   Would globalization eventually lead to a single culture where diversity disappears.  I think one could argue that the immigrants of the early 20th century and their associated culture have for the most part lost their cultural identity here in the U.S.   Would this happen to EVERY culture including the "American way" as one world-wide culture develops?  In an extreme sense, I'm sure you could argue that "would one culture be all bad"?

* It would only be a matter of time before common economic rule sets begin to stretch common moral rule sets already in place.  These common moral rulesets have always been a framework to guide human behavior.  Our country is in the midst of this now with abortion and homosexuality issues.  The incorrect perspective that most liberal mindsets have against traditional thinking is they (traditional mindset) are opposed to freedom to choose lifestyles, pregnancy issues, etc.  The reality is the traditional mindset is not opposed to freedom but IS opposed to pure unadulterated and boundaryless freedom and they want to know what, IF ANY, limits there are to these choices.   Liberals have been unwilling to answer this.  Clear, free, unrestricted freedom breeds licentiousness as well as self-centered behavior.  How does one control this?  If freedom comes with no moral limits, some would argue the freedom is not worth it.   Who defines what these morals are and should these rulesets be defined first?

Our country is dealing with this ruleset issue now NOT because liberals are trying to redefine them but they want to REMOVE them completely without offering another set.   This will clearly be an issue in globalization.   I don't see terrorists being anti-globalization opposed as they use cellphones and computers which one could say are hallmarks of embracing some core western economic thought.   It's the lack of a western moral ruleset that they are vehemently opposed to and until those issues are resolved, globalization will move forward only slowly.  In other words, globalization isn't only economic, it's moral as well.

Thanks for the great info and I look forward to the rest of the book as well as your next one.  Good luck,

Chris Truty
Wheaton, IL

TPMB Updates

Newsletter Archive

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