Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog

I sent a fairly strongly worded letter to Jim yesterday after perusing the text of his draft intellectual biography of Art Cebrowski (meaning, more about his ideas than his life, per se). I was obviously somewhat upset to have done that, and poured that emotion into the blog, something I don't apologize for because it's cheaper than therapy, and frankly, it's healthier too.

Yes, I could have waited for a response from Jim. Would have been the fair thing to do. It also would have kept me up all night, and I wasn't willing to do that to my wife and kids (honestly, I think along these lines...). So I got it out of my system in the blog.

Yes, I know that sort of display irritates some, and as I have so often encouraged such readers to go elsewhere in the past, let me do so again if such posts offend. I only get to be me in this world, and with all the competing responsibilities I feel (most of which I bag up in my consciousness via a belief in God and a sense that when I do things that preserve that which is God within me, I honor that belief, myself, my loved ones, and my world), this is how I worked out the balance yesterday.

And to spare anyone the perceived need to remind me--yet again--how I potentially sabotage some envisioned career path of greatness by being this way, let me also say that keeping myself honest and clear and real and close to this world around me is something I value far more than any such best laid plans.

Plus, I think it just makes me smarter in ways I want to be smarter, understanding there are many forms of intelligence and that I should just run with those forms I've been blessed enough to receive.

I plan to lie on my deathbed like my Father did and like Art did, not suffering under any illusion that I should have made more money, or done more great things, or been more anything--other than the best husband and father I could be.

And so I continue to balance that which I hold profound (the career goals, which, quite frankly, are completely ambivalent about my degree of personal achievement) and that which I hold sacred (thus, I want to stay up nights over things that really matter in this home).

Anyway...

Got a nice letter from Jim, whom I've known far longer than Art (indeed, Jim's known me somewhat longer than he knew Art), and it addressed all my concerns and criticisms with great sincerity and eagerness to correct them. Jim wrote that he took my letter seriously enough to go back over his voluminous interview notes with Art to verify that Art and I view(ed) the creation of the Core-Gap and SysAdmin ideas similarly. Jim also wrote that he would do everything he could to remedy the perception created by the original draft, and asked for my help in the matter.

Naturally, I'm going to help him.

This is what I wrote back to Jim:

Jim,

It's perfectly fine to state that Art directed and oversaw my research and the strategic concepts it generated. It's also correct to say that without his guidance and encouragement, none of it ever would have appeared.

It's also correct to say that he absorbed these ideas, merging them with his universe of great ideas and concepts, some of which did indeed involve the nature of globalization in this era (other than Core-Gap and SysAdmin, everything else you attribute to his worldview basically rings true with me, although I can't attest to other interactions he had because I pretty much always dealt with him very directly on my content).

I wouldn't call his absorption of my ideas either borrowing or plagiarism, but rather his promotion of a school of strategic thought that he himself effectively helped bring to life through his support to, and mentorship of my work, and his "over-authorizing" me to brief it at will throughout DoD and DC (much of that arranged by Rob Holzer).

Over time, that implied school of thought became part of his overarching way of looking at security and global change, and his movement in that direction was an attempt, on his part, to bridge realism and idealism (in my mind, Art was always the professional realist and personal idealist, and I think he wanted that merger as he was forced to deal with his mortality across the large majority of his time in OFT).

I've spent my career trying to bring the U.S. military back to the world, where it belongs, not divorced from it and trapped in abstract calculations of great power war, which I think is defunct. Art bought in to that vision to a certain extent, although he still felt a strong need to hedge against China for his foreseeable future. My foreseeable future was different from his (probably a difference in age and experience), so we parted thinking somewhat on that point, although I fully expected him to eventually come around on that notion, as more chances unfolded for U.S.-Chinese military cooperation inside the Gap.

I was thrilled, of course, that Art felt strongly enough about both Core-Gap and SysAdmin concepts to incorporate them into his vernacular and vision. That was a career achievement, in my mind, because I respected him so and wanted so much to help him in his efforts at systematic change across DoD. I feel a significant loss intellectually that we'll never get a chance to see what Art could have done with the SysAdmin concept.

I don't have any problem with your descriptions of Art's world view or his attempt to bridge realism and idealism in U.S. foreign policy, other than the way you currently describe the Core-Gap's and SysAdmin's origins, which are complex and career-spanning for me, as I describe in New Map (book). I think altering that text in such a way as to make clear my original authorship of those ideas is fairly simple, and I think adding the additional language I suggest above about Art's great role in making those ideas come to life and become popular is also fairly easy.

Obviously it's an awkward thing to feel the need to dispute your original version because of my very close relationship to Art, whose death still impacts me profoundly. I feel certain now that this was unintentional on your part, and I appreciate your strong willingness to address my concerns.

I apologize for my strong original reactions to the text. I was brought up to believe that claiming you did something when you didn't was just about the worst sort of character sin you can commit, so I've always tried to be very clear about the role of mentors and collaborators in my work. Art was enormously generous to me, and gave me an incredibly long leash, and I feel very proud to have done for him what I know I accomplished. Your original wording made me feel like Art himself was calling that sense of accomplishment into question, and that was pretty stunning to read. So again, I apologize for any harshness in my tone or any insinuation of ill motives on your part or anybody else's.

I consider carrying on those aspects of Art's vision to which I have been historically attached to be a major goal of my remaining career. As such, I want to feel positive about that connection to Art, and to the extent that your revised text can accommodate that need, then I am most grateful.

Feel free to call me to discuss this further. I really enjoy talking about my work under, and intellectual collaborations with, Art. They are some of the best memories of my career, and I'd like to honor them in your work.

Tom

Want to know how seriously I took all this?

I didn't even bother to listen to the Packers' first pre-season game last night over the Internet. Going to the next preseason game next weekend with Em, so spent the night with my wife in the home theater (ascending to third only after Lambeau and little Immaculate Conception in Boscobel as sacred sites of my life) watching yet another Reese Witherspoon movie I'd never heard of, this one with Alessandro Nivolo (it's been sort of a Nivolo week for us, with "Junebug" and so on).

So let me get that game out of my system by visiting Packer.com and then I better start reading all the emails pouring in from today's Sunday column.

Oy vey! Just saying "end times" gets you emails like you wouldn't believe.

Still, I really liked the piece...