Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog

I saw Dr. Barnett speak at the 25th Annual ESRI (GIS) Conference in San Diego in 2005. He was the keynote for the Defense track. Being a defense contractor and a US Navy veteran, he was the first person I had ever heard connected with the military speak how important is was to "win the peace". And that is exactly where I am currently at in my career -- I want peace to be just as important -- winning hearts and minds. God has placed this on my heart also to go right along with what Dr. Barnett ideals are. So I believe it was faith and the powers that be for me to attend this conference and to see him speak. :)

thanks, guys.

keep 'em coming :-)

When did i discover Tom? I caught the last few minutes of a CSPAN interview, and was wowed by the insight. I Googled Tom and found his blog. I ordered PNM the same day from Amazon. As retried AF LtCol, what Tom wrote made way too much sense to be ignored. I am a conservative, and sometimes disagree with Tom's politics, but think enough of his ideas to promotes them on my blog.

I saw Tom on C-Span and then ordered the DVD.... listented to it about 5 times, Then bought his books, read BLUEPRINT FOR ACTION, listened to his other streaming video and then asked him for an on camera interview which we did and it went for almost 3 hours with an agreement for I think an estimated 60-90 minutes as i recall.

Just let Tom talk and give him a little directional guidance and he talks and talks and talks.

One of the great thinkers of our times.

I'd like to script him into 10-13 topics and put them into a 24 interview to package for TV programming spots or in the minimum PUBLIC ACCESS and keep the vision on the airways.

Go man go!

I walked by the TV while PNM Brief was on CSPAN and I never watch CSPAN... I sat and stared - Astounded, I thought, is it really all that damn simple!? My 15 year old son walked by, stopped sat down, my wife walked in stopped and sat down...

I heard of Tom from Don Beck of Spiral Dynamics Integral fame. Don mentioned the 12/20/04 C-SPAN presentation of "The Pentagons New Map" brief. I missed watching it but I ordered the DVD and watched that. I have since read the two books PNM & BFA. I have been interested in Ken Wilber's work and "Integral" related stuff for some years now and I have a particular intereste in "Integral Politics" of which I think Tom's work is a great example of.

It was on May 11, 2004. I was taking a course on terrorism and insurgency, and felt that the GWOT was too centered on using the big stick seemingly without an overarching strategy. Then one day, while at work, I happened to come across a review of PNM on the WSJ. This was the actual headline:

At the Pentagon, Quirky PowerPoint Carries Big Punch
May 11, 2004, The Wall Street Journal, 2119 words
In 1998, Thomas Barnett, an obscure Defense Department analyst, teamed up with senior executives at the Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald LP to study how globalization was changing national security....

I read the review and thought the theory sounded interesting. I googled Tom and found his Esquire article on the Pentagon's New Map from 2003. As I read it, I realized that here was a theory that fit with my view of the world and one that provided the overarching strategy I thought was needed to deal with the type of threats we encountered in the post-9/11 world. I proceeded to buy his book, and frankly had to read it about three times before I could digest the entirety of the strategy. As they say, the rest is history... :)

C-SPAN. I am not really a convert though, more like a christian in a whorehouse or a drunk muslim at a pig roast.

Was sitting next to a full bird on a plane who was reading TPNM. At one point in the flight he asked me what I was reading. We looked at each others books, shrugged and handed them over, exchanging them to read the first few pages. About 30 minutes later, I was completely engrossed with the unfolding concepts and muttered "sonuva....... this guy (Barnett) is absolutely correct. Who is he?" The bird then described a briefing he was at where these concepts were delivered and he wanted to read the book. I told him that if this books content does not get up to the highest levels of government tout de suite, we would pay a price, to which he responded "yeah, no shit". We talked a bit more when he asked about my work, but that 30 minutes reading TPNM was enough to leave an indelible impression and I knew that the fundamental premise was absolutely correct. My copy of TPNM was purchased via the Internet from Delta's Crown Room ten minutes after I got off the plane.

Through ZenPundit. Heh. Having followed Mark's thoughts, and ultimately seen some linkage to this blog and particular ideas espoused by Tom, I checked it out (to see if Mark's thoughts could bear the weight of scrutiny!)

But I wouldn't say I'm a convert. More like, an interested party.

My conversion was simple. A few minutes on the Hugh Hewitt show, finding both books on sale at Borders, and reading the blog all on the same day seemed to be an epiphany for me.

I saw Tom on CSPAN 2 or 3 years ago doing a powerpoint presentation. I was blown away by on all levels, I hadn't seen such a comprehensive global view presented like that before. I was instantly hooked and looking for more of his works.

thanks for all the great comments! hopefully, we'll get some more today...

I was working the CD&E Conference in Berlin 2005, Dr. Barnett was the keynote speaker. I was assigned as his Protocol Officer, and decided I should read his blog before I left for Berlin, to see what he was about before I met him. I've been reading it ever since.

I was surfing the channels, and came upon this guy giving a presentation on C-Span (PNM). Usually I would flip right past, but this person held me. Everything he said explained a world that I hungered to understand after 9/11 (I live on 14th street, in Manhattan-- nuff said); causes and effects, pasts and futures --and possibilities. I had been obsessively reading online newspapers, trying to make sense of what was happening in the world, and there he was, pulling it all together, and doing it with intelligence, irony and humor. I could not absorb everything he said, and after about forty-five minutes I wrote down the name of the speaker, made a note to myself to buy the DVD, and when it arrived, I started watching it over and over again, until I felt I REALLY understood it. There are times when I think that Dr. Barnett is a tad naive about human nature, and too trusting of capitalism, but in general, I'm a convert, and lend the DVD out to anyone who expresses an interest, saying-- "this will really connect the dots for you." And most of the times, those people give me back the DVD and say "Wow. Thanks." I read the blog regularly, and enjoy the comments as much as the posts.

3am feeding for my daughter had me flipping the channels while she downed her formula. Stopped a Cspan where they were showing the PNM Brief. Ended up watching it til the sun came up and at work the next morning ordered the DVD.

I caught the CSPAN brief way back when and had the epiphany. While I dont agree with all Dr. B. says I respect the way he says it! No hate speech or spin. Wish some politicians/ policy makers would talk that way.

I saw Tom on CSPAN BookNotes, and then bought PNM. It correlated incredibly well with what I was seeing in my business, as I work for a company small (

Being the lazy soul that I am, I was lying in bed working the remote, trying to find something - anything - interesting to watch. As I came to C-SPAN I noticed this guy giving a presentation about geopolitics. He was entertaining, fast-paced, and his descriptions of the Core and Gap hit me right between the eyes. It was my "Eureka" moment, when all the lights went on in my feeble mind. Tom Barnett finally brought into focus the direction in which things are heading globally, and why we have reason to be optimistic. After 9/11 my thinking became somewhat muddled and confused, as I believe was the case for many, and Tom showed with solid reasoning and precision why our side will eventually win out. The "future worth creating" is not only possible, it is happening slowly but surely.

I came home after a long night of drinking and somehow found the brief on c-span at around 3:00 am. Watched the whole thing then bought BFA. True story.

I haven't posted much here yet, but I first heard of Tom through CSPAN (like many others here, it sounds like). One of my favorite activities when I had cable used to be to go through the BookTV offerings over the weekend and decide what I was going to tivo. Anyway, while I was doing this, Tom was on, and maybe spoke for 15 seconds before I decided I was just going to listen. It went on. And on. I couldn't pull myself away. I ended up being a half-hour late to an appointment, after which I immediately went out and bought PNM.

I've only recently gotten into the blog (which I LOVE - the steady stream of good articles reminds me of slashdot in its heyday, with a permanent +5 Insightful comment from Tom!), and I've started to read other things in the same vein, like John Robb and Zenpundit. I learn so much from all these different sources, and ENJOY learning about these issues so much, I'm considering changing fields of work!

Saw Tom on CSPAN in the wee hours with the PNM Powerpoint then immediately ordered the book back in 2004...no hesitation.

Ditto, ditto, ditto Mr. Shapiro above. Also Robert, whose son sat down and watched and whose wife also sat down and watched. It was that magical Saturday night, Labor Day 2004 on C-Span.

March 2002 "System Perturbation Workshop", co-hosted by VADM(ret) Cebrowski and the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies. Even before PNM, there was no doubt Tom had a compellingly optimistic strategic vision for the world. Most memorable metric presented in his briefing: that Cantor-Fitzgerald posted a profit in 4Q 2001 -- despite their tragic losses on 9/11 -- due to "e-speed ... and supporting clients."

I "met" Tom, via email, in 1999, while doing Y2K research for my employer.

But I drank the Kool-Aid in November of that year, when I attended his Year 2000 Security Dimensions brief at the Arlington Institute.

See post for record of details: TV Moguls: Barnett Unplugged

I was an intern for the UCF Office of Global Perspectives in Orlando. Dr. Barnett came and gave his amazing powerpoint presentation on Pentagon's New Map. I got to speak with him briefly while he signed copies of the book afterwards. I began peeking at the blog regularly from then on.

C-SPAN, a few months back. Wouldn't take it to the "Tom's the s---" level but his globalization+security voice is important to the discussion, and especially pertinent to today's world.

Ditto for me - channel surfing an d hiot the presentation on C-SPAN. I think I then caught a reference to the book on a blog (Zenpundit maybe). I ordered it through amazon.

I think you should make the video briefs available through youtube to widen the exposure.

Also, other might make their own language subtitles.

I was in Japan on my way to Singapore, when PNM caught me eye. A little skimming convinced me that I needed to buy it, and I finished it somewhere over the Pacific on a return leg. About a 50:50 ratio of "Wow, I never throught of that" and "Cool, someone else thinks this too."

At a buddy's house waiting for his wife to come home so him and I could go out for the evening. She was late, so I was putzing around and picked up Esquire, which had the PNM article. Refreshing. Year later I saw Barnett on the CSPAN schedule and made a point to watch. That led me to amazon.com and a purchase of PNM. The rest is history.

CSPAN 2004.

I thought...wow...this guy can talk. His language and the words he chose connected with me as a college student raised in the age of networks.

Then he started busting out all the pop culture references in his blog and briefs, from Bladerunner to Shakira and I knew that this wasn't just some egg-head, ivory tower intellectual.

Tom's optimism is contagious and it rubbed off on me big time. After all, according to the academic gospels, the world is going to hell on a shutter. Right? Al...Noam....Chalmers...back me up here.

Like several others, I was flipping through the channels late one night in 2004 and caught Tom on CSPAN just a few minutes into the presentation. My wife was going to bed at the time, but I told her that she had to see this, and we both stayed up past 2am watching the presentation. I ordered the DVD the next day and later bought and read both of the books. I pay a lot of attention to history and economic trends, and Tom provided a great strategic framework for observations that I had never before seen as linked together. I've been hooked on the blog for about a year.

Keep up the great work!

I discovered Tom through his very first Esquire article in early 2003, which ran at the height of the Iraq war debate, a month or two before we finally went in. The anti-war arguments struck me as totally incoherent, but then, so did most of the Bush Administration's pro-war case. Tom's essay laid out in a broad sweeping narrative what was going on, and why confronting Saddam was so important to the broader post-9/11 era. But it went way beyond that, and wove together so many disparate elements (economics, Cold War military strategy, etc.) my immediate thought was, "*This* is what's really going on!"

And I still think that. Though in retrospect, my mistake was to assume, since he was working for Rumsfeld, that the Bush Administration was operating from the Barnett playbook, too. They were not. The tragedy is now that they finally seem to be using it, evidenced by bringing Petraeus on, it may be too late.

I read the original Esquire PNM article (linked from where I can't recall). Then I read the book and shortly thereafter discovered this blog. Since then, I've regularly read the blog, watched the C-SPAN presentation, read BFA, and have converted several of my friends and fellow military members.

C-SPAN or Law & Order? On that particular winter night in my grandfather's den I chose wisely.

In 68, when Dr. King was killed, my grandfather, a country lawyer, put the flag out; not sure if it was the only one in town but rest assured he got death threats over the phone. He was against the war in Vietnam early, and I'm sure he would have been appalled by my position on the war in Iraq.

In December, in one stoplight towns, it gets dark--moonless night at midnight dark--as soon as the sun goes down. SAD is endemic, and since the county is dry it's 30 miles to oasis. Sittin in a redneck bar, reading the end of history and the last man, eatin mutton and drinkin coors light outta the can was as good as it got. The only big idea thrown at me was how to fire Tubby and hire Billy D.

I considered myself a liberal internationalist influenced by Hitchens and Friedman, appalled by the administration's rationale for war, and demoralized by the election returns of November. I remember at the time thinking that if somebody hits us again, on their watch, oh boy--my barber Don Fox will get his wish: nuke everybody cept us.

Enter TPMB. I guess as of right now I've read everything but the Ceausescu dissertation. understand a lot of it, agree with most of it. i too am fascinated by the creative process and pore over director's commentaries, so am of course a careful reader of the blog.

i do wonder though about the comment of Tian Chen, who I believe was a one-time commenter, that goes to the very heart of this strategy and fundamental to the national dialogue: the war in Iraq, as a cause celebre marginalizing moderates, generating tens of millions of radicals as opposed to tens of thousands, is exactly what Bismarck said preventive war is, committing suicide because you're afraid of dying.

I wonder who can implement PNM-BFA. Clinton, Obama? Will the natural isolationism of realists and pacifists limit our presence in the Gap? India and China need SysAdmin as much as SysAdmin need them but can who facilitate such a thing? with the cacophony of modern media, how can this plan for a future worth creating permeate?

i see an administration that doesn't know how to play with a lead--no clue. Iran? running flea-flickers on 4th and 34 on their own 18 in the first quarter; punting on 2nd and goal from the 5. as jeff tweedy says:

Stat-ue of Liberty play-
only works once,
don't throw it away.

My first exposure to Tomism? The CSPAN briefing like so many others. What really caught my attention (aside from offering to donate his son to the Leviathan) was his division of the military functions; I'd been wondering for a while why the military didn't do something like that. I saw PNM at Barnes & Noble later, bought it, then bought BFA when it came out. When I stumbled across foreignpolicy.com's weblog, I recognized the name on one of the links and came here.

CSPAN. I watch it all the time and I think the thing that made me stop was the Law and Order sound that is used in the preso. Once I listened for a min I was hooked. check the board every day now.

I got lucky. I'm an Air Force journalist and I was fortunate enough to shoot an interview with Tom early last year in Honolulu.

A colleague sat in on his briefing at the SOCPAC conference and coaxed him into a "quick" sit-down at the hotel afterward. Tom's son was with him that day. My colleague said, "You won't believe what this guy is gonna say; it's amazing," which of course I didn't believe.

I set up the shot, started rolling and lost interest in the aesthetics of the interview almost immediately. I got my own personal PNM briefing. That "quick sit-down" lasted close to 30 minutes. I watched the tape again and bought the book that night.

C-Span brief. For me it really tied together and explained a lot of things. Been a devoted follower ever since.

It was the C-span brief for me on Labor Day I felt Hope
Then the DVD
Then PNM
Then the Map
Then BFA
Dont forget the Blog
Carla

I caught the tail end of Booknotes as I surfed past CSPAN. The title of the book caught my eye so I stopped to watch. I was in grad school at the time so I loved tearing apart academic arguments. I listened, waiting for Dr. Barnett to expose his political agenda and eager to punch holes in his theories. I found none. In fact, I realized just how unorganized and chaotic my own thinking was. All of the disjointed models, theories, and facts I accumulated in my first two quarters came into sharp focus when viewed through the lens of Dr. Barnett's vision. I do not necessarily agree with all of his prescriptions but all of my work since that day has been influenced by his ideas.

Saw the CSPAN presentation, then immediately bought PNM and googled for more info. I was struck by both the worldview and Tom's sophisticated use of powerpoint. ;-) Ever since, I scan the blog several times per week and alert folks in my network to posts I know they'll find interesting.

I had attended the annual bookfair at UCLA and followed up by watching Book TV coverage on CSPAN. It got me into the habit to tuning in to Book TV for the long form interviews with the likes of Camille Paglia and Bernard Lewis. It was there that I caught the brief. That led to the blog.
My other favorite blog is Andrew Sullivan's From time to time I forward from Tom's blog to Andrew's and was happy to get a hit last week.

I was meeting with the director of ORNL in the spring of 2004 and noticed a book with an interesting title on the table. Of course that book was "The Pentagon's New Map" -- the title alone got my attention as I am interested in the concept of mapping and throw in the context of the Pentagon, I thought it was pretty cool. The director was kind enough to loan me his copy.

I did not have a chance to read it until my family and I flew to Krakow, Poland a few weeks later. It had been years since I had been to Krakow (actually the last time I was there was in 1999), but I could see a dramatic difference in the city due to the "connectedness" of it to the rest of the world. Maybe it was highlighted by the fact I had been reading PNM, or maybe not. But that is the story of how I "discovered" Tom and PNM!

I followed a link to Tom's website from the "No Left Turns" website. I liked what I read, ordered PNM from Amazon.com (it was not available in Canada at that point) and that was it. Being in Canada, everyone around me was so against the US going into Iraq, but I had this huge instinct that it was right. PNM gave me a lifesaver to hang onto and it fitted in with thoughts and ideas I had been working over for a few years.

Many thanks.

I watch the CD of the June 2004 C-Span presentation every once in awhile just to keep my spirits up. Watching the media everyday can throw you into a pit of despair. I wish like so many others that the folks in Washington would consider creating a future worth creating rather than playing political games. The folks we have now are certainly not the wise men of the greatest generation. The first guy that utters a Barnettism is the guy I will vote for.

I was in Iraq. I worked in a TOC and this SF Major came in to gather some intel from our S2 shop. On the TV was FOX News and they were "covering the war". I made a comment about the situation we were in and how I didnt think anyone knew how to "fix" Iraq. This SF Major walked over to me and said, "CPT Ruehl, you need to read PNM." Three weeks later Amazon delivered. Three weeks after that, I opened the first page and I was hooked. In Mosul Iraq in early 2005. Of all places.

I found him via an e-mail from a friend inside the beltway. He told me I HAD to see 'the brief'. He was right...

My introduction to Dr. Barnett happened at National Defence Headquarters, Ottawa Canada, in 1999, during preparations for the Y2K (non)event. I was one of the Staff Officers working in the Defence Department planning cell, trying to filiter the hysteria from the logical, in order to assess the most likely outcome. I was impressed with Dr. Barnett's work as it incorporated the idea of "New Rules set" with major historical patterns. (It was also the first time I had heard the terms "known-knowns, known-unknowns, and unknown-unknowns)
I will admit to shamelessly re-using many of the slides and diagrams in his presentation. So thank-you Dr. Barnett, for providing the key source data for one of the best briefings I have ever given. (So good I ended up spending New Years in a CP in Ottawa while my civilian friends got to "Party like its 1999")
I have followed Tom's work since those days, mostly because I have tended to agree with his assesments. Not many self-proclaimed Stratigic thinkers are able to so succinctly express the Economic-Miliatry-Diplomatic-Political link that influences world affairs. Once iterated, the idea of Core and Gap just makes so much damn sense.

Like many of the others I caught Tom's brief on C-SPAN in 2004. I was channel surfing and paused long enough to catch a few sentences. His presentation was energetic and he seemed to have an intensity so I put down the remote and watched.

After about 2 minutes I called my husband into the room and we were transfixed. Talk about connecting the dots.....and all these light bulbs were popping over our heads!

The next day I drove to the bookstore on my lunch hour and they did not have a copy anywhere to be seen. The clerk said, "What the heck is going on? I've gotten half a dozen requests for this book today." Got my copy a few days later, surfed the web and found the weblog. The rest is history.

I try to read every day and appreciate all the work that Tom and Sean do (linking to tons of stories) saving me the time to search them out.

Shortly after my exposure to the weblog I came to a conclusion - Tom is not one of those ivory tower types. The fact that he discusses his family and personal life is an extension of his belief that you can only understand the situation/the country/the crisis or the person in the context of everything else.

I appreciate his ability to not get quagmired in politics. I laugh at his wife's observation that he's a Republican, just doesn't know it yet!

Yes, I drank the Kool Aid and like an evangelist attempting to spread the word I encourage everyone to read, read, read and think about what Tom has to say. Unfortunately I've found that too many people are enamoured of their "stance" and simply cannot take the time to expand their horizon. That's a pity because if two ordinary folks sitting in a small rural community of 700 hog farmers can "get it", anybody can.

Sometime in 2003, a reference from Strategypage.com, I think. Anyway, Tom's gap/core, etc seemed to crystalize a lot of my thoughts on how Aghanistan, Iraq, failed states in Africa were connected. Sort of a sort of Grand Unifying Theory if you will, that tied up all the loose threads in my understanding of the situation and the prescribed course of action.

I met Dr Barnett on December 4, 1998, when I participated in the first of his Y2K workshops at the Naval War College. I had recently started working at The Arlington Institute as Senior Analyst with a special interest in the religious aspects of the millennial turnover, and been invited to the session in Rhode Island to sit in for Dr Richard Landes of the Center for Millennial Studies, who had attended the previous day.

I later had the pleasure of hearing two of Tom’s briefs at The Arlington Institute, and introducing him at one of them – but that first meeting at the War College was not merely memorable, it was a major turning point in my life.

As a game designer myself, I was fascinated to visit the home of naval war-gaming and to participate in a table-top scenario building session under Dr. Barnett’s guidance. But far more significant for me was the fact that I found myself on naval ground again for the first time since my father, a Captain in the Royal Navy, died at the age of 41 when I was nine.

I’d turned pacifist in my early teens in reaction against my loss of the man I admired above all others, so attending Dr. Barnett’s workshop was a return to origins for me, a powerful symbolic healing. Fortunately, Dr. Barnett is a man whose own life has made him regard both family and the emotional bonds it involves highly, as his description of his and his wife’s experiences with his daughter Emily’s hospitalization for cancer richly demonstrates -- and I was able to express to him a little of how deeply moved I felt to be back on Naval turf after so long, without feeling I was making a complete idiot of myself.

Dr. Barnett’s work on Y2K was and remains the best project associated with that curious quasi-event – and I continue to believe that one of the great tasks facing us this coming century is the mapping of our interconnectedness and interdependencies, both materially and across the Cartesian divide into the subjective realm: whether it's a matter of wars and rumors of wars, or rumors of bank runs and bank runs, the human psyche just begs to be included along with the "real world" in our mappings and modelings.

My brother gave me Tom for Christmas. Upon arriving at my brother's house to spend Christmas, my family and I plopped down in front of the TV with my brother Dan and sister-in-law Margaret. My brother told me he had a mind-blowing video to show me and proceeded to play it. The rest of the family drifted off to bed while Dan and I stayed up for hours listening to Tom talk about rule sets and the core. I've become a TPMB evangelist.

My holy S@#t moment came during late summer of last year. I was flipping through the channels and caught "the brief" about halfway on C-Span. I noticed it was going to be on again later in the evening. I recorded it and watched in a few times. I have since read PNM, BFA, listened to many interviews and visit the website almost daily.

Upon a suggestion from a well respected friend and colleague, I picked up The Pentagon's New Map and was immediately convinced that Tom's unique views are not only one of a kind in this world, but incredibly important.

A year or so later, as I was watching Tom's presentation on C-SPAN2, I realized that if I hadn't already been "converted," watching that presentation would do it in a heartbeat. If I could, I'd send that presentation to everybody I know and work with.

I'm an ensign in the US Navy. A couple years ago, just a few months after commissioning, I was pulled from my temporary duty station to help assist the staff of a 2 week conference in West Virginia for Navy captains pinning on their first star and the civilian equivalents. The venue of presentations covered many different topics, and we (the staff) would all sit in the back during the daily lectures. Tom's brief, however, was the one that really caught my interest. It was the best brief of the whole series, in my opinion. I bought both books right afterwards and have tried to read/listen/watch Tom as much as I can.

The unusual title of the mp3 in IT conversations (poptech) made me very curious. I started listening and after several minutes i knew there is a unique visionary here. found the blog, and purchased the book (PNM) that very same week.

I read the blog daily, and Dr barnett appears in many political discussions i had since my first encounter, and probably in the future. Dr barnett comes up in my arguments as an example of clear thinking and hopefull american theory.

Put simply, one of the best minds today. I dont agree with all of it. but i dare say - overall Dr barnett changed key aspects of my world view, i hope you will win many converts.

I caught the PNM brief on C-SPAN purely by accident in late 2004 and was fascinated by his stage presence--and it's rare for me to see ANYONE with stage presence on C-SPAN-- and his use of PowerPoint. Then I discovered the blog and the rest is history.

I was an Air Force 2nd Lieutenant sitting in Germany - probably being sternly corrected by an NCO ;) - and our Squadron Commander gathered all the Officers together for a professional development session. We watched a video recording of the brief at the Naval War College. I eventually went out and purchased PNM. It brought so much to order in my mind, and inspired me for further study. I am now almost halfway through my M.A. Diplomacy thru Norwich University; concentrating on Conflict Management and Post Conflict Reconstruction.

Picked up PNM in airport and became an immediate convert. Finally, a strategic framework that made sense and was not tied to right-wing or left-wing ideology. Blog serves to constantly focus my thinking on key strategic issues.

I discovered Dr.Barnett when I came home from college for the weekend to find my mom glued as usual to CSPAN listening to a very unique scholar. I'd never written so many notes on a random tv program before. Since reading his books and discussing his ideas with anyone I could, I'm so excited to feel that he has the hearts of many constructivists supporting his noble work and searching for a career that would contribute to its success...I certainly offer any assistance that Dr.Barnett would benefit from in working towards that future worth creating.

This is my first post here, but I visit the blog daily. I discovered Tom on a surf trip in Indonesia in May 2005. I was traveling with a friend who just finished up at Columbia Biz School. He let me borrow his copy of PNM, which was required reading in one of his classes. I powered through the book on the flight home and Tom's vision of what the end of GWOT looked like made me feel warm all over - there it was; just connect the gap and the GWOT ends. PNM gave me a new mental model of how the world was functioning, and made it safe for me to be an optimist about the Long War ending in my lifetime. I loved that Tom debunked energy independence, which until then had felt logical to me. Buying BFA was a no-brainer, and I look forward to seeing a White House appointment for Tom in early 2009.

I am mobilized for the Civil Affairs mission in Iraq. During our qualification course, we watched a presentation of his. I thought it was brilliant. Still do.

I'm hoping that those in echelons above reality feel the same and that it's not too late.

I discovered Thomas P.M Barnett via CSPAN on my car radio while I was stopping by the local Costco. I couldn't get out of the car. 25 minutes later I went in to do my shopping and then re-routed my return to work via the local Borders and bought both books. Been reading the blog since and grabbed a copy of the Exquire article that I emailed to my Brother, a head in the sand guy trying to convert me to support Pres Bush. My daily read, Get well soon and keep putting out the Good Samaritan message to the world. Embrace the Gap. Defeat Terrorism.

Junior military officer here, formerly Army now Coastie. I guess it would be likely for me to say that the Esquire article in 03 won me over like a steamroller, or that Blueprint for Action solidified my agreement with the whole idea... and deeply converted me not only to the globalism reality but foreign policy in general... but none of these converted me to Barnett.

What converted me to Barnett was a blog statement a while back that specifically mentioned the German 80's techno-industrial band KRAFTWERK!!! -My wife never lets me listen to them, despite my claims that I'm the operator of my pocket calculator. Anyone listening to Kraftwerk has to be unique. Now how about Enigma?

A cousin called me Labor Day week-end 2004 and said "Turn on CSPAN. This guy is blowing my socks off". I did what I was told (good Irish Catholic girls always do what they are told ...) and he's blown my socks off ever since. A clarion thinker who still remembers that he has to put his pants on every day.

Like many, I was channel surfing and stumbled upon C-SPAN and saw this smart dude with a very matter-of-fact speaking style who actually had thoughtful ideas on the military, war on terrorism, etc. Being that there are not very many smart individuals on C-SPAN, at least appx 435+100+2 morons, I was captivated to say the least. I googled Tom's name and sure enough, found this site. Now I just pray that Bush and his top military officials were/are watching Tom as well.

TPMB in 08 anybody?

If you ran, you have my two grand in contributions.

I caught Tom over Labor Day weekend 2006 on C-Span. Only heard about the last 45 minutes of the talk, but was really interested. Googled him, and have been checking out the blog ever since. I find his arguments and insights interesting and enlightening. Was surprised to learn he was a Kerry supporter. But hey, even Farve throws an interception every now and then.

I saw Tom at Pop!Tech '04. I was sitting in the third row, behind that guy who always jumps up with his questions. About 30 seconds into the "talk" (it's not a talk, it's a piece of performance art) I start to laugh and thought, "this guy is un-f-in-believable." Not only did he have a command of the facts but his ability to abstract strategic significance from them was unparalleled...and I'd never heard of him. Looking back at my notes from that session, I see that as the briefing continued, my note-taking became increasingly urgent (always a sign that I'm listening to something very stimulating) with figures, charts, circles, zooms and all kinds of other symbols as I rushed to keep up with the flow of ideas. After that I bought the Brian Lamb interview DVD and was really hooked.

I've also seen Tom at TED and again at Pop!Tech. Each time the presentation's been great, but nothing really compares with that first time. If you've only read him and never seen/heard him deliver his ideas, I strongly urge you to do so. The ideas are great and the delivery only improves their clarity.

I was on State Active Duty in NY in 2004. I was flipping channels and heard the voice and a phrase which caused me to stop. Then I started to catch the drift of the brief. I wrote down his name and the book title. The next day I asked my Colonel if he had heard of him. He said something like "oh, he is probably just another one of those boring professors at a military academy.." I stated that I didn't think so, based on what I had seen.
I bought PNM while I was away at Officers Basic Course at Fort Huachuca. Read it with great enthusiasism.
Loaned it to my Colonel, who read it on his way to Fort Leavenworth. Suddenly, he was a convert!
Caught the 2005 NDU brief, while I was TDY at Fort Hood. Bought the DVD and now it is mandatory viewing in my Intel shop.

I also found Dr. Barnett via C-Span while flipping through channels. I stopped to watch when I hear the phrase "Disconnectivity defines Danger." Since then I have bought that presentation from C-Span and both of his books.

A couple years ago I was wondering to myself, wouldn't it be useful if all of the remaining military conflicts on the world were all on one map to see if there was any pattern among them? Well, not more than one week after thinking that I was channel surfing through C-SPAN and suddenly I saw exactly that map. I was also completely blown away by the depth, uniqueness and audacity of Tom's accompanying presentation. I then proceeded to buy The Brief from C-SPAN and read a copy of PNM from the library. I have since cited Tom's ideas at length whenever a military topic is at hand. Also, as a computer geek (programmer, etc...) I was very pleased to hear Tom's description (and naming) of the "Sys-Admin" force. I think if it was properly funded this concept would do untold good for the world. In light of the President's call for more civilians to assist in reconstruction efforts, it seems that such a force is on the way. Perhaps some day I will join it. Being part of a "pistol packing Peace Corps." that builds things faster than people can blow them up is something that I think a lot of people would be interested in, if only to give their lives meaning.

C-SPAN 2004, Atlanta, GA. As an international student (MBA). Then PMN, BFA, DVD. Now back in the GAP (Nicaragua) watching the flows. Thanks. Dr. Barnett

scouring a bookstore in South Korea, recognized BFA from a friend's recommendation. Filled with Aha! moments, reconfigurations of mind-maps. Returned a fortnight later to buy PNM and all the BFA copies, to my satisfaction (though I think I can take credit for their disappearance, due to excessive insistence that people read this bloody book!)

I found about Dr. Barnett by listening to his PopTech talk through ITConversations (about a year ago). The notion of Core and Gap caught my attention. I am an international student from Mexico (doing graduate school in USA) and I never bought the idea of Mexico being a 'third-world' country when people referred to it as such. Hence, Dr. Barnett's map makes quite a lot of sense to me. If it were up to me, I'd invite him for a commencement speech at the University I'm attending.

I cannot recall exactly where I first "discovered" Tom but if memory serves me I believe the title of PNM caught my eye since I'm in the GIS (geographic information system) business following two degrees in Geography. Obviously the 'map paradigm' hit home for me along with the combination of connectivity of globalization, the fundamental flow theory (people, money, energy, and security) and core/gap idea. Addititionally growing up a "Boeing brat" myself (my father was very proud of being with a military contractor and I brought him home a piece of the fallen Berlin wall from my trip to Germany) I have always been facinated with military history, strategy, and hardware. Somehow I ended up staying a civilian. Then I sort of randomly got to see Tom speak live at my company's annual user conference in San Diego a few years back. Not being formally on my company's defense team I sort of wandered into the "defense plenary" (out of pure personal interest) and started listening to this engaging guy's brief...until I thought - hey wait a minute! these ideas sounds like the author of PNM and then wham! I realized it was actually Tom as I didn't know what he looked like. Then someone sent out Tom's blog post on the conference and my company. Tom's ideas really opened my eyes to how the U.S. can be actively involved in changing the world for the better in the future. Needless to say I was hooked as a fan, check the blog often, and look forward to a new book.

I am an Army Nurse (reservist) and was first introduced to Dr. Barnett a couple of weeks ago by watching a video of one of his briefs during ILE (an advanced leadership course for Army officers). His ideas make sense to me and I would love to see someone like this in charge!!

I am 35 years old Lebanese, I first found out about Dr. Barnett by reading the PNM during the course of 2004, I was then wondering what would be the consequences of the Iraq invasion on Lebanon and hoping that it would lead to the Syrian withdrawal and I remember a sentence that struk me then :"... Lebanon would be better off without Assad in Syria...", then I waited eagerly for the BPA since PNM announced an update for October 2005. I fully subscribe to the Core and Gap theory and especially to the idea that an agreement between USA and Iran would have beneficial consequences for the whole Middle-East. In simple words I find that author illuminating.

I was riding my horse on the road to Damascus when there was this bright light and I was suddenly sitting on the ground.

Actually I was channel surfing through C-SPAN like so many other people when I caught the tail end of the famous Power Point presentation. That made such an impression on me that I kept checking C-SPAN for when they would show it again.

James Burke, the host of the show "Connections", did another PBS show called "The Day the Universe Changed". It dealt with ideas that had such a profound effect that once you were infected with them, you never looked at the world the same way again. Dr.Barnett's view is comparable to germ theory or the non-geocentric universe to my mind in its importance in understanding the world.

I'm not a full convert yet for I still have some questions (e.g. culture's role in promoting/undermining globalizaion...or in other words, if 1930's Germany can go psycho what's to prevent China or some Middle East Hitler wannabe going down the same path). I first encountered Tom in my local library where displayed was PNM. I read the flyleaf and was hooked. I keep coming back to Tom's work because it appears to provide a model of reality and it's explanatory. As Newtonian physics explain the material world, as Darwin explains the biological world and as the Bible (some may think it weird, but for me true) explains God and his relationship to Man, Tom's model explains why the world is the way it is. More importantly, it matches theory with reality by providing insights and levers that can be tested and if proven, used. Most of Leftist thought can't escape Marxist dogma. Thought on the Right is less beholden to dogma (particulary because of it's embrace of economic theory) but no one on that side has developed a model as convincingly as Tom. Lastly, Tom seems to have no ideological ax to grind. He is a true (if humane) radical by challenging the current orthodoxies across the political spectrum. Tom's motives seem pure and his goal seems to to accurately identify geopolitical realities and use this knowledge and his values to accomplish postive change.

My first intro to Tom was picking PNM from a Canadian bookstore shelf. I've read both books 3 times and keep up with the blog and video links. As a Technology Educator, I find Tom's work very important and much needed in public debate. I find myself in Taiwan now and have tried to engage many people with Tom's work but have found it very difficult because of the language barrier. I know many people hear are looking forward to an uncensored copy in their own language. Thanks Tom

I saw Tom at Pop! Tech in 2006. The light went on. Well said, Tom.

Like so many others, it was the serendipitous channel change to C-Span airing "The Brief". It was 2004, it was a Saturday night. I had spent the entire day as a volunteer for a sailing regatta and I had to get to bed because I was doing the whole thing again with a very early start the next morning. I kept saying, I have to turn this off and go to bed but I couldn't. Here was somebody, finally, who put the economics together with the demographics; finally someone who was looking out 50 years. I was hooked. I went on the C-Span website, knowing that I could order a DVD - it just had to be possible, then bought the PNM and eventually BFA and have been boring everyone I know since then with, "here was a guy with some ideas". Started following the web blog about 6 months ago - you are truly inspired and it infects everyone you "connect" with. Thank you Tom

How discovered?

The checkout process at Amazon prompted me re/ PNM and I had a gift card with just enough of a balance on it to add PNM to my basket---sounded like an interesting title and scope. Thanks Amazon!

Uh . . . well, I haven't "converted" to Tom. I did catch him through the HH interviews, which were for the most part better than just okay. Yeah, he's bright and interesting, and worth listening to. But not the messiah.

The trouble with grand all-encompassing theories is that once you get "converted," it becomes difficult--well nigh impossible--to conceive of something that doesn't fit the theory. Contrary evidence gets ignored, misunderstood, massaged or hammered into a shape to fit the theory. Yes, it's often useful to try to understand things through a comprehensive framework, to orient oneself according to some guiding theory, . . . but only so long as one maintains the capacity strenuously to ask oneself: "How does this event not fit the theory?" Like most theories applied to events dependent on human behavior (because humans are such confounding creatures), Tom's theory is more descriptive than predictive, i.e., much more descriptive of the past than predictive of the future, except to the extent that the theory broadly, generally, and very non-specifically anticipates "disturbances" (or is the proper word of the moment "perturbations"?), a prophecy requiring less theory than common sense and experience, and not even a great deal of the latters.

"The haves and the havenots tend to fight." This more modest expression of Tom's theory has been around for several millennia now--and dressing that theory up in modern clothing of "connectivity" is merely to acknowledge the notion that "the world is getting smaller," another theory that has been around for several millennia. Do two old theories make up one grand new one? Not for anyone capable of holding two common ideas in mind at the same time.

Such theories allow one smartly to say (in hindsight), "Well, you idiot, you should have 'seen that coming.'" But, notwithstanding old theory number two just mentioned, the world is a big place, wherein almost anything should have been "seen coming" at some place at some time. So, Tom, tell us with a little more geographic and political particularity, exactly when, where, and how, things will go to Hades in the proverbial handcart. Let us a keep a scorecard, and check back in five years to see how you've done. By then (please forgive my prognostication) I am sorry to say, Tom, a "new" messiah will have delivered a "new" grand theory, and hardly anyone will be paying attention to you or yours. Of course, the "new" theory won't be all that different from yours, Tom (or all the others that have been espoused since people started writing their footnotes to Plato), but it will seem new.

Still and all, sometimes new terminology allows us to revive and reconsider useful old lines of thought that have fallen out of fashion. So keep thinking, Tom. But don't let it go to your head. And do try to be a bit more forgiving, if not more understanding, toward those poor souls trapped in the foggy world of reality, the poor souls who can no longer theorize with impunity, but actually have to make and apply very particular decisions with very grave consequences. In that regard, Tolstoy's treatment of the German military theorists in War and Peace is both humbling and instructive. (And having received your comeuppance from Tolstoy, take consolation that--wise as he was--Tolstoy himself also had a grand theory of history, and it, too, looks pretty silly--in hindsight.)

When all else fails, Tom, you can always deploy this rejoinder: "But you haven't properly understood my theory."

I don't do "conversions", but I enjoy Tom's lively writing, strong opinions, and willingness to share his life online.

IMO, though, he needs to rely less on newspapers for his information about the world... ;-)