Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog

Tom's conversation with Bill Powell over at Time's China Blog has been published in parts 2 and 3:

Part 2: 'Locking in China at Today's Prices'

Wholey moley! Is that the title for Book 3 right there at the top of this post? 'The Coming Realignment: Reconnecting American Grand Strategy to a World Transformed'. Thanks for breaking it over here first, Tom ;-)

Haven't read this illustration before:

Time: But you must get accused of wanting to sell out the Taiwanese all the time, right?

Barnett: “Oh I do, sure. But the way I try to explain this for US audiences is, imagine if Jefferson Davis and what remained of the confederacy after the US civil war slipped off to Cuba and set up an anti American country on that island, constantly thumbing its nose at us. Then, fast forward to 1905, and imagine how the United States would have tolerated some distant imperial power like England telling us what we could or could not do with regard to this bunch of losers sitting in Cuba. Imagine what Teddy Roosevelt would have told the Brits what they could do with their defense guarantee!

Can't say much for the 35 comments on this post.

Part 3: Why Bad News for the US isn't Good News for China...