World harmony comes from connectedness and a share in the global economy. Just as social networks modify an individual's behaviour so integration with the global economy will modify a state's behaviour. Making a strong case for optimism, controversial strategist Dr. Thomas Barnett tells Phil Windley that key priorities for the U.S.A. must be to help connect those states that are currently disconnected and to develop the capabilities to export infrastructure. Increasingly the military will be engaged in ensuring business continuity and must have the capacity to build new structures, whether as a result of military action or natural disaster, as well as take down failing states.
Expanding on the themes of his latest book (see below), Barnett says that the future 'core' states, which will make the rules and drive progress, will be Brazil, China, India and Russia. The U.S.A. has more in common, economically, with this group than with its old allies of Western Europe and Japan and increasingly alliances will arise from ecoonomic similarities rather than from socio-political bases. Connection to the core is crucial for each state's success and the core states need to develop a blueprint and infrastructure to deal with those states that cannot or will not integrate.
Thomas P.M. Barnett is a strategic planner who has worked in national security affairs since the end of the Cold War and has operated his own consulting practice (Barnett Consulting) since 1998. A New York Times-bestselling author and a nationally-known public speaker who's been profiled on the front-page of the Wall Street Journal, Dr. Barnett is in high demand within government circles as a forecaster of global conflict and an expert of military transformation, as well as within corporate circles as a management consultant and conference presenter on issues relating to international security and economic globalization. An award-winning teacher, Prof. Barnett has written for Esquire, Wired, and the Washington Post, and has been interviewed in Rolling Stone, Epoca (Brazil), and Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Japan's Nikkei News). Tom Barnett has been described by U.S. News & World Report's Michael Barone as "one of the most important strategic thinkers of our time."
Dr. Barnett is best known as the author of The Pentagon's New Map: War and Peace in the Twenty-First Century (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2004). Described by Washington Post columnist David Ignatius as "a combination of Tom Friedman on globalization and Karl von Clausewitz on war," the wide-ranging volume has generated an enormous amount of reaction from around the world, leading to foreign rights already being sold in Japan, Turkey and China, as well as profiles in London's Daily Telegraph, Denmark's Borsen, and Switzerland's WeltWoche. Mr. Barnett's book was likewise the subject of a Book Notes show on C-SPAN (with Brian Lamb), an On Point show on National Public Radio, and many other national TV and radio segments.
In addition to his speaking and consulting, Tom Barnett is a prolific blogger on current global events at his website www.thomaspmbarnett.com, where he counts among his regular readers representatives from all the major U.S. military commands, virtually all U.S. federal departments, numerous foreign governments, and major research and corporate entities the world over. His popular weblog has spawned a weekly newsletter based on his ideas and vision of "a future worth creating."
Tom has been a Contributing Editor for Esquire magazine since the beginning of 2005. His first major article for the magazine was the February feature, "Dear Mr. President, Here's How to Make Sense of Your Second Term, Secure Your Legacy, and, oh yeah, Create a Future Worth Living."
From 1998 through 2004, Prof. Barnett was a Senior Strategic Researcher and Professor in the Warfare Analysis & Research Department, Center for Naval Warfare Studies, U.S. Naval War College, Newport RI, where he taught and served, in a senior advisory role, with military and civilian leaders in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, Central Command, Special Operations Command, and Joint Forces Command. From November 2001 to June of 2003, Dr. Barnett was on temporary assignment as the Assistant for Strategic Futures, Office of Force Transformation (OFT), Office of the Secretary of Defense, where he worked with (then) OFT Director Vice Admiral Arthur K. Cebrowski (USN, ret.) on a cluster of strategic concepts that link change in the international security environment to the imperative of transforming U.S. military capabilities to meet future threats.
Professor Barnett has a BA (Honors) from the University of Wisconsin with a double-major in Russian Language and Literature and International Relations (emphasis U.S. Foreign Policy). Following Wisconsin, Dr. Barnett earned an AM in Regional Studies: Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia and a PhD in Political Science from Harvard University. His dissertation was entitled, Warsaw Pact-Third World Relations, 1968-1987: Explaining the Special Roles of Romania and East Germany. While at Harvard, he served as Research Assistant to the Director of the Russian Research Center and worked as a Teaching Fellow in the History and Government Departments.
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