Articles written by Thomas P.M. Barnett
By Thomas P.M. Barnett
26 Jul 2010 |
World Politics Review
There's no question that globalization, in its modern American form of
expanding free trade, just went through its worst crisis to date. But
while economists debate whether or not we in the West are collectively
heading toward a 1938-like "second dip," it's important to realize just
how myopic our fears are about the future of a world economy that
America went out of its way to create, defend, and grow these past seven
decades.
By Thomas P.M. Barnett
19 Jul 2010 |
World Politics Review
With his selections of Gens. David Petraeus and James Mattis for
command in Afghanistan and Central Command respectively, President
Barack Obama signals his understanding that his previously established
deadline of mid-2011 to begin drawing down combat troops cannot be met. With the original withdrawal date, Pakistan was our only
viable partner. But as that changes,
all potential regional partners should again be on the table.
By Thomas P.M. Barnett
13 Jul 2010 |
World Politics Review
Reports of the imminent death of U.S. hegemony go at
least as far back as the Nixon administration, and to date, they have
all disappointed. While challengers have risen and fallen, none have
managed to make themselves full-spectrum superpowers. Now, with the "rise of the rest," we are
presented with the argument of a collective challenge to American world
leadership -- a notion that will
likewise prove disappointing.
By Thomas P.M. Barnett
12 Jul 2010 |
World Politics Review
Despite the worries of American "declinists," the future will not be post-American, but merely post-Caucasian. And
that's a future to which America will readily adapt itself. Indeed, as
global integration proceeds, America's centuries-long experiment in
e pluribus unum ("out of many, one"),
which already marked us as a national progenitor of modern-day
globalization, will continue to be our greatest strength.
By Thomas P.M. Barnett
05 Jul 2010 |
World Politics Review
The goal of global partnership between the United States and China has taken a
beating lately. The Great Recession has led too many Americans -- and Chinese -- to
doubt in our own economic system and political institutions, while
encouraging undue appreciation of China's. But what "lithium" can we apply
to this manic-depressive relationship lest it collapse into full-blown
bipolar meltdown?
By Thomas P.M. Barnett
28 Jun 2010 |
World Politics Review
China's spreading labor unrest is rightfully portrayed in the Western
press as an immense challenge to that country's status as the "world's
factory floor." But to Beijing's bosses, it's likewise a tool for
addressing rising income inequality, which is why the Communist Party
has remained most reticent to address it head on. Such a hands-off
approach carries additional dangers, however.
By Thomas P.M. Barnett
21 Jun 2010 |
World Politics Review
Oddly enough, people tend to trust computers' seeming infallibility more
than nature's trial and error. But at the same time, people fear
a more highly technologized future, because they assume it will be less
natural. In truth, technology, including computing, will evolve more in
the direction of nature than the other way around, and will fuse with
it increasingly on the latter's terms.
By Thomas P.M. Barnett
14 Jun 2010 |
World Politics Review
A lot of national security experts would like a lot more fire -- and
firepower -- from our president. Op-ed columnists across America worry
that our friends no longer trust us and that our enemies no longer fear
us. But before attacking the Obama administration's coolly rational --
dare I say "lawyerly" -- take on great-power politics, let's first
remember what got us to this point.
By Thomas P.M. Barnett
07 Jun 2010 |
World Politics Review
Most commentators on globalization obsess over the
friction it causes, hence the frequent -- if
mistaken -- predictions
of globalization's eminent demise.
What we all need to remember is that this
friction is a function of globalization's growing
force, which
reflects a desire for a better life among billions of individuals
worldwide. This has important consequences for human identity in this age of
connectivity.
By Thomas P.M. Barnett
31 May 2010 |
World Politics Review
In the midst of deep crisis, cooler heads rarely hold sway -- at least
in the public discourse. Thus it was that just a year ago, we heard
from many experts -- and joyous activists -- that globalization was on
its deathbed: The global economy was on the verge of a great and
permanent unraveling, an inexorable reversal of the go-go
globalization of the 1990s. Alas, the real world apparently did not get the memo.
By Thomas P.M. Barnett
24 May 2010 |
World Politics Review
As somebody who voted for President Barack Obama, I am surprised to find
myself believing that he is slated to be -- and more so,
should be -- a one-term president. Everything Obama brings to the table
suggests that history will judge him to be a transitional figure -- a much-needed leveling-off from Bush-Cheney's foreign
policy trajectory, but not "the One" who can revitalize this clearly disoriented superpower.
By Thomas P.M. Barnett
17 May 2010 |
World Politics Review
Between Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano and the oil slick in the
Gulf, everybody seems to have disasters on the brain lately. A lot of this
heightened anxiety is misplaced. We don't live in an increasingly
dangerous world, whether you're talking wars, terrorism, disasters --
or just the weather. In fact, we live in the safest times yet known to
humanity. We just choose not to see it that way for a variety of
reasons.
By Thomas P.M. Barnett
10 May 2010 |
World Politics Review
Boomer business leaders and technologists rebooted the world, playing
seminal roles in globalization's stunningly fast expansion around the
planet over the past three decades. Meanwhile, try coming up with a
single historic piece of legislation passed by the Boomer politicians,
whose primary manias revolve around thwarting their political enemies in
a painfully myopic zero-sum fashion.
By Thomas P.M. Barnett
03 May 2010 |
World Politics Review
The recent global financial crisis has birthed a slew of books
proclaiming the superiority of state capitalism -- or, alternatively,
authoritarian capitalism -- over free markets. China, we are led to
believe, will not merely own this century, but will also likely win the
bulk of the world over to its "unique" and "unprecedented" model of state-directed
development. Am I worried? Please.
By Thomas P.M. Barnett
26 Apr 2010 |
World Politics Review
Growing evidence of regime frailty in North Korea has focused attention on potential
scenarios of endgame dynamics. But while the nuclear issue remains a driver of Western policy toward Pyongyang, China's current focus seems less ideological than
predatory. Beijing now seems mainly intent on
exploiting Kim Jong Il's distress to empty North Korea of its remaining
valuables before the demise of his rule.
By Thomas P.M. Barnett
19 Apr 2010 |
World Politics Review
Most people look back upon the 20th century as the deadliest in human
history, with scholarly estimates suggesting that close to 200 million
people died in all the wars, revolutions, genocides and totalitarian
purges of those bloody decades. And yet, saving lives from disease and warfare, while simultaneously
extending them to increasingly greater lengths, is the "buried lead" of
the 20th century.
By Thomas P.M. Barnett
12 Apr 2010 |
World Politics Review
It's hard to argue against reducing the
number of nuclear weapons, as President Barack Obama did last week in signing the START follow-on treaty with Russia. But Obama's new Nuclear Posture Review goes even further than that, proposing a substantial reduction
in the
role of nuclear weapons
in America's national security. The question is, Does the shift accomplish
anything?
By Thomas P.M. Barnett
06 Apr 2010 |
World Politics Review
National security analysts have long assumed that the international
telecom landscape would be defined by vast struggles over competing
technical standards, with ownership of highly sensitive infrastructure
being the grand prize. But it's becoming increasingly clear that the infrastructure owned
matters less than the services delivered, which are themselves simply a
means of winning consumer loyalty and, along with it, the "business
intelligence" that will determine economic power in the modern era
of globalization.
By Thomas P.M. Barnett
05 Apr 2010 |
World Politics Review
When asked for his assessment of the French Revolution's historical
impact, Zhou Enlai famously replied, "It is too early to tell."
Historians are fond of citing the quotation, but at times ignore its
fundamental insight: that they often arrive at their judgment of
historical events prematurely. Nowhere does this seem truer than in the
case of America's controversial intervention in Iraq.
By Thomas P.M. Barnett
29 Mar 2010 |
World Politics Review
In the last half-decade, blogs have gone from a quirky personal sideline
activity to a mainstream, almost
de rigeur professional activity --
following the previous trajectory of Web sites and, before them, e-mail
itself. To many, this democratization of the flow of information is a
distinct blessing, to others it is the epitome of data deluge. As far as I'm concerned -- no blog, no grand
strategist.
