Thomas P. M. Barnett

Last updated
Thomas P. M. Barnett
Thomas Barnett.jpg
Thomas P.M. Barnett
Born1962 (age 59–60)
Chilton, Wisconsin, U.S.
Nationality American
Occupation military geostrategist

Thomas P.M. Barnett (born 1962) is an American military geostrategist and former chief analyst at Wikistrat. [1] He developed a geopolitical theory that divided the world into "the Functioning Core" and the "Non-Integrating Gap" that made him particularly notable prior to the 2003 U.S. Invasion of Iraq when he wrote an article for Esquire in support of the military action entitled "The Pentagon's New Map" (which would later become the title of a book that would elaborate on his geopolitical theories). The central thesis of his geopolitical theory is that the connections the globalization brings between countries (including network connectivity, financial transactions, and media flows) are synonymous with those countries with stable governments, rising standards of living, and "more deaths by suicide than by murder". [2] These regions contrast with those where globalization has not yet penetrated, which is synonymous with political repression, poverty, disease, and mass-murder, and conflict. These areas make up the Non-Integrating Gap.

Contents

Key to Barnett's geostrategic ideas is that the United States should "export security" to the Gap in order to integrate and connect those regions with the Core, even if this means going to war in Gap countries, followed by long periods of nation-building.

Education and career

Barnett was born in Chilton, Wisconsin and grew up in Boscobel, Wisconsin. After graduation from Boscobel High School, Barnett received a B.A. (Honors) from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in Russian language and literature, and international relations with an emphasis in U.S. foreign policy. He received his MA in regional studies: Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia and his PhD in political science from Harvard University.

From 1998 through 2004, Barnett was a senior strategic researcher and professor in the Warfare Analysis & Research Department, Center for Naval Warfare Studies, [3] U.S. Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island.

At the Naval War College, Barnett served as director of the New Rule Sets Project an effort designed to explore how the spread of globalization alters the basic "rules of the road" in the international security environment, with special reference to how these changes redefine the U.S. military's historic role as "security enabler" of America's commercial network ties with the world. [4] The project was hosted by Cantor Fitzgerald and took place near the top of One World Trade Center. After the offices of Cantor Fitzgerald and its carbon credit brokerage subsidiary CantorCO2e were destroyed at One World Trade Center on 9/11/2001, Barnett described the event as the "first live-broadcast, mass snuff film in human history." [5]

External video
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg Booknotes interview with Barnett on The Pentagon's New Map, May 30, 2004, C-SPAN
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg PowerPoint presentation by Barnett on The Pentagon's New Map, June 2, 2004, C-SPAN
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg Presentation by Barnett on The Pentagon's New Map, December 20, 2004, C-SPAN
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg After Words interview with Barnett on Blueprint for Action, October 29, 2005, C-SPAN

Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, from October 2001 to June 2003, Barnett worked as the Assistant for Strategic Futures in the Office of Force Transformation in the Department of Defense under the direction of the late Vice Admiral (ret). Arthur K. Cebrowski, during which time he created a Powerpoint brief that developed into his book The Pentagon's New Map . [6]

In 2003, he wrote an article titled "The Pentagon's New Map" for Esquire magazine that outlined many of these ideas. He developed the article into a book The Pentagon's New Map: War and Peace in the Twenty-First Century , published in 2004.

A sequel Blueprint for Action: A Future Worth Creating was published in 2005. He presented his ideas for changing America's military structure in February 2005 in Monterey, California, for a TED talk titled "Rethinking America's military strategy".

In 2010, he became chief analyst for the Israeli start-up Wikistrat. [7]

Barnett is currently[ when? ] the senior managing director of Enterra Solutions, a contributing editor for Esquire magazine, and a distinguished scholar and author at the Howard H. Baker, Jr. Center for Public Policy at the University of Tennessee. [8] He writes the New Rules column at World Politics Review. [9]

Ideas and concepts

Barnett's ideas involve the relationship between the United States and the rest of the world in past, present, and future contexts, although much of the work revolves around defining possible future roles of the country in the aftermath of the Cold War and terrorist actions such as the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Barnett had grown up with the expectation that the United States and the Soviet Union would remain in the Cold War standoff indefinitely, and had followed an education path that would have been useful for that context. However, shortly after he completed his education and started to work in the public and private sectors, the Soviet Union collapsed, leaving America as the world's sole superpower. He became an early advocate of collaborating with the new Russia to smooth the nation's transition into its new role in the world. The fall of the Soviet Union was a shock to the military establishment in the U.S., leaving many to wonder what nation or group of nations would pose a significant threat in the future.

Barnett proffered that without the Soviets to defend against, the American military establishment lost focus. Some planners were concerned that the new world order was one of chaos, which is hardly something that is easy to build war games around. Many theories were bandied about, ranging from rogue state theories involving states like Iraq and North Korea, to the rise of some unexpected country to great power, or, most predominantly, the emergence of China as a new threat. Nobody could clarify which concept was most likely, right up until the September 11 attacks seemed at the time to resolve the dispute.[ citation needed ]

The NewRuleSets.Project was one of many programs that the United States military has launched since the fall of the Soviet Union in order to determine what threats will emerge in the coming decades. The project is a unique collaboration between military and financial analysts. The project name comes from the idea of "rule sets," the combination of written and unwritten rules that people within a region use. It has been noted that countries that have similar rule sets tend to collaborate much more effectively than countries that have significant differences. For instance, the U.S. and Soviet Union had rule sets that were very different. Once the Soviets lost control, the country went through a "rule set reset," organizing itself to more closely align with the largely democratic and capitalist societies it had once opposed.

The group also noticed that globalization has caused a fairly common rule set to be shared between a great many countries around the world. States that have benefitted from globalization and begun to share in the wealth and prosperity associated with that are also losing interest in waging war with one another. Participants in the project noticed that once the per capita income of a country increases to about US$3000 per year, war essentially disappears. There are a few places where this hasn't exactly been the case, but it seems to largely hold true for now.[ citation needed ]

Another interesting thing to note was that, of U.S. military deployments around the world since 1990, virtually all have taken place in countries that do not meet that level of income. This leads him to unabashedly proclaim himself an economic determinist. Examining the regions more thoroughly, it was also noted that the countries have very little flow of people, information, or investment money across their borders. This all leads to the idea of these countries being "disconnected" from the outside world, running on rule sets that are different from that of globalized societies.

Barnett has termed the globalized countries the "Functioning Core" or simply "the Core". The other countries are part of the "Non-Integrating Gap", or simply "the Gap". The Gap has been shrinking as globalization has expanded. Since most terrorists seem to come from the Gap, he believes that the American military should focus on building partnerships with "seam states", countries bordering the Gap, to stabilize those regions. Stable states would bring more investment and more connectedness with the outside world, therefore progressively shrinking the Gap. The end result of all of this, if it proves to be successful, would be nothing less than the end of interstate warfare on the planet, and probably a significant reduction in intrastate warfare and other problems like terrorism.

Esquire Magazine and the resignation of Admiral Fallon

Barnett received notoriety in March 2008 for publishing an article in Esquire magazine on Admiral William Fallon which portrayed the Admiral at odds with the Bush administration. This led to Fallon's resignation as the head of Central Command. [10]

Proposed China–US Grand Strategy Agreement

After joining the Center for America China Partnership in 2010, [11] Barnett and his two colleagues, John Milligan-Whyte and Dai Min, prepared the China US Grand Strategy Proposal between Presidents Hu and Obama. [12] The agreement received input from China's former Minister of Foreign Affairs, former UN Ambassador, former U.S. Ambassador, former Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the PLA, former Military Attaché to North Korea and Israel, former Vice Minister of Commerce, Central Party School Institute of International Strategic Studies, Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs, China Center for International Economic Exchanges, China Institute For International Strategic Studies, China Foundation for International & Strategic Studies, Boao Forum, State Council’s China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, and premier and state councilors. [13]

The agreement's provisions were introduced in Barnett's column in World Politics Review, [14] and in John Milligan-Whyte and Dai Min’s columns in People’s Daily Online in English [15] and in China Daily Online in Mandarin. [16] The text of the agreement itself appeared in the September/October 2011 edition of Foreign Affairs. [17]

Personal life

In a speech about globalization, Barnett confided that after having three children, he and his wife "adopted three girls from abroad – one from China and two from Ethiopia." [18]

Bibliography

External video
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg Presentation by Barnett on Great Powers, February 10, 2009, C-SPAN

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guerrilla warfare</span> Form of irregular warfare

Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tactics, and mobility, to fight a larger and less-mobile traditional military.

A superpower is a state with a dominant position characterized by its extensive ability to exert influence or project power on a global scale. This is done through the combined means of economic, military, technological, political and cultural strength as well as diplomatic and soft power influence. Traditionally, superpowers are preeminent among the great powers. While a great power state is capable of exerting its influence globally, superpowers are states so influential that no significant action can be taken by the global community without first considering the positions of the superpowers on the issue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World War III</span> Hypothetical future global conflict

World War III or the Third World War, often abbreviated as WWIII or WW3, are names given to a hypothetical worldwide large-scale military conflict subsequent to World War I and World War II. The term has been in use since at least as early as 1941. Some apply it loosely to limited or more minor conflicts such as the Cold War or the war on terror. In contrast, others assume that such a conflict would surpass prior world wars in both scope and destructive impact.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Viet Minh</span> Vietnamese independence movement active from 1941 to 1951

The Việt Minh was a national independence coalition formed at Pác Bó by Hồ Chí Minh on 19 May 1941. Also known as the Việt Minh Front, it was created by the Indochinese Communist Party as a national united front to achieve the independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Military–industrial complex</span> Concept in military and political science

The expression military–industrial complex (MIC) describes the relationship between a country's military and the defense industry that supplies it, seen together as a vested interest which influences public policy. A driving factor behind the relationship between the military and the defense-minded corporations is that both sides benefit—one side from obtaining war weapons, and the other from being paid to supply them. The term is most often used in reference to the system behind the armed forces of the United States, where the relationship is most prevalent due to close links among defense contractors, the Pentagon, and politicians. The expression gained popularity after a warning of the relationship's detrimental effects, in the farewell address of President Dwight D. Eisenhower on January 17, 1961.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Indochina War</span> 1946–1954 war between the France and Việt Minh, and their respective allies

The First Indochina War began in French Indochina from 19 December 1946 to 20 July 1954 between France and Việt Minh, and their respective allies. Việt Minh was led by Võ Nguyên Giáp and Hồ Chí Minh. Most of the fighting took place in Tonkin in Northern Vietnam, although the conflict engulfed the entire country and also extended into the neighboring French Indochina protectorates of Laos and Cambodia.

An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion against authority waged by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare from primarily rural base areas. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irregular forces face a large, well-equipped, regular military force state adversary. Due to this asymmetry, insurgents avoid large-scale direct battles, opting instead to blend in with the civilian population where they gradually expand territorial control and military forces. Insurgency frequently hinges on control of and collaboration with local populations.

A revolution in military affairs (RMA) is a hypothesis in military theory about the future of warfare, often connected to technological and organizational recommendations for military reform.

Fourth-generation warfare (4GW) is conflict characterized by a blurring of the lines between war and politics, combatants and civilians.

The Pentagon's New Map: War and Peace in the Twenty-First Century is a 2004 book by Thomas P.M. Barnett based around an earlier article he wrote for Esquire magazine. It outlines a new grand strategy for American foreign policy. It is an iteration of a PowerPoint presentation that Barnett has been making for years that is known simply as "The Brief." Interested parties include the public and private sectors, encompassing military organizations and foreign governments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Counterinsurgency</span> Military operation aimed at defeating insurgent forces

Counterinsurgency (COIN) is "the totality of actions aimed at defeating irregular forces". The Oxford English Dictionary defines counterinsurgency as any "military or political action taken against the activities of guerrillas or revolutionaries" and can be considered war by a state against a non-state adversary. Insurgency and counterinsurgency campaigns have been waged since ancient history. However, modern thinking on counterinsurgency was developed during decolonization. Within the military sciences, counterinsurgency is one of the main operational approaches of irregular warfare.

The United States biological weapons program officially began in spring 1943 on orders from U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt. Research continued following World War II as the U.S. built up a large stockpile of biological agents and weapons. Over the course of its 27-year history, the program weaponized and stockpiled the following seven bio-agents :

Intelligence dissemination management is a maxim of intelligence that intelligence agencies do not make policy, but advise policymakers. Nevertheless, with an increasingly fast pace of operations, intelligence analysts may suggest choices of actions, with some projection of consequences from each. Intelligence consumers and providers still struggle with the balance of what drives information flow. Dissemination is the part of the intelligence cycle that delivers products to consumers, and intelligence dissemination management refers to the process that encompasses organizing the dissemination of the finished intelligence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">War in Vietnam (1954–1959)</span> Phase of the war between North and South Vietnam

The 1954 to 1959 phase of the Vietnam War was the era of the two nations. Coming after the First Indochina War, this period resulted in the military defeat of the French, a 1954 Geneva meeting that partitioned Vietnam into North and South, and the French withdrawal from Vietnam, leaving the Republic of Vietnam regime fighting a communist insurgency with USA aid. During this period, North Vietnam recovered from the wounds of war, rebuilt nationally, and accrued to prepare for the anticipated war. In South Vietnam, Ngô Đình Diệm consolidated power and encouraged anti-communism. This period was marked by U.S. support to South Vietnam before Gulf of Tonkin, as well as communist infrastructure-building.

Cyberwarfare is the use of computer technology to disrupt the activities of a state or organization, especially the deliberate attacking of information systems for strategic or military purposes. As a major developed economy, the United States is highly dependent on the Internet and therefore greatly exposed to cyber attacks. At the same time, the United States has substantial capabilities in both defense and power projection thanks to comparatively advanced technology and a large military budget. Cyber warfare presents a growing threat to physical systems and infrastructures that are linked to the internet. Malicious hacking from domestic or foreign enemies remains a constant threat to the United States. In response to these growing threats, the United States has developed significant cyber capabilities.

Wikistrat Inc. is a geostrategic analysis and business consultancy founded in Israel in 2010 by Joel Zamel and Daniel Green and headquartered in the United States. It describes itself as the world's first crowdsourced consultancy leveraging a global network of over 2,000 subject-matter experts. 74 percent of the firm’s revenue came from clients that were foreign governments such as United Arab Emirates and United States Government after which Deloitte is the biggest contributor.

The post–Cold War era is a period of history that follows the end of the Cold War, which represents history after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Political warfare</span> Use of political means to compel an opponent with hostile intent

Political warfare is the use of political means to compel an opponent to do one's will, based on hostile intent. The term political describes the calculated interaction between a government and a target audience, including another state's government, military, and/or general population. Governments use a variety of techniques to coerce certain actions, thereby gaining relative advantage over an opponent. The techniques include propaganda and psychological operations ("PsyOps"), which service national and military objectives respectively. Propaganda has many aspects and a hostile and coercive political purpose. Psychological operations are for strategic and tactical military objectives and may be intended for hostile military and civilian populations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1947–1950 in French Indochina</span> Historical period in southeast Asia

1947–1950 in French Indochina focuses on events influencing the eventual decision for military intervention by the United States in the First Indochina War. In 1947, France still ruled Indochina as a colonial power, conceding little real political power to Vietnamese nationalists. French Indochina was divided into five protectorates: Cambodia, Laos, Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina. The latter three made up Vietnam.

A military artificial intelligence arms race is a competition or arms race between two or more states to have their military forces equipped with the best artificial intelligence (AI). Since the mid-2010s many analysts have noted the emergence of such a global arms race, the AI arms race, between great powers for better military AI, coinciding with and being driven by the increasing geopolitical and military tensions of what some have called a Second Cold War. The context of the AI arms race is the AI Cold War narrative, in which tensions between the US and China lead to a cold war waged in the area of AI technology.

References

  1. ↑ Barnett, Thomas P.M. "Thomas P.M. Barnett on Twitter" . Retrieved 4 May 2016.
  2. ↑ Barnett, Thomas P.M.. "The Pentagon's New Map." Esquire. 1 March 2003. Available online: http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ0303-MAR_WARPRIMER. Last accessed 17 August 2014.
  3. ↑ Garner, Dwight (2009-02-10). "'Great Powers' by Thomas P. M. Barnett: Casting the U.S. as Parent in a Teenage World". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2019-10-23.
  4. ↑ "U.S. Naval War College's NewRuleSets.Project homepage". Archived from the original on 2005-08-17. Retrieved 2005-07-06.
  5. ↑ At The Pentagon, Quirky PowerPoint Carries Big Punch, Wall Street Journal , Greg Jaffe, May 11, 2004
  6. ↑ "Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog: A Beginning". Archived from the original on 2006-03-24. Retrieved 2006-02-16.
  7. ↑ "Thomas P.M. Barnett". www.uidaho.edu. Retrieved 2019-10-23.
  8. ↑ "Thomas P.M. Barnett: Biography". Archived from the original on 2006-11-04. Retrieved 2006-10-29.
  9. ↑ "World Politics Review | Author | Thomas P.M. Barnett".
  10. ↑ "Top U.S. Officer in Mideast Resigns - washingtonpost.com". The Washington Post . Archived from the original on 2012-11-04.
  11. ↑ Center for America China Partnership
  12. ↑ China US Grand Strategy Agreement
  13. ↑ USChinaRelations.net Archived 2011-10-05 at the Wayback Machine (Video of the meetings available for viewing)
  14. ↑ Barnett, Thomas P.M. The New Rules. World Politics Review.
  15. ↑ Milligan-Whyte, John and Dai Min. John Milligan-Whyte and Dai Min's Column (English). People’s Daily Online.
  16. ↑ Milligan-Whyte, John and Dai Min. John Milligan-Whyte and Dai Min’s Column (Mandarin). China Daily.
  17. ↑ Foreign Affairs (September/October 2011)
  18. ↑ "My prepared remarks at the TRT World Forum 2018 in Istanbul". Thomas P. M. Barnett's webblog. 3 October 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.