Posted on 09/05/2004 3:23:34 PM PDT by AndyJackson
Dr. Barnett is voting for Kerry.
I came in during the presentation and was transfixed. Far more depth and detail than this article. I looked at TIVO for a "repeat" so I could record it, but couldn't get a match. Anyone know how to see when , if at all, a show is repeated on C-SPAN? Show was "American Perspectives".
Oh really? It did not sound like it when I heard the presentation last night. For several reasons. First he had nothing but high praise for Rumsfeld's conduct of the war and efforts to transform the Pentagon. Seconde, given his ennunciation of international strategy it would make no sense, whatsover, since, it is the strategy the Bush is following and Kerry would more or less abandon.
bump
Just shows he doesn't get everything right. Does he think Kerry is able to lead? Or is he going to be happy with Kerry as a figurehead, and others in positions of real power?
I thought his thesis and presentation were powerful, but he gave me the creeps, personally.
Ideas such as "the gap" and "connectedness" makd a lot of sense.
PS: I sat down at the computer to 'google' - Thomas Barnett National Defense University - checked into FR briefly first - and saw this post.
Freepers are always in the forefront!
It really isn't very original to observe that much of the Muslim world (oil notwithstanding in some of it) and Africa is dysfunctional, and simply not plugging into the world economy in a productive and constructive way. Although deemphasized by Barnett as I recall, much of Latin America is still a very mixed bag, and frankly a disappointment.
Based on what I heard him say, I completely disagree with the conclusion that he would vote for Kerry. He expressed to much admiration for Rumsfeld and his consulting and current assignements are too clearly aligned with the current adminstration for me to figure out how it would be to his economic, career, or ideological benefit to see Kerry. Personally I think the statement was either mistaken or intentional slander.
I too watched it and like others here was deeply impressed. I did try to judge the US military officers in the attendance and most seemed very attentative, some appeared skeptical, some were dozing or asleep & others derisive.
It does make one stop and re-evaluate our current strategy as to effectiveness.
I know he is a Democrat, but has he said he would vote for Kerry?
China's internal structure is explosively unstable, consisting as it does of a crypto-statist overpowerful government in one part, a rapidly expanding entrepreneurial second part, and a miserably poor agrarian rural third part. The Politburo are riding the tiger; now that a couple of hundred million citizens have tasted the better life offered them by the prospect of even a modest version of entrepreneurial capitalism, the government quite literally DARE NOT take its continued development away. Equally, the Politburo haven't a clue what to do, long-term, with the 700-million-odd peasants, some of whom are beginning to demand similar opportunities. Where exactly the fault lines will occur, I would not attempt to say, but the explosion's schwerpunkt will be somewhere in the vicinity of the first major failure produced by the vaunted ''One China, two systems'' policy.
The Russians, love them or hate them, are between the devil and the deep blue sea. The nation is going nowhere further into the ''Core'', especially economically, until consistent rules of law and private property are developed and implemented. Will this occur? Possibly enough, but probably not soon enough, for Russia is sitting on half a dozen ticking internal bombs. The muslim problem is just the highest profile one at this time, but there are numerous others. For example, it's entirely unclear how long the narod will tolerate a declining standard of living simultaneously while receiving more and more information about prosperity in other nations. The ancient Russian saying about relieving the plight of the peasants is these days back with a vengeance and a modernised flavour: ''G-d is too high up, and Putin is too far away.''
Additionally, Siberia is FAPP indefensible in its entirety, and when (not if) some sufficiently greedy nation makes an attempt upon its vast resources, Russia will have a huge dilemma: defend its territory and watch some huge fraction of its not-exactly-robust economy unravel in the process, and possibly even the nation itself, or submit to a de facto partition. And all this business is just the ''warm-up'' to nastier problems still.
It's all a dog's dinner, and any man's view of and hopes for the sequel can be as correct or as incorrect as any other man's, but the notion that these nations can be tidily treated as exactly two discrete sub-components of this academically pristine ''Core/Gap'' dichotomy is simply laughable.
I certainly would not have characterized Barnett's analysis as shallow, as he provides a very helpful and insightful way of thinking about what is going on. There is an awful lot more to it than just the fact that central Africa and the Middle East are unstable, and if that is all that you think he is saying then you have completely missed his point.
A point he does not gloss over in his other works.
I listened to the guy for an hour on CSPAN, and all it was is that the region of the damned was not connected to the world economy, and thus did not have a stake in it, stated 10 different ways. I already knew that.
While he accepted the fact that we are the only country able to provide "security" around the world, he seemed to slam America for using 25% of the world's resources, and exporting pollution, yadda yadda - "livin' large" - surely he has core sympathies with libs.
[I am a compulsive recycler, but do not feel guilty about our economy using so much of the world's resources - however that is measured]
He did have good words for Rumsfeld, and I did not understand everything he said (my hearing problem), but I did not hear any right track/wrong track comments about this administration in general.
Not knowing exactly what FAPP means, I would ask who is going to take Siberia away from Russia?
As he admitted, he just had a talent at presentation, and was entertaining, which is fine
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He seemed to be thinking "look how entertaining I am" during parts of the presentation. I found him almost a parody as the event wore on.
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