Pentagon's New Map, TPM Barnett and Hugh Hewitt

Hugh Hewitt is interviewing a very smart Thomas PM Barnett the author of a The Pentagon's New Map. Barnett is smart guy who has some innovative ideas and new terminology which he has fallen in love with. Connectivity( code for Global Economy and Communications), rule sets(social, conventional war and geopolitical norms)

from Wikipedia

• 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.

, core and gap states(countries participating in the Global economy and those that are on the fringe respectively), Leviathan force(US type Special Ops and Marine fast strike military expeditionary force which can take out a target and rogue regime, System Administration (force is the large UN/Multinational peace keeping & mop force which allows for the toppled country get up and running). The jargon he has developed add intrigue and flare to his ideas presented in a flashy power-point present with sound effects included, allowing him to present his Political Science theories and his foreign policy models evolving from them. He fancies himself the new about Norman Angell, a British Labor Party Politician of the early 1900's who claimed that Core States would not go to war because they were dependent on each other economically.

From Wikipedia

• He(Angell) is most widely remembered for his work of 1909, Europe's Optical Illusion, known as The Great Illusion in America. The pacifist movie The Grand Illusion was deliberately given its title in reference to his book. The thesis of that work is commonly (and incorrectly) described as saying that the integration of the economies of European countries had grown to such a degree that war between them was unimaginable, making militarism obsolete. However this is not what Angell actually argued. His central argument was that war between modern powers was futile in the sense that no matter what the outcome, he thought both the losing and the victorious nations would be economically worse off than they would have been had they avoided war. Some have contested that the two World Wars that took place after The Great Illusion was published were in fact a tragic confirmation of his thesis. Other historians have argued that Angell disregarded the reality of the complex situation in Europe with its alliances, hatreds and rivalries between nations and therefore he was being Utopian.
  

Barnett has great ideas and a great presentation but his support of John Kerry for president and complaints about President George Bush making to many enemies does not chive with good and innovative ideas. John Kerry would never support his Military Leviathan force ideas(which reminds me of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ideas) and the World will not cooperate with the System Administration Peace keeping Force and the Al Qaeda types are coming out of the wood work because they have always been there and Europe(which is dying our "Eurabia") will not fight back and is "Mad at Us"!

He thinks that Aircraft Carriers are Obsolete but would keep them because they are cool

From Hugh Hewitt interview:

• TB: Well, I wouldn’t get rid of carriers, because they’re so cool, and because they’re so versatile, and they last for almost ever. I would have fewer submarines, I would keep an eye on the Chinese submarine development, but I could go…and it’s hard to go much less than we have now. What we need to get, though, is to understand that we need to, and you see the current chief of naval operations making this argument for a thousand ship navy, we need to think the many and the cheap, instead of the few and the absurdly expensive, and I would argue, the absurdly vulnerable.
  

Well TPM Barnett how do we defend the Globalization and Connectivity without a powerful Navy when the World Merchant's >50,000 Ship Navy Fleet is threatened Modern day Pirates and targeted by Islamic Terrorist groups written about in a 2004 Foreign Affairs article. Pirates attacks are increasing at an alarming rate. :

• The total damage caused by piracy-due to losses of ships and cargo and to rising insurance costs-now amounts to $16 billion per year.
• Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, security experts have frequently invoked a 200-year-old model to guide leaders contending with the threat of Islamic terrorism: the war on piracy.
• Such experts, however, fail to realize that the popular perception that the international community has eliminated sea piracy is far from true. Not only has piracy never been eradicated, but the number of pirate attacks on ships has also tripled in the past decade-putting piracy at its highest level in modern history. And contrary to the stereotype, today's pirates are often trained fighters aboard speedboats equipped with satellite phones and global positioning systems and armed with automatic weapons, antitank missiles, and grenades.
• Most disturbingly, the scourges of piracy and terrorism are increasingly intertwined: piracy on the high seas is becoming a key tactic of terrorist groups. Unlike the pirates of old, whose sole objective was quick commercial gain, many of today's pirates are maritime terrorists with an ideological bent and a broad political agenda. This nexus of piracy and terrorism is especially dangerous for energy markets: most of the world's oil and gas is shipped through the world's most piracy-infested waters.
• Water covers almost three-quarters of the globe and is home to roughly 50,000 large ships, which carry 80 percent of the world's traded cargo. The sea has always been an anarchic domain. Unlike land and air, it is barely policed, even today.
• Since many shipping companies do not report incidents of piracy, for fear of raising their insurance premiums and prompting protracted, time-consuming investigations, the precise extent of piracy is unknown. But statistics from the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), a piracy watchdog, suggest that both the frequency and the violence of acts of piracy have increased in recent years. In 2003, ship owners reported 445 attacks, in which 92 seafarers were killed or reported missing and 359 were assaulted and taken hostage. (Ships were hijacked in 19 of these cases and boarded in 311.) From 2002 to 2003, the number of those killed and taken hostage in attacks nearly doubled. Pirates have also increased their tactical sophistication, often surrounding a target ship with several boats and firing machine guns and antitank missiles to force it to stop. As Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Tony Tan recently warned, "piracy is entering a new phase; recent attacks have been conducted with almost military precision. The perpetrators are well-trained, have well laid out plans." The total damage caused by piracy-due to losses of ships and cargo and to rising insurance costs-now amounts to $16 billion per year.

• Beware, sailor - pirates be about: Armed with machine guns, rifles, machetes and knives, marauding bands of robbers slithered onto hundreds of ships last year, harassing, assaulting and even killing crew members before making off with untold fortunes. Since the International Maritime Organization began collecting data on piracy more than 20 years ago, the number of incidents has steadily increased along with the explosion in international maritime trade.
  

Barnett has good ideas but I think he his in love with his fancy "set point and connectivity" jargon. His tone is too PC. The Islamic World and former USSR are filled with uncivilized and cunning, heartless people. Again I like his words but we need a strong Navy, Air force, Air craft carriers and Star Wars as these people will take us out when we let our guard down. Economics is only part of the answer the other part is Peace Thru Strength ala President Ronald Reagan!

I think Barnett has great ideas but they are only half baked because he is in his heart a Poli Sci guy and defers to the UN types! If you follow the stream his consciousness you end up steering away from the liberal MSM, UN Elites and Democrats. The Dems will never let his ideas be but into practice. The Islamic Jihad threat does not eminate from poverty but fanatacism. Osama bin Laden was a multimillionaire, educated, globalized and well connected man before he got fanatical.

Barnett has fallen in love with his work and votes for Democrats. I say lets take TPM's ideas and pack then in Semper Fi wrapping paper and stay strong. I would not want to be in a gang fight with TPM!

Nonetheless this interview/book club between Hugh Hewitt and smart TMP Barnum(oops-pun intended beacuse his votes for Democrats is Circus-like) but off the mark Barnett is very interesting and educational!
Dominus Vobiscum