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Blueprint for Action: A Future Worth Creating Summary:By Thomas P.M. Barnett
The author of the groundbreaking bestseller takes his cutting-edge analysis to the next level. In civilian and military circles alike, The Pentagon's New Map became one of the most talked-about books of the year. The Pentagon's New Map combined security, economic, political, and cultural factors to provide a fundamental reexamination of war and peace in the post-9/11 world, and a compelling vision of the future. Now, senior adviser and military analyst Barnett tells us how we get to that future. In a book at once pragmatic, thought-provoking, and optimistic, he explores both the long- and short-term pathways for governments, institutions, and individuals alike. Paying particular attention to such nations and regions as Iran, Iraq, and the Middle East, China, North Korea, Latin America, and Africa, he outlines the strategies to pursue, the entities to create, the pitfalls to overcome. If the first book was a compelling framework for confronting twenty-first-century problems, the new book is something more—a powerful road map through a chaotic and uncertain world to "a future worth creating."Amazon.com Review The world is a mess. Iraq is becoming another Vietnam. Iran and North Korea are trying to get nukes or may already have them. Al Qaeda is still on the loose. In the middle of this turmoil, Tom Barnett believes America stands at a threshold. It can withdraw into itself. Or it can seize an opportunity to forge the most peaceful period in human history, where war becomes unknown. Barnett is a former professor at the U.S. Naval War College and senior advisor to the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He has been called "one of the most important strategic thinkers of our time." Barnett maps out a sweeping new vision for the U.S. military in Blueprint for Action, the sequel to his influential previous book The Pentagon's New Map. He says the U.S. military has a massive doctrinal flaw. It has an unrivalled power to win wars. But it has little ability to win the peace. Witness Iraq, where virtually no thought was given to postwar stabilization and reconstruction. He advocates creating a new Department of Global Security in the U.S. government, tasked with putting countries back on their feet after an armed intervention by U.S. forces. He says the new department would also work to reduce economic and social instability in "disconnected" regions of the developing world. It all starts with America and yes, it all starts with security," he writes. Barnett's vision is highly U.S.-centric and recalls the "white man's burden" philosophy of British colonial authorities. He advocates "regime change" in North Korea and Venezuela. And his solutions for the problems of the Third World are straight out of a banker's mouth: privatization, deregulation, globalization. But Blueprint for Action is an important account of the current thinking and debates at the highest levels of the Pentagon.From Publishers Weekly Military-strategy consultant Barnett follows his ballyhooed The Pentagon's New Map with this unconvincing brief for American interventionism. Echoing the now conventional wisdom that a larger, better-prepared occupation force might have averted the current mess in Iraq, Barnett generalizes the notion into a formula for bringing the blessings of order and globalization to benighted nations throughout the "Non-Integrating Gap." A "System Administrator force" of American and allied troops—a "pistol-packing Peace Corps"—could, he contends, undertake an ambitious schedule of regime change, stabilization and reconstruction in Islamic countries and as far afield as North Korea and Venezuela, making military intervention so routine that he terms it the "processing" of dysfunctional states. Barnett's ideas are a rehash of Vietnam-era pacification doctrine, updated with anodyne computer lingo and New Economy spin. Implausibly, he envisions Americans volunteering their blood and treasure for a "SysAdmin force" fighting for international "connectivity" and envisions the world rallying to the bitterly controversial banner of globalization. Worse, he has no coherent conception of America's strategic interests; "the U.S. is racing... to transform [the] Middle East before the global shift to hydrogen [fuel] threatens to turn the region into a historical backwater," runs his confused rationale for continued American meddling in the Muslim world. That Barnett's pronouncements are widely acclaimed as brilliant strategic insights (as he himself never tires of noting) bodes ill for American foreign policy. Contents Preface: A Future Worth Creating Glossary of Key Terms from The Pentagon's New Map 1 What The World Needs Now Understanding the Seam Between War and Peace A Department for What Lies Between War and Peace Barnett's A-to-Z Rule Set on Processing Politically Bankrupt States 2 Winning The War Through Connectedness Connecting the Middle East to the World Creating the New Rule Set on Global Terrorism 3 Growing The Core By Securing The East Locking in China at Today's Prices In the Future, America's Most Important Allies Will Be New Core States The Train's Engine Can Travel No Faster Than Its Caboose 4 Shrinking The Gap By Ending Disconnectedness The Coming Choices The Rogue-State Scenario The Islamic Arc Scenario The Failed-State Scenario The Homeland Security Scenario The Energy-Independence Scenario The Humanitarian-Aid Scenario Wild Cards That Prioritize One Gap Region over Others in Sequencing Tipping Points in the Journey from the Gap to the Core Essential Building Blocks for Shrinking the Gap from Within Good Markets Need Good Governments You Can Tell Everything You Need to Know About a State by How It Treats Its Women No Capital, No Capitalism 5 We Have Met The Enemy... The Resumption of History and the Latest Enemy The Convergence of Civilizations A World Made One... Or Just Nonzero Conclusion: Heroes Yet Discovered Afterword: Blogging The Future 2010 2015 2020 2025 Acknowledgments Notes Index Summary: America: The World's Policeman Rating: 1 This book was written in 2005 and advocates the US being the world's policeman to the point of systematically invading and rebuilding various nations throughout the globe. He thinks we should create a new Department of Global Security that is in charge of administering the countries we have invaded. The fact that the author's ideas were taken very seriously at the highest levels of the Bush administration is frightening, but not hard to believe. It is amazing to me that the same political party that claims to be for small government, fiscal responsibility, and individual freedom would seriously consider this person's ideas. Implementing this "blueprint" would cost trillions and grow the government into a global facist world-regime. We have been living in very dangerous times with many dangerous ideas being fostered by fear and xenophobia. Thank God people voted such ideas out of office. I found this book in a Dollar Tree store and now I see why it was there. By the way, I want my dollar back. Summary: Lots of (hazy) vision...Rating: 3 Strategic thinker Thomas Barnett's 2005 "Blueprint for Action" is a follow-up to his bestselling "The Pentagon's New Map." Barnett's thesis is that globalization has divided the world into the haves and the have nots, and the United States is uniquely positioned to police the seams and reduce the friction between the two. There is much to recommend in this book. Barnett has a good handle on all the latest forward thinking on globalization and the asymmetric, netcentric and fourth generation warfare that seems to travel in its wake. His contacts in and around the Pentagon have given him some useful insight into where the military may think it will have to go in future. His ability to describe a big picture is both entertaining and educational. There are lots of challenges for Barnett and any other strategist. Visionary thinking often has a short shelf life, and shouldn't be confused with 20/20 hindsight. Circumstances relentlessly change. Certainly, it is by no means clear that the big picture that Barnett describes is the only possible version, let alone one that enjoys a political consensus in the United States or anywhere else. The Pentagon's forward thinking on any topic is ultimately dependent for implementation on the particular vision of the Administration it serves and the willingness of the American public to pay for it. In Barnett's case, it would seem unlikely that his vision will be bought wholesale. This book is recommended as an interesting read, full of new ideas and current terminology. The reader may make what he will of Barnett's prescriptions. Summary: Utter MadnessRating: 1 I ran into trouble on page 2 of this book when I was already tired of tripping over the author's ego. I picked this book up for 5.99 and I'm guessing the author is already thoroughly and rightfully discredited. The author promotes fascism (of the classical kind) to a degree comparable to Hilter's National Socialism - even despite that much overused metaphor. The author's main point is that "might makes right". It has never worked before and it won't work now. It is contrary to the American Perspective and well, the Constitution. The people won't stand for seeing their sons and daughters spill their blood for the CEOs and Chickenhawks who have never seen combat and don't know a thing about it. If adopted, this plan would lead to not only the destruction of the American way of life, but our country's existence. It should rightfully be consigned to the trash heap of history! Summary: The first book was better.Rating: 3 I read this thinking it was a follow on to his first book. It really isn't. Its more meadering thoughts and projections about possible scenarios. OK reading, but not something I'd read again or recommend. Summary: blueprint for disasterRating: 2 I tried to go into this book with an open mind, but I came out thinking that Barnett simply doesn't understand the world or its problems. He is like the armchair quarterback who thinks he can win the super bowl even though he never really played or understood the game. Barnett suggests, for example, a policy of total appeasment of China. All US strategic interests in the region are to be surrendered so the US can focus on fighting more wars like Iraq. Taiwan is to be sold out and given to China to make them "happy". Even thought China is a communist dictatorship, Barnett sees it as the great friend and partner of the united states. All the US needs to do is to stop opposing China's legitmate interest....and sell out every friend we have in East Asia...and we can fight more wars like Iraq to bring civilization to third-world garbage pits. Like certain people in the government, Barnett is willing to destroy the entire global strategic position of the united states to bring "democracy" to places like Iraq. In the case of Iran, its even worse. The solution to all of our problems with the leadership in Iran will apparently be solved if they love Israel more. So we should launch a diplomatic initiative to beg Iran to love Israel more for which America will surrender to all Iran's regional objectives including nuclear weapons and domination of the Persian Gulf. As with China, what he is promoting is a policy of appeasement so the US can apparently have more resources to fight more iraq-like wars. So what does America get in exchange for appeasing its strategic rivals in the world? Barnett wants the US go to war to oppose "socialism" in Venezuala and wherever else it appears. Somehow in Barnett's mind, China is not a threat or a rival to the US, neither is a nuclear armed Iran....but a third-rate nobody like Venezuala is a mortal threat to America that requires armed intervention, the overthrow of the government and thousands of Americans to teach them how to be free. Barnett is also in favor of "women's rights" in muslim as a cynical mechanism to be used to justify political intervention in muslim countries. Its not that Barnett cares about women. Their rights matter far less to him than using their rights as a means of forcing American-style secularization into the middle east. I might have called it original but for the fact that many neo-cons who have utter contempt for feminism have been promoting similar ideas for years. As in the pentagon's new map - his previous book - Barnett wants to see America as the New Jerusalem leading the world. The only thing wrong with America in his thinking is that we need to be more up front in taking over and civilizing every messed up basket case of a country in the world. The costs or the implications of what he is proposing don't bother him in the least. He doesn't, for example, think about where all these Americans are going to come from who are going to move to places like Somalia to bring civilization. Or how big a military is going to be required to protect all those people doing civil affairs work. Implicit in his strategy of appeasement I guess is that the US will dismantle its "useless" high-tech army are redeploy most of the people/money associated with it. Tanks, Carriers and Jet Fighters will no longer be necessary once we surrender all our friends in Asia to China. Barnett never goes that far, but I get the impression he wants to. In the end he is unwilling to even recognize the price tag of what he is proposing. My largest disagreement with Barnett is over the nature of America and what the mission of the American military is. To Barnett, America is a country whose destiny is to lead and save the world. The American military's mission is nothing less than to save the world from itself. To me, America is my country and the first task of Americans is to improve our country. The role of our military is not to solve the world's problems, but to defend the country against threats. A dictator in South America or Africa is not necessarly a threat to America. If a country harbours terrorists, thats a threat. If a country in South America nationalizes its telephone system, thats not a threat to anyone except the country itself. I think the book fails because of its appeasment of real strategic threats to America (China, Iran), its failure to make a case for why its in America's interests to fight all these wars and its failure to examine in a serious way how his "blueprint" is to be made real. Higher Taxes? Higher Deficits? A draft? Gutting the current military? Anyone can play Napoleon and come up with all sorts of grand strategy. The difference between playing and having a real strategy is in presenting a plan for how you realistically make it happen. Barnett fails to do so. I would suggest his other book "the pentagon's new map" over this one. Please select one mirror to download
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