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Great Powers: America and the World After Bush
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Pentagon's New Map, a bold, trenchant analysis of the post-Bush world In Great Powers, New York Times bestselling author and prominent political consultant Thomas Barnett provides a tour-de-force analysis of the grand realignments in the post-Bush world-in the spheres of economics, diplomacy, defense, technology, security, the environment, and more. The "great powers" are no longer just the world's nation- states, but the most powerful and dynamic influences on the global stage, requiring not simply a course correction, but a complete recalibration. Globalization as it exists today was built by America- and now, Barnett says, it's time for America to shape and redefine what comes next.
508 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 25, 2009
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September 12, 2011
Get your copy now, read it, and pray to Odin that somebody running the government reads it. The book claims to be a "grand strategy" look at how America has, is, and should be interacting with the world vis-a-vis globalization, and as such presents a view of America that anyone outside of author Thomas P.M. Barnett's brain is likely unaware.
Barnett's central premise is that the United States created globalization locally and exported it world-wide as a more-or-less genetically-required facet of America. That is, America and Americans are inherently called to the wilderness - albeit real or metaphorical - and when we get there, we start changing the landscape to suit our needs. Improving things, if you will, out of a desire to make profit and create co-dependents. This is a good thing, because in creating these new relationships and changing the scenery we improve the world and make it safer.
One of the most interesting parts of the book is the hundred or so pages he devotes to re-interpreting American history through the lens of globalization, and showing what and how various presidents did to further the business interests of America. I'm fairly certain none of the presidents thought they were doing what Barnett says they were doing, but there's no doubt they did what they did, and the results happened. But the thrilling part of this section of the book is that someone - Barnett - is able to take a concept - globalization - and retrofit it onto how America turned into America and have it make sense in a positive way. Barnett is not another in an endless line of anti-American historians looking to rewrite America's past to show how bad we were/are, he's a pro-American writer trying to show how and why we are so good at what we do - being Americans, leading the way forward (in almost every facet of human life) and fostering peace and democracy.
At the core of his book is the story of how America created a system of networking nearly every facet of life together into a uniform tapestry onto which anybody with any interest could sew something new. The world was no longer a top-down dictation from the elites; anybody could participate. All you had to do was show up with your idea and make a case for it. If people saw value in the newer mousetrap, you became a success; otherwise, it was back to the drawing board.
Once America perfected this system within its own borders, it exported it as a natural extension of finding new markets and business partners. Over time, we changed every place we came in contact with because of the relentless nature of our version of globalization: seduction not coercion. You want the newest new bauble, and we want sell it to you, and in creating that dynamic, there no longer was a need to conquer you and take your stuff from you. And, vice versa. Now, other countries are perfectly copying this system and exporting it on their own, networking themselves into an ever-expanding system of inter-connected nations and business models.
For example, China is doing to Africa now what we did to China 40 years ago: introducing menial jobs for to-us low pay that will generate wealth there and create a middle class that will rise up and demand political reformation, running water, electricity, air-conditioning, and all of the other things anybody born in America takes for granted, including clean clothes, fresh food, and an infinite variety of flavored beverages available at the corner convenience store. This all takes time, however, and Barnett argues that time is on our side. And their side. Indeed, everyone wins if nobody gets an itchy trigger finger.
[Of course, Barnett doesn't offer any arguments about how the various socialists, fascists, communists, environmentalists and other ists are going to fight mightily to prevent all this or harness it to an ideology not exactly friendly to the outcomes of globalization]
The Bush arguments are largely centered around the notion that George W. reacted incorrectly to the Sept. 11 attacks and that he been a bit more Vulcan, he'd have realized that such attacks are the natural result of a society/culture going through the initial death throes that globalization brings to primitive and backwards regions of the planet. As such, Bush should've responded more rationally, rather than trying to impose peace and democracy on Afghanistan and Iraq by conventional war methods, because the repercussions through the world worked against us and our version of globalization, allowing other "rule sets" to emerge to challenge us. This seems a little to pat for me, as I think we needed to scare the hell out of these cave-dwelling monsters as well as kill as many of them off as quickly as possible to keep them from succeeding again at killing another couple thousand of us. But, I can see Barnett's point and it's not dismissible.
In essence, Barnett argues that those who are living in the poorest, least-developed areas of the world will naturally see the coming of globalization as a threat to their ancestral, time-honored ways of living. Patriarchal societies will despair the empowerment of females, young men will feel their blood run cold at the realization they will not rule the roost and dominate the future, that they will have to share and, in the end, submit to the idea that in some ways, women will be in charge.
Just like what happened to America in the 1950s-70s.
If there's one major flaw in the book, it's that Barnett has consumed many gallons of Anthropogenic Global Warming Kool-Aid and lets it influence many of his arguments about how the shape of things will come. He takes it as read that the world will warm up, coastlines will change and people will move as a result, creating new dynamics. He spends no words detailing what will happen should the world cool - as it has been doing for the last decade - or what will happen if the global climate just cools and warms in cycles as it has for the entire history of the planet. This facet of the book alone can be frustrating because it means that Barnett is also likely influenced by a whole host of other default-leftist thinking points (the page or two about recent Nobel Prize awards comes to mind), but if so, they don't emerge to contaminate his grand strategic idea, that the continuation of globalization is a good thing for America and the world.
I'd like to know how Barnett sees the Obama agenda affecting his grand strategy, because if he thought Bush sent the whole globalization agenda down a wrong tangent, Barnett almost assuredly must think that Obama is going to work against globalization to some extent, since hardcore leftists almost always think that "Americanizing" the planet is a bad thing, since other cultures are "authentic" and "pure" and American culture is a despicable, planet-ruining thing. Barnett provides a wealth of evidence that this is not the case, that American culture is the importation of the best of other cultures, not the destruction of them.
This book should be required reading for anybody seeking elective office if only because it explains what America is up to in a way that is easily digestible. And, if you want a new, fresh, interesting way of looking at the America you think you know, this will open your eyes and give you a glimpse into a parallel reality that is not separate, but intertwined with the American history you already know.
Barnett's central premise is that the United States created globalization locally and exported it world-wide as a more-or-less genetically-required facet of America. That is, America and Americans are inherently called to the wilderness - albeit real or metaphorical - and when we get there, we start changing the landscape to suit our needs. Improving things, if you will, out of a desire to make profit and create co-dependents. This is a good thing, because in creating these new relationships and changing the scenery we improve the world and make it safer.
One of the most interesting parts of the book is the hundred or so pages he devotes to re-interpreting American history through the lens of globalization, and showing what and how various presidents did to further the business interests of America. I'm fairly certain none of the presidents thought they were doing what Barnett says they were doing, but there's no doubt they did what they did, and the results happened. But the thrilling part of this section of the book is that someone - Barnett - is able to take a concept - globalization - and retrofit it onto how America turned into America and have it make sense in a positive way. Barnett is not another in an endless line of anti-American historians looking to rewrite America's past to show how bad we were/are, he's a pro-American writer trying to show how and why we are so good at what we do - being Americans, leading the way forward (in almost every facet of human life) and fostering peace and democracy.
At the core of his book is the story of how America created a system of networking nearly every facet of life together into a uniform tapestry onto which anybody with any interest could sew something new. The world was no longer a top-down dictation from the elites; anybody could participate. All you had to do was show up with your idea and make a case for it. If people saw value in the newer mousetrap, you became a success; otherwise, it was back to the drawing board.
Once America perfected this system within its own borders, it exported it as a natural extension of finding new markets and business partners. Over time, we changed every place we came in contact with because of the relentless nature of our version of globalization: seduction not coercion. You want the newest new bauble, and we want sell it to you, and in creating that dynamic, there no longer was a need to conquer you and take your stuff from you. And, vice versa. Now, other countries are perfectly copying this system and exporting it on their own, networking themselves into an ever-expanding system of inter-connected nations and business models.
For example, China is doing to Africa now what we did to China 40 years ago: introducing menial jobs for to-us low pay that will generate wealth there and create a middle class that will rise up and demand political reformation, running water, electricity, air-conditioning, and all of the other things anybody born in America takes for granted, including clean clothes, fresh food, and an infinite variety of flavored beverages available at the corner convenience store. This all takes time, however, and Barnett argues that time is on our side. And their side. Indeed, everyone wins if nobody gets an itchy trigger finger.
[Of course, Barnett doesn't offer any arguments about how the various socialists, fascists, communists, environmentalists and other ists are going to fight mightily to prevent all this or harness it to an ideology not exactly friendly to the outcomes of globalization]
The Bush arguments are largely centered around the notion that George W. reacted incorrectly to the Sept. 11 attacks and that he been a bit more Vulcan, he'd have realized that such attacks are the natural result of a society/culture going through the initial death throes that globalization brings to primitive and backwards regions of the planet. As such, Bush should've responded more rationally, rather than trying to impose peace and democracy on Afghanistan and Iraq by conventional war methods, because the repercussions through the world worked against us and our version of globalization, allowing other "rule sets" to emerge to challenge us. This seems a little to pat for me, as I think we needed to scare the hell out of these cave-dwelling monsters as well as kill as many of them off as quickly as possible to keep them from succeeding again at killing another couple thousand of us. But, I can see Barnett's point and it's not dismissible.
In essence, Barnett argues that those who are living in the poorest, least-developed areas of the world will naturally see the coming of globalization as a threat to their ancestral, time-honored ways of living. Patriarchal societies will despair the empowerment of females, young men will feel their blood run cold at the realization they will not rule the roost and dominate the future, that they will have to share and, in the end, submit to the idea that in some ways, women will be in charge.
Just like what happened to America in the 1950s-70s.
If there's one major flaw in the book, it's that Barnett has consumed many gallons of Anthropogenic Global Warming Kool-Aid and lets it influence many of his arguments about how the shape of things will come. He takes it as read that the world will warm up, coastlines will change and people will move as a result, creating new dynamics. He spends no words detailing what will happen should the world cool - as it has been doing for the last decade - or what will happen if the global climate just cools and warms in cycles as it has for the entire history of the planet. This facet of the book alone can be frustrating because it means that Barnett is also likely influenced by a whole host of other default-leftist thinking points (the page or two about recent Nobel Prize awards comes to mind), but if so, they don't emerge to contaminate his grand strategic idea, that the continuation of globalization is a good thing for America and the world.
I'd like to know how Barnett sees the Obama agenda affecting his grand strategy, because if he thought Bush sent the whole globalization agenda down a wrong tangent, Barnett almost assuredly must think that Obama is going to work against globalization to some extent, since hardcore leftists almost always think that "Americanizing" the planet is a bad thing, since other cultures are "authentic" and "pure" and American culture is a despicable, planet-ruining thing. Barnett provides a wealth of evidence that this is not the case, that American culture is the importation of the best of other cultures, not the destruction of them.
This book should be required reading for anybody seeking elective office if only because it explains what America is up to in a way that is easily digestible. And, if you want a new, fresh, interesting way of looking at the America you think you know, this will open your eyes and give you a glimpse into a parallel reality that is not separate, but intertwined with the American history you already know.
October 26, 2012
Although this does not spell out exactly as a trilogy by the author - Barnett, it sort of is as a synthesis of his first two books - "The Pentagon's New Map" and "Blueprint for Action". This was not an easy read, unlike his first two books. A lot of what he said before was repeated here and repeated over and over again I felt. I will say that synthesizing American military coda into "Americanism-cum-globalization" was erudite and refreshing. This book also analyzes the Bush Administration's entry and bungling of Iraq and Afghanistan before delving into American global and economic future after Bush (book was written in 2009). I felt based on Barnett's first two books, his highly critical perspective on Bush's administration war efforts in this particular book although correct was hypocritical based on his grand strategy he presented in 2004 and 2005 respectively. I will leave to each of you to determine this if you so chose in reading Barnett. He is nonetheless as David Ignatius of the Washington Post states, "one of the most influential defense intellectuals writing these days. A combination of Thomas Friedman on globalization and Carl von Klausewitz on war." Touche, there is much to gain from his writing but you've got to be patient as it's long winded before he concludes it as he does very well at the end of each of the books in this "trilogy".
May 7, 2009
Barnett continues to promote his reverence for privately funded "SysAdmin" organizations vs. government "Leviathan" forces in subduing today's irregular warfare prone "Gap" regions. He also argues convincingly for a realignment of our grand strategy to address problems before they become violent and to allow the liberal trade revolution we started to do its work in raising the "bottom billion" to middle class status. He believes resistance is useless against the forces of globalization and challenges the West to allow (and even demand) that the East take their rightful responsible place as defenders of global free trade.
August 10, 2011
This is a deeply insightful book, written by a wonderfully pragmatic man. This work forces the reader to honestly confrontment world issues. Viewpoints one would normally compartmentalize into simplified, tidy beliefs, are taken to the next level. The author is masterfully playing chess with reality, and I found him several moves ahead of me. Which is a dual edged sword, of course. While I learned a great deal and increased my overall understanding, I struggled occasionally while reading. The pace slowed because of technical wonk, and that separated thoughts from one another. This work is worth the effort, but I believe that it requires the right mind for it to be truly appreciated.
November 14, 2016
Barnett does a terrific job of explaining the direction he believes the United States needs to take regarding globalization. Moreover, he provides detailed historical accounts for his rationale. It was refreshing to read an outline for the United States' grand strategy that didn't go down the path of fear mongering. Like in his previous book, "The Pentagon's New Map," Barnett excels in articulating global happenings and how they have and/or may effect the United States moving forward.
Should be required reading for anyone interested in/concerned with, not just the present and future of the United States, but with the world as a whole.
Should be required reading for anyone interested in/concerned with, not just the present and future of the United States, but with the world as a whole.
June 6, 2023
As I reached the conclusion of "The World Before and After George W. Bush" by Thomas P.M. Barrett, my disappointment with the book grew even stronger. The ending, much like the rest of the narrative, was a culmination of its flawed execution and biassed agenda. Rather than providing a balanced and thought-provoking exploration, the book continued its relentless dismissal of opposing viewpoints and distortion of facts. The concluding chapters were marred by the same cherry-picking of information and lack of intellectual integrity that plagued the entirety of the book.
Furthermore, the writing itself continued to be a detriment to the book's overall quality. The atrocious writing style persisted, riddled with clumsy prose and excessive use of convoluted language. Instead of effectively conveying the intended messages and themes, the overbearing verbosity only served to confuse and alienate readers. The author's opinions remained scattered and ill-defined, lacking the clarity and coherence necessary to engage readers in meaningful discourse.
In the end, "The World Before and After George W. Bush" proved to be a repugnant work of writing that disregarded even the most fundamental standards of intellectual integrity. Its relentless agenda-driven strategy not only prevented frank and free discussion but also damaged the book's overall credibility. Readers were left disappointed and wondering what the point of the book was because the author was unable to give a fair and nuanced analysis of the issue.
Seeing such a squandered chance is depressing. The author's inability to engage with competing ideas and their contempt for factual accuracy ruined the opportunity for a provocative and informative assessment of the political and social scene during the Bush presidency. The book acted as a mere echo chamber, confirming preconceived beliefs and further separating an already polarised society, rather than inspiring readers to critically assess the intricacies of the time.
In conclusion, the book's conclusion further established "The World Before and After George W. Bush" as a failure in intellectual honesty and fair conversation. Readers were disappointed and disillusioned by it because of its biassed agenda and lack of logical justification. The book's potential to engage readers in deep discussion was hindered by its inability to present a fair and thought-provoking exploration. Readers are ultimately left with a sense of squandered time and missed chances as "The World Before and After George W. Bush" fails to inform its readers and influence them.
Furthermore, the writing itself continued to be a detriment to the book's overall quality. The atrocious writing style persisted, riddled with clumsy prose and excessive use of convoluted language. Instead of effectively conveying the intended messages and themes, the overbearing verbosity only served to confuse and alienate readers. The author's opinions remained scattered and ill-defined, lacking the clarity and coherence necessary to engage readers in meaningful discourse.
In the end, "The World Before and After George W. Bush" proved to be a repugnant work of writing that disregarded even the most fundamental standards of intellectual integrity. Its relentless agenda-driven strategy not only prevented frank and free discussion but also damaged the book's overall credibility. Readers were left disappointed and wondering what the point of the book was because the author was unable to give a fair and nuanced analysis of the issue.
Seeing such a squandered chance is depressing. The author's inability to engage with competing ideas and their contempt for factual accuracy ruined the opportunity for a provocative and informative assessment of the political and social scene during the Bush presidency. The book acted as a mere echo chamber, confirming preconceived beliefs and further separating an already polarised society, rather than inspiring readers to critically assess the intricacies of the time.
In conclusion, the book's conclusion further established "The World Before and After George W. Bush" as a failure in intellectual honesty and fair conversation. Readers were disappointed and disillusioned by it because of its biassed agenda and lack of logical justification. The book's potential to engage readers in deep discussion was hindered by its inability to present a fair and thought-provoking exploration. Readers are ultimately left with a sense of squandered time and missed chances as "The World Before and After George W. Bush" fails to inform its readers and influence them.
October 19, 2010
There are a lot of really good thoughts in here, things that I've long thought about since reading Barnett's "The Pentagon's New Map" and since graduate school. But the brilliance of Barnett's work here is obscured quite a bit by his need to discuss American history. He does so in a way that creates wild tangents to the larger narrative on grand strategy. This habit is very distracting, and takes away from the overall readability of the text. In general, the book is very thoughtful and worth the effort to read. But it is in no way as enjoyable a task as was "The Pentagon's New Map".
March 7, 2010
Insight in abundance. Solid but dense. Meanders and it is not always clear why he takes you down some paths. But worth the investment. Or, you can cheat a little (as I did) and look up his lectures on YouTube. Definitely worth the time. If you seldom read about foreign affairs, military strategy, geopolitics his YouTube lectures will be real eye-openers and very insightful. Definitely worth the investment, whether you decide you agree with him or no
February 22, 2009
This book provides an updating of what started out as a journey to a better future in the Pentagon's New Map, by making critical course corrections and adding vital tools to continue the journey to spread globalization and to add as many people as possible to the great ship of "middle-class."
Want to read
March 23, 2009It will be interesting to read this book after reading Mr. Barnett's other two books
April 1, 2009
Wow...
Very good reading...
Very good reading...
February 20, 2010
Super cool. Good read. Symptomatic of journo-future-lit in that there is so much freakin' data out there, you can make a credible case for just about anything. However I like this flavor a lot.
July 29, 2012
7-28-2012
February 13, 2013
Niet uitgelezen
October 5, 2012
Interesting spin - lots to think about outside the common narrative.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews