Pop!Tech 2006: Dangerous Ideas

Thomas Barnett is an internationally recognized expert and strategic planner in national security affairs. His unique ideas about global security came to public attention in 2003 in an article for Esquire magazine and subsequent New York Times bestselling book, The Pentagon’s New Map. Both unveiled an exciting new approach to globalization that redefines the dynamics of global politics and development.

Mind the gap

from the Pop!Tech Wiki

You gotta love Tom Barnett. Armed with a quick wit that serves up snappy one-liners about some of the world's most complex problems, a tenacious set of PPT skills (which do not fail to both instruct and amuse), and a rapid-fire delivery of some of the harshest words on the future of civilization, he took command of the Pop!Tech stage. His rhetoric flows so swiftly, it's tough to keep up. After a while, you simply give in and let the grandeur of his ideas flow through you.

Barnett thinks globalization is an irresistible force that can't be stopped, and the future of the new world isn't our choice, but the choice of the new capitalisms that will emerge, not the old. "Countries usually have strong opinions about capitalism," he says, and sometimes you have to use military force to impress them. According to Barnett, there's a rift developing between systems he refers to as Leviathans and Sys Admins, and this disconnection defines danger. The key to understanding the emergence is to mind the gap. Throughout the rest of his presentation, he laid out a broad plan for discreetly fire-walling the gap's worst exports, and shrinking the gap by exporting securty to the worst security sinkholes located within the gap.

Barnett began his conclusion with a few key theories on how to win the long war in the Middle East, proposing that the internal demographics will work to cause a dismantling of Jihad, there will be a religious reformation (led by women) and a political reformation (led by representative parties in Europe).

Demurely asking if he could have more time, Barnett also made keen observation on how to secure the east, stressing that China will play a pivotal role in the 21st century. China, China, China! He brought his presentation full circle by defining the east in terms of both Leviathans and Sys Admins, reminding us all that we are "Stuck in the middle with Hu," for now, but the administration is bound for change starting as early as January, 2009.