Blueprint For Good Radio

Tomorrow at noon, the elite pathfinders of the Northern Alliance Radio Network Volume I will welcome Thomas P. M. Barnett to the show. Barnett is the author Blueprint for Action: A Future Worth Creating:

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.

If you ever get a chance to catch his presentation on C-Span (Saint Paul first pointed me to it) be sure not to miss it. He's an engaging speaker and has put together one of the most effective, informative, and entertaining PowerPoint presentations of all time, which is perhaps not all that surprising considering his background:

Thomas P. M. Barnett is a senior adviser to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Central Command, Special Operations Command, the Joint Staff and the Joint Forces Command. He formerly served as a senior strategic researcher and professor at the U.S. Naval War College and as Assistant for Strategic Futures in the OSD's Office of Force Transformation. He is a founding partner of the New Rule Sets Project LLC, and his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, and Esquire, where he is now a contributing editor.

And he has a blog. Talk about a man of letters.

In the first hour we'll be discussing the upcoming primaries and providing our predictions and endorsements. I understand that Saint Paul is agonizing over who to support on the DFL side in the 5th District. Knowing him, he'll probably end up going with the Favorite.

NARN Volume I kicks off at 11am and is followed by Volume II at 1pm and Volume III: The Last Word at 3pm. Listen to all six hours of the NARN here in the Twin Cities on AM-1280 The Patriot or anywhere in the world on the internet.