Thomas Barnett

In “The Pentagon’s New Map: It Explains Why We’re Going to War, and Why We’ll Keep Going to War”, Thomas Barnett theorizes that the United States strategy should be to focus on a sustaining military intervention against terrorism by identifying the “problem parts of the world and aggressively shrinking them”.   As a military police professional I view this theory similar in concept to the predictive policing which law enforcement agencies across the country use.   Its application has experienced successful reduction of crimes in those jurisdictions by analyzing trends of where crimes are being committed or where crimes could be committed and proactively employing their resources to those locations to prevent the crimes.   Similarly, a country’s susceptibility to proliferate terrorists or threats to the Core can be gleaned by analyzing its political and economic health.   The result of this analysis would identify countries that require a security response to mitigate, deter, or defeat those threats.   In addition, the analysis would enable a security strategy that tailors forces and resources according to the threat environment.   Lastly, a tailored force would ensure the U.S. military continue to field a quick response force trained to adapt to the challenges of different threats it may face.   While the current threats the U.S military engages with are those “Super Empowered Individuals” (Friedman), the threat from “Super Empowered Nations” (Friedman) are still real and present and the U.S. military must have the flexibility to respond to those threats.
Barnett argues three main points to support his theory, 1) disconnectedness defines danger, 2) countries in the Gap will necessitate U.S. military intervention otherwise the Gap will continue to threaten the Core, and 3) the U.S. is the only country capable of providing security and it’s had success doing it.   Thomas Barnett’s first argument of “disconnectedness defines danger” states that Gap countries are...