Thomas P.M. Barnett

■"Adultery a Crime? The Turks Think Again and Say No: No Support Gained In the Parliament," by Susan Sachs, New York Times, 15 September 2004, p. A3.
■"Jakarta Bombing Linked to Al Qaeda: Morning Blast Kills Nine, Wounds 150," by Alan Sipress and Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post, 10 September 2004, p. A18.

It almost sounds like a Jeff Foxworthy routine, but if your parliament still has to debate whether or not adultery is a crime worth throwing women in jail over, then youíre a Seam State.

Why? Youíre Seam because you still have idiotic debates like that. But youíre also right on the cusp of the Core becauseódang it!óyou got a parliament full of sensible enough people to blow that piece of nonsense right out of the water.

Thatís what I mean by Seam Stateócould go either way.

But I also mean it as a state thatís at the front line between Core and Gap, or logically located where youíre going to find the violence that comes from globalization penetrating relatively traditional societies. In other words, itís where the bombs will mostly go off.