6:16PM
My interview with Bloggasm (and yeah, it was good for me)
Saturday, January 21, 2006 at 6:16PM Was asked by Simon Owens and replied as posted. A quick four questions and a bit longer four answers.
Interview with Thomas P.M. Barnett
Bloggasm is a website whose mission statement reads:
Bloggasm seeks to interview and promote a variety of blogs from different cultural realms. We sometimes post several interviews a day. We also bring you a multitude of posts on blogs, culture, and weird news we find on our daily web wanderings.
So let it be written, so let it be URLed.
UPDATE: link to Bloggasm updated
Reader Comments (2)
From your comments at "Bloggasm"
Our data from the blogs, as well as from others, suggests that my blog tends to attract readers who don’t read a lot of other blog, although I think that will be less true with time.
Probably true. I, however, have 165 blogs on RSS feed though Bloglines. This number goes up and down daily as I grade them. I use them to gather info that I post to my discussion group, "Politics for Pros," at Silicon Investor.
The real attraction with my blog is, in my opinion, my willingness to be transparent about the evolution of my thinking. I think the mechanics of my analytical process attracts readers as much as the content. Then again, the fact that I chronicle my work as a strategist and consultant is interesting to readers as well, and that’s obviously something you can share if you’re a professional vice someone who’s into the material more as an avocation.
Precisely. Most people are afraid to expose their personal life to the degree you do. A lot of them seem to be afraid of kooks showing up at their door, which I think is silly. I know of no other academic who is willing to speak as openly and plainly as you are.
The two places where my strategic thinking has been changed on Foreign affairs in the last three years can both be traced to you. That is something that doesn't happen too often to someone as opinionated as I am, especially at the age of 71.
I am no longer the hawk on Iran and China that I was. I think short term we may have to move on Iran tactically if they go "Wog" on us. It's very difficult to deal with religious fanatics on a rational basis. Long term, they are our best bet for an ally in the Muslim Mid-East. But this cannot happen until they overthow their present Theocracy. IMO, we have been going about trying to help this change the wrong way. First, we don't have a firm policy. The admin and State have consistantly put out conflicting signals to them. Our approach should be "hate the sin, love the sinner." We should be telling the Iranians that we think they have a major problem with their Mullahs running things, but that we think Iranians are great. The Iranian expats here are running shoestring communication programs at the Iranians, and we should "block grant" these people to help them step up this effort.
But I have gone from what you would think of as the DOD's outlook on China to a position that is just about what you are now proposing. I do think that any change in our Taiwan policy will have to be done sub-rosa. We can't openly declare that we no longer have a defense agreement with Taiwan. If for no other reason, it would not be politically possible to do it that way.
But I now agree that we should get as tight with them as possible. We should have a lot of our younger State people in communication with the "up and coming" Chinese leaders who are in their 30's and 40's. Whither they are able to continue their present success, or have some major problems, these are the people who can keep things going with us. The present older leadership is still too rigid.
I will be honest: I like speaking to restricted audiences and I don't like advertising my speaking engagements in advance. It's a strange, vulnerable place up on a heavily lighted stage when everyone who approaches you comes at you from the dark.
I am also wary of posting future absences from home. And our new house will have a formidable security system. It's hard to get a scary call when you're on the far side of the world.
I also go back and forth on the personal stuff, making kid references more and more oblique. It's why I don't post photos of their faces.
Having confessed all that, I try hard not to get paranoid.
Nothing too nasty over the transom for a while, save one stalking nutcase "journalist" who won't give up.