Second column appears in Knoxville News Sentinel
Sunday, February 26, 2006 at 4:22AM Still novel enough for me to be quite exciting!
The piece, as I said earlier in the blog, focuses on China.
Here's how it starts:
China should not be ignored in global economyBy Thomas P.M. Barnett, tom@thomaspmbarnett.com
February 26, 2006
While it seems like America's foreign policy debates are dominated by current events in Iraq, Iran and North Korea, if you really want to start an argument in Washington right now, "rising China" is your best bet.
Why? That's where you'll find the most divided opinions.
On one side stand congressional protectionists and defense-industrial hawks who are convinced that China's burgeoning trade and military power spell inevitable conflict, if not over Taiwan today then over Persian Gulf oil and African minerals tomorrow.
That's why our Navy is moving ships from the Atlantic to the Pacific: Pentagon hardliners argue that, if we don't show a strong hand today, China will inevitably grow more aggressive in its frantic search for raw materials.
On the other side stands America's high-tech industry, including a slew of multinational corporations coyly hiding just how much of their profits are derived from outsourcing manufacturing or, more to the point, final assembly jobs to China ...
Pretty happy with the piece. As I said earlier in blog, I wasn't trying to put my entire China argument into one piece, but rather to start a line of argument that I can continue in future pieces. Funny thing about this column is, I wanted to write the bit about China's present being spread over the last 125 years of America's past, but I never got to that point in the article: once begun, it just never quite fit within the proscribed 720 words. So I guess I will keep that notion for a future column.
My only complaint is the title, which I left to my Knoxville masters. I don't think anybody "ignores" China in the global economy.
But I only have myself to blame on that. The Knoxville people have been very nice to me on editing and giving me serious freedom. The answer is, I need to come up with my own titles. Sure, they will edit those (editors always do), but I have to lay down my own marker or I can't complain about the outcome.
One innovation this time is that I used a different byline. Last time I used the Oak Ridge "distinguished strategist" title, but this time I went with:
Thomas P.M. Barnett is a distinguished scholar at the Howard H. Baker Center of Public Policy at the University of Tennessee and author of "Blueprint for Action: A Future Worth Creating." Contact him at tom@thomaspmbarnett.com.
I feel like I should alternate between the Baker and Oak Ridge titles in my biweekly column, because Oak Ridge arranged for both the column and the affiliation with Baker, so best to serve both masters equally over time.
Next up? Feel an Iran piece coming on.
Reader Comments (3)
Nice. I really found the statement about how China's transformation will shape world history as the United States shaped the 20th Century to be quite poignant. I think this is a great way to start a dialog about viewing China in a more progressive way than we have in the past.
I was shocked to see a typo. You usually don't have typos when you blog.
JR: that comment makes me really happy. let's just say, Tom's website elf cleans things up a little bit ;-)