Remember the Pinkertons - why and when

POST: Wal-Mart Recruits Intelligence Officers

Interesting trend that speaks to the spread of security from below--i.e., sub-nationally. This is a great point John Robb makes in his book (which, on scanning so far, seems very good to me), but it's less the dystopian outcome than just a recognizable back-to-the-future outcome. Remember why and when Pinkerton thrived in post-Civil War America.

We extend globalization so rapidly that frontiers are everywhere--as are new forms of frontiersmen (like South and East Asian "coolies" in vast numbers).

Relax Mr. Turner, the frontier's open for business again (which speaks to my "more states" scenario), and so Mr. Prince's future is quite bright (as is Cofer Black's, as he comes closest to Pinkerton's career morph from spymaster to spy privateer in Blackwater's newest product offering).

As insecurity spreads across all of Waltz's three levels (system, state, individual), so do the resilient responses. Hardly the "end" of anything (John does not sell his sub-title, proving Fallows' foreword about "optimism"--surprising to some but not to me, because I think Fallows sees a lot of Boyd in Robb [a neat lineage link having Fallows write the foreword], and intellectual pioneers are anything but pessimistic, despite their destructive tones regarding outdated paradigms--indeed, they are happy warriors, by and large), but the beginning of something far better.

Robb's book is already performing its function for me: helping to expand the vocabulary and vision, and this is good. I'll read it full next week (John's recommendation on a private-security sector book stands in the way) and I anticipate using it a lot for Vol. III, because it seems like such a strong exploration of the system-individual linkages, so a major accomplishment on John's part.

Collectively, understanding advances and any ingenuity "gaps" (a la Homer-Dixon) prove completely illusory. There are reasons why humans rule this planet, as we weren't just born yesterday.

Now, we have all levels and all sources working security, leaving behind the Cold War's abnormality (truly a suspension of history).

That's why al Qaeda never had a chance, just a forcing function we would have had to create on our own if it had not appeared.

Historical determinism's a bitch, isn't it?!

Thanks to Craig Nordin for sending this.

Comments

[Lexington Green]

I read Robb's book yesterday. It is the concise, clear version of his vision we have been hoping for. I think there is a lot of good thinking in it, and the jargon is dense but not impenetrable (mostly). Surprisingly many areas of potential overlap with the Barnettian vision, especially on the issue of resilience and the non-utility of much of the existing military apparatus.

Looking forward eagerly to Tom's considered response.