Had a great time overall, with tons of useful contacts made.

Again, the Friday night keynote went over very well, described in the sum-up on Sunday by one Brit as a "virtuostic display of verbal and virtual pyrotechnics" (God those English can ... uh .... use English quite well). Better yet, throughout the weekend, panelist after panelist would say, "I couldn't help be struck by one point Tom Barnett made in his presentation." Considering all the intellectual firepower at this thing (e.g., Pei on China, Wolf on globalization, Schelling on nukes), such overt verbal footnoting was most gratifying.

I say that especially since it's a hard time to be an American at one of these globalized events nowadays, unless your specialty is criticizing America to no end (Prestowitz is a master, and we tangled on two panels). Then again, I really love going abroad like this when our rep's in the garbage can. It's boring being the American when everything's going our way, and more interesting to be put on the defensive (it sharpens the blade, so to speak).

I did one panel on Saturday and three on Sunday. Saturday's was "politics after Blair and Bush" and dealt a lot with America's damaged standing in the world ("declining hegemony" was Prestowitz's fave phrase) and our handicapping of the '08 race. My comments centered on the generational failure of Boomer politics and the need to move beyond.

Sunday I did "Changing Islamic Identity" with Australia's top Islamic expert and one of the leading academic lights out of the U. Of Tehran (a very impressive guy who gave me a fascinating tour of Iranian politics during our nighttime cruise on the sea). I was nervous on this one going in, but was really glad. It was a fab session that taught me a ton. Goes to show, better to stick your neck out than stick only to your strengths--an essential reminder for the wannabe horizontal thinker. Between this session and my Roy and Nasr books in flight (both stunningly good, with Nasr's almost a regional studies masters-in-a-book) this trip has been quite the education.

Second session (I did three in a row) was on Australia's new military arrangements with Japan--basically, exploring the "against who?" question. I was a bit scathing here on the disutility of pinning one's strategic hopes on the Middle East being a "blip" (the old Kaplan bit) and future great power war being centered in East Asia. Paul Dibb and I tangled there.

Last session for me was "hard v soft power" with Pei, Gareth Evans and Prestowitz. This was Bush-bashing at its best (Evans and Prestowitz), with Pei being both more reasoned and profound (this bit I loved: govs do hard power, but private sector leads in soft, because hard is all about influencing other govs and soft is about influencing people, which private sector "gets" better).

Again, Pei is a brilliant China expert but he's an even better all-around political scientists--especially on his adopted country (he's a U.S. Citizen who warned everyone not to underestimate America's profound recuperative powers, something that's disappointed our critics generation after generation). In that session, I just did the Development-in-a-Box pitch with PPT. Eyes opened and jaws dropped. Prestowitz naturally kept deriding it as cookie cutter, but most got my house-going-into-a-subdevelopment analogy (we prepackage the standards--especially on connectivity--but don't tell you what furniture to buy or mandate your house style).

Dinner Sunday night was way cool: Schelling and his wife on my left and Ronnie Chen and his spouse on my right. I talked a lot of Enterra with Ronnie, but spent more time speaking to the wives than the husbands--just my way. You learn a lot about such great figures by interacting with their spouses.

Long day back today (Mon). Up at 0500, pay bill at hotel, then last fab buffet breakfast, then hour-long boat from Hayman to Hamilton, then hour layover, then two hour flight to Sydney, then two hours (some souvenir shopping), then 13 hour flight to SFO, then the customs drill and two more hours in United lounge, then 4 hour flight to Chicago, then two more in lounge, then 1 hour to Indy and drive home. I hit the hay at 0200 Tuesday, after a solid 35 hours in motion.

But no time to waste as Enterra's work in Kurdistan taking off like gangbusters, so Tuesday will be a back-to-work day!