OP-ED: Continuity We Can Believe In, By DAVID BROOKS, New York Times, December 1, 2008

Ah yes, the tide really turned with Condi's 2006 speech that indicated she finally got a clue on development vice democracy . . .

My favorite straw-man line:

Grand strategists may imagine a new global architecture built at high-level summits, but the real global architecture of the future will emerge organically from these day-to-day nation-building operations.

Bravo!

Just be aware that some of us grand strategists have been arguing for a "real global architecture" being "organically" built from the ground-up through nation-building for quite some time. The first time I offered such a vision was with Hank Gaffney in 1992. We called that force/function, "The Transitioneers" and cited places like the Balkans, Somalia and the Caucasus as examples. Now I call it the System Administrators, the Department of Everything Else, and Shrink the Gap.

And while I welcome the high-level speeches, I've moved on to proving things on the ground through Steve DeAngelis' and Enterra's precedent-setting work in northern Iraq.

But we welcome Mr. Brooks to the club of believers.

(Thanks: Jeff Hasselberger)