Great Powers Table of Contents

Tuesday, December 9, 2008 at 1:38AM
Thomas P.M. Barnett

Below, the full GP table of contents.

Rolling this out marks the beginning of fuller GP promotion from us. We'll really start cranking up in January, when we'll be releasing something from the GP writing process every day. You won't get of the actual text of the book, but lots of other material like we've done with PNM and BFA: the proposal, original plans, director's commentary, endnotes, deleted scenes, etc. We'll publish the actual Preface on February 5th when the book comes out. Enjoy!

 

PREFACE: The Shape Of Things To Come 1

 

CHAPTER ONE. The Seven Deadly Sins Of Bush-Cheney 5

But First, The Virtues Worth Citing 7

Now For The Sins 12

 

• Lust, Leading To The Quest For Primacy 12
• Anger, Leading To The Demonization Of Enemies 15
• Greed, Leading To The Concentration Of War Powers 19
• Pride, Leading To Avoidable Postwar Failures 21
• Envy, Leading To The Misguided Redirect On Iran 25
• Sloth, Leading To The U.S. Military Finally Asserting Command 27
• Gluttony, Leading To Strategic Overhang Cynically Foisted Upon The Next President 31

 

 

CHAPTER TWO. A Twelve-Step Recovery Program For American Grand Strategy 36

1. Admit That We Americans Are Powerless Over Globalization. 37

2. Come To Believe That Only A Bipartisanship Far Greater Than That Displayed By Our National Leaders Can Restore Sanity To America's Foreign Affairs. 39

3. Make The Decision To Coordinate All Elements Of America's National Power According To A Grand Strategy That We Have Collectively Defined. 42

4. Make A Searching And Fearless Moral Inventory Of The "Global War On Terror." 46

5. Admit To The World And To Ourselves The Exact Nature Of Our Mistakes In Iraq And Afghanistan. 52

6. We Are Entirely Ready To Work With The International Community To Remove These Defects Of Wartime Injustice. 56

7. Humbly Ask The Incoming President To Reverse America's Recent Unilateralism. 58

8. Make A List Of All The Great Powers Whose National Interests We Have Harmed, And Become Willing To Make Concessions To Them All. 60

9. Make Direct Overtures To Violent Nonstate Actors Whenever Possible, Except When Doing So Would Damage Existing Alliances. 63

10. Continue To Review Our Goal Of Accelerated Democratization And, When We Are Wrong In Our Strategic Approach, Promptly Admit It. 65

11. Seek To Create Strategic Alliances With Rising Powers Through Diplomatic Linkages And Military-To-Military Cooperation. 68

12. Having Had A Strategic Awakening As The Result Of These Steps, America Must Try To Sell This Grand Strategy To The World, And Practice These Principles In All Its Efforts To Shrink The Gap And Make Globalization Truly Global. 70

 

CHAPTER THREE. The American Trajectory: Of Great Men And Great Powers 73

In Order To Form A More Perfect Globalization . . . 75

Born In The USA 78

The American System, Proposed And Imposed 80

The American System, Tested And Transformed 89

The American System Matured, Then Extrapolated 100

A Global American System, An American Century 111

Barnett's 14 Points To Remember From This Journey 116

1. Make Sure You Can Access The Crisis Without Adding To The Crisis. 116
2. Figure Out Your Actual Economic Leverage Going In And Make It Clear In Negotiations. 118
3. Build Your Domestic Constituency From The Start And Keep It Bipartisan. 120
4. Be Realistic About What You Can Achieve By Intervening. 122
5. No Political Solutions For Economic Problems. 125
6. State Your Positive Goals As Early As Possible. 127
7. Plan For The Postwar Right From The Start. 129
8. Recognize That Your Recent Experiences Determine Your Usable Skills. 131
9. Once The War Is Won, The Only Alternative To Withdrawal Or Domination Is Transformation. 133
10. Socialize The Problem, Institutionalize The Solution. 135
11. Expect A Challenge To Your Best-Laid Plans. 136
12. Selling Grand Strategy Is One Thing, Executing It Is Quite Another. 136
13. If You Want To Make It Stick, Then The Boys Are Never Coming Home. 139
14. Nukes Killed Great-Power War. 141

 

The Global American System Becomes Globalization 144

CHAPTER FOUR. The Economic Realignment: Racing To The Bottom Of The Pyramid 160

The Undeniable Trajectory: Deng Chose Wisely 164

The American System Perturbed: 3 Billion New Capitalists Register Their Demand 167

The New Rules: China Breaks The Mold Or Merely Recasts It? 175

The New Normal: Defaulting To The Beijing Consensus 177

The Global Accelerant: Rushing To Settle Frontiers 187

The Inescapable Realignment: Remapping Fake States 196

The Better Normal: Racing To The Bottom Of The Pyramid 201

 

CHAPTER FIVE. The Diplomatic Realignment: Rebranding The Team Of Rivals 208

The Undeniable Trajectory: The "Global War On Terror" 210

The American System Perturbed: The Big Bang Launched 215

The New Rules: From Indispensable Superpower To Insolvent Leviathan 220

The New Normal: America The Contained 226

The Global Accelerant: Soft-Power Balancing 231

The Inescapable Realignment: Rebranding A Team Of Rivals 237

The Better Normal: The Service-Oriented Alliance 244

 

CHAPTER SIX. The Security Realignment: Rediscovering Diplomacy, Defense, And Development 252

The Undeniable Trajectory: The Miseducation Of Colin Powell 253

The American System Perturbed: The Lost Year In Iraq 258

The New Rules: From The "Monks Of War," A New Coin Of The Realm 264

The New Normal: The Long (Post)War 271

The Global Accelerant: The Privatization Of American Foreign Policy 276

The Inescapable Realignment: Reblending Diplomacy, Defense, And Development 281

The Better Normal: The Command-After-Next 285

 

CHAPTER SEVEN. The Network Realignment: The Rise Of The Sysadmin-Industrial Complex 294

The Undeniable Trajectory: Superempower Me! 295

The American System Perturbed: The Rise Of Global Guerrillas 302

The New Rules: From "Know Your Customer" To "Know Your Supply Chain" 308

The New Normal: In Search Of New Deterrence 315

The Global Accelerant: The Great Globalization Build-Out 320

The Inescapable Realignment: Reengineering Development (In-A-Box‚Ñ¢) 326

The Better Normal: The Rise Of The Sysadmin-Industrial Complex 341

 

CHAPTER EIGHT. The Strategic Realignment: Resurrecting The Progressive Agenda 350

The Undeniable Trajectory: The Devil We Knew 352

The American System Perturbed: Katrina And The Gore Counternarrative 357

The New Rules: From "United We Stand" To Demographic Demagoguery 368

The New Normal: Apocalypse Soon 375

The Global Accelerant: The Greatest Awakening 386

The Inescapable Realignment: Resurrecting The Progressive Agenda 397

• The Consumption Shift 400
• The Food And Water Shift 401
• The Transportation Shift 403
• The Energy Shift 403
• The Security Shift 404
• The Communications Shift 405
• The Religious Shift 406
• The Urbanization Shift 406
• The Feminization Shift 407
• The Demographic Shift 407
• The Health Shift 408
• The Market Shift 409
• The Governance Shift 409
• The Class Shift 411

The Better Normal: The Great Compromise 413

 

CODA: The Future Perfect Tense 417

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 423

 

GLOSSARY 427

 

NOTES 433

 

INDEX 473

Article originally appeared on Thomas P.M. Barnett (https://thomaspmbarnett.com/).