10 days until Great Powers comes out

We're up to 220 fans of Tom's Facebook page. I thought I was probably shooting a little too low with my goal of 200. Good job, people!

Today's testimony comes from Marauder Doc:

One of Tom's Department of Energy converts taught a nuclear weapons course at UC Davis. He showed the C-span version of the brief and I immediately went online seeking more information and found the blog. Oddly enough, up until that point I had never before even heard about PNM, even though I was an International Relations major. I had seen a few things on the "Arc of Instability" in my military science courses, but I didn't "get it" until I saw Tom's brief. Since then, I have essentially made "shrinking the gap" my life's personal and vocational goal.

What promising young person do you know, like MD above, who could really benefit from Tom's realistic and optimistic vision for the world? Buy 'em a book! And remember, Tom will sign it or send you an inscription for them.

You've already ordered your copy, right?

Comments

[Seerov]

I've spoken to about 10 of my IR and geography professors about Dr. Barnett's work and none of them even heard of it. I suggested watching "The Brief" and even gave a few of them the web address to "the Brief" on google video. I remember speaking to a graduate student who taught a War and International Security class and suggested he watch "the Brief." He told me he's "very busy with his dissertation."

Now that I think about, this represents what I find sort of discouraging about the political science/IR field. It seems as if there's little room to discuss ideas like Dr. Barnett's. No, if it doesn't have a null and alternative hypotheses, and found in a peer reviewed journal, then it doesn't matter.

I should point out that this Poli Sci dept is generally quantitative and research oriented. Maybe students in more policy oriented dept's have had a different experience?

Anyway, while I'm still not sold on Dr. Barnett's number one premise (that America and allies should, and have the ability to shrink the gap), I appreciate Dr. Barnetts work becuase I learn a lot from it (especially thinking about globalization and systems thinking).

IMO, there are three great thinkers writing about world today, who's work cannot be ignored. These three are Dr. Barrett, John Robb, and George Friedman ( of Stratfor). I've learned more about international relations, geopolitics, economics, war, military affairs, and gloablization from these three people than I did from my whole undergraduate education.

[Sean Meade]

thanks for trying, Seerov