REVIEW: The responsible liberal's world view, By Steven Martinovich, Enter Stage Right, September 7, 2009

Steven Martinovich is is the Editor-in-Chief of Enter Stage Right and a long-time follower of Tom's work. He's done reviews of both PNM and BFA and subsequent interviews (find those links at the bottom of the GP review linked above). Here he gives us a nice, thoughtful review of GP.

If the title wasn't provocative enough for you, here's the lead:

Among foreign policy aficionados on both the left and right there has been a fight to claim Thomas P.M. Barnett as one of their own. Author of Blueprint for Action: A Future Worth Creating and The Pentagon's New Map: War and Peace in the Twenty-First Century, Barnett has attracted both sides with a compelling worldview which sees an America play an essential role in fighting world poverty, ending the scourge of terrorism and civil war, and making the world safe for liberty and capitalism. With his latest endeavour Barnett has essentially declared himself as member of the centre-left and while that may be a loss for conservatives, it is an invaluable gain for liberals that have been flailing for a visionary foreign policy.

Barnett manages this feat with Great Powers: America and the World After Bush, an effort that is even more grand in its scope than his previous works. Building upon his last two books, Barnett offers a compelling vision which sees America give up its concern over near-peer competitors like China and Russia and instead collaborate with them on spreading globalization to Africa and the Middle East. The challenge for America, and its new allies, is to create a global middle class identity. It is an identity that America created, and thanks to globalization it is one that three billion people around the world want to join in on.

Check it out.