WPR's The New Rules: Nation-Building, not Naval Threats, Key to South Asian Security

Monday, October 18, 2010 at 11:05AM
Thomas P.M. Barnett in Afghanistan, China, India, Iran, Pakistan, US Military, US foreign policy

It is hard for most Americans to fathom why the U.S. military should be involved in either Afghanistan or northwest Pakistan for anything other than the targeting of terrorist networks. And since drones can do most of that dirty work, few feel it is vital to engage in the long and difficult task of nation-building in that part of the world. These are distant, backward places whose sheer disconnectedness relegates them to the dustbin of globalization, and nothing more.

If only that were true. 

Read the rest of the column at World Politics Review.

The book reviewed in the piece is Monsoon:  The Indian Ocean and the Future of American Power.

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