"The Brief" back in 2002, before Esquire article, before the book, before everything
Friday, December 23, 2011 at 12:02AM
Thomas P.M. Barnett in Blast From My Past, Brief Reminder, Tom video, Tom's speaking engagments, the brief

Gave this brief to the student body of the Naval War College at the request of the president, Admiral Rod Rempt, who introduces me. This is the basic brief I developed for Art Cebrowski while working as his Assistant for Strategic Futures in the Office of Force Transformation in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 2001-2003.

Spot the comments I make WRT mentor and good friend/colleague Bradd Hayes.  Why? I had just given an interview to a local paper (Newport Daily News) following my selection as Esquire's Best and Brightest. The writer did a job on me, quoting all the self-congratulatory stuff and skipping all the paired self-deprecating comments.  Lesson for me: If you give a reporter the rope, he or she will hang you.

Not that I've ever done that as a journalist . . ..

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