Wikistrat's "The World According to Tom Barnett" 2011 brief: the Brief in full

Can be found in this post and on this permanent page, also linked to from the navigation bar above. Or you can go to the YouTube pages directly, as linked on the left navigation bar below.

No, it's no longer exactly the brief I give now.  I've already made about 50 changes. But that's the nature of the beast: it is always evolving and new versions constantly emerge. 

Wikistrat's "The World According to Tom Barnett" brief

Video segments of September 2011 briefing by Tom to an international military audience in the Washington DC area.

Part 1: The Pentagon's New Map

Part 2: The Flow of People

Part 3: The Flow of Money

Part 4: The Flow of Energy

Part 5: The Flow of Food

Part 6: The Flow of Security

Part 7: (Q&A) The Role of Religion

Part 8: (Q&A) Global Economic Crisis

Part 9 - Final: (Q&A) Postwar Operations & US Allies

Wikistrat's "The World According to Tom Barnett" 2011 brief, Part 9 - Final (Q&A on postwar stabilization operations and America's future allies)

Last segment of my "big brief" presentation to an international military audience in the Washington DC area in September 2011. Final questions involved postwar operations and who should be involved.

Wikistrat's "The World According to Tom Barnett" 2011 brief, Part 8 (Q&A on global economic crisis)

More Q&A from my presentation of the current Brief to an international military audience in the Washington DC area in September 2011.

Audience question was about the global economic crisis and role of China in global economy.

Wikistrat's "The World According to Tom Barnett" 2011 brief, Part 7 (Q&A on religion)

Continuing the segments from my Sept 2011 presentation of the brief to an international military audience in the Washington DC area, first cluster of questions focused on religion, and since I deleted that slide sequence for time reasons in the main presenation, I had it teed up at the end to cover this contingency.

Wikistrat's "The World According to Tom Barnett" 2011 brief, Part 6 (Flow of Security)

In this section I cover the symmetricization of the Long War, nuclear proliferation (and the lack thereof), how America shaped this world with its grand strategy, and who the key superpowers will be in the post-2030 landscape.

Wikistrat's "The World According to Tom Barnett" 2011 brief, Part 5 (Flow of Food)

In this section of the brief I explore water and how it connects to grain-production centers of gravity, how climate change will impact the flow of food, how that flow will surpass the flow of energy in global importance in the future, and how the Western Hemisphere evolves as a result of its incredible water advantage.

Why You Should See "The Brief"

Fellow Readers,

I first stumbled across "The Brief" via YouTube five years ago, where I was introduced to Dr. Barnett’s theories, then his books and finally this blog, which instantly became part of my daily reading.

Tom became a major influence on how I think about the world, so when founding Wikistrat I reached out to Tom for advice. At that time I had no idea that he would one day join the team as Wikistrat’s Chief Analyst. He's been instrumental in helping us build our company ever since.

Last month I was finally able to watch Tom deliver The Brief live. The latest version centers on the Five Strategic Flows driving Globalization's advance in the coming decades. The presentation was actually constructed around material Tom penned within the Wikistrat model almost a year ago.

The verdict? A very different (and much better) experience than watching it on my computer screen: Aside from how fascinating Tom's insightful analysis is, The Brief is a work of performance art.

So, to anyone who's ever asked to see it live: I suggest you get down to CSIS offices tonight where Tom will be presenting one of the few briefs made open to the public. The event is being kindly hosted by our friends at YPFP (Young Professionals in Foreign Policy) at CSIS offices in downtown DC.

http://www.ypfp.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=1348

RSVP: events@ypfp.org

7pm at 1800 K St. NW.

Tom, myself and others from the Wikistrat team look forward to seeing you there.

Joel Zamel

CEO

Wikistrat

(Visit www.wikistrat.com to learn more about online community of strategic thinkers which serves as the web's first Massively Multiplayer Online Consultancy)

Wikistrat's "The World According to Tom Barnett" 2011 brief, Part 4 (Flow of Energy)

This section of the brief explores how urbanization and infrastructure development is shaping globalization, how Asia is the natural integrator of future globalization across the Gap, and how China's and America's interests overlap in the future evolution of Africa.

Wikistrat's "The World According to Tom Barnett" 2011 brief, Part 3 (Flow of Money)

This section of the brief focuses on the rise of the global middle class, the evolution of national economies, why China won't "rule the world" for all that long, and what the future evolution of East Asia holds.

Wikistrat's "The World According to Tom Barnett" 2011 brief, Part 2 (Flow of People)

Part two of the Sept 2011 briefing to international military audience in Washington DC area. This section focused on the flow of people as captured in Wikistrat's GLOMOD (online, wiki-based "global model" of globalization), then moves on to the inevitabilities surrounding demographic aging, then explores how demography drives the Arab Spring, and then offers a regional evolution projection for the Middle East.

Wikistrat's "The World According to Tom Barnett" 2011 brief, Part 1 (Pentagon's New Map)

Delivered in Washington to an international military audience, September 2011.

We'll roll out the rest of the brief over the next couple of weeks. This section covers the introduction and my concepts regarding globalization's Core and Gap.

Speaking in DC on 26 Oct (Young Professionals in Foreign Policy) and it's open to the public

I’m speaking in Washington DC on October 26^th, to the members of Young Professionals in Foreign Policy (YPFP), a non-profit committed to fostering the next generation of foreign policy leaders.  I’ll be presenting on “The Future of Globalization,” using the latest version of “The Brief.”  Because the audience will be mostly in their 20s and 30s,I'll tailor my discussion slightly to emphasize the important skills and characteristics future foreign policy leaders will need to have. 

It’s an evening presentation and YPFP made it an open event, so if you’re in the DC area and haven’t seen “The Brief,” this is your chance (regardless of age).   7:00p.m. start at 1800 K St. NW.  Must RSVP with your name and affiliation to events@ypfp.org.

The President of YPFP, Josh Marcuse, invited me to speak after he met Joel Zamel and Dan Green in Washington earlier this year.  Joel, Dan, and Josh hit it off talking about how younger generations are drawn to the type of platform Wikistrat provides, and the need for new approaches in understanding the complexities of today’s geostrategic environment.   It's been a few months since my last round of college talks, so I’m looking forward to the questions a younger-than-average audience is likely to throw my way - especially on the subject of working in the biz.

Wrapping up the spring speech tour

Gave a speech to a big conference of Navy supply corps reservists, the second such time I've done their huge, every-other-year event (I did one in Baltimore in 07, if I remember correctly).  Big audience of close to one thousand crammed into a wide ballroom.  Three huge screens, though, with great projectors.  Sound was also great (nothing like a great lapel mike to put me at ease).  The speech was broadcast globally throughout the Navy's supply corps community.  

Simplified the brief a bit by making the "map" sequence" less cluttered, and got through the 29 slides in about 65 mins. Answered questions for about 5 mins, and then held court outside for about 30 more, where I met a lot of great people.  It was a very lively audience that got a great performance out of me (the audience gets what it gives, as always). I came off the stage decidedly buzzed, despite the allergies (this place is blooming). Having now spoken in Atlanta, Chicago and Pittsburgh, I consider my post-Super Bowl speaking tour complete.

The hidden benefit of reservist conferences:  all have civilian jobs and a surprising number are in all sorts of industries that like to have me in for speeches, so it's a double-win. 

Off now til the fall schedule kicks in - come September, and that's looking good, with big speeches already lined up to a financial group in Chicago, a bankers group in Pensacola, and some big strategy gathering at Disney World (Grand Floridian) in early December.

Big treat on this trip was getting to spend a lot of face time with my long-time manager, Jennifer Posda, who is a close friend of our family.  One intriguing topic was how to exploit the Emily Updates' eBooks to launch an orthogonal speaking career on that subject.  Goal there would be to tap the wide medical market, motivational, etc.  I just know there would be a great brief coming out of the Updates, and it would definitely be the one I'd try in Keynote, since I'd be building from scratch and looking to use a lot of photos, video, etc.  More fun is considering the possibility of getting either my spouse Vonne or daughter Emily involved in certain venues.

But first, of course, we've got to get the eBook series out (4 volumes) and write the from-today's-perspective fifth volume before Em heads back to college.  On that front, the edited four volumes of Emily Updates (each about 50,000 words) now sit with my literary agency, which is using the project to launch a new eBook service within the agency.  First they take the Word docs and create special eBook-friendly PDFs, and then a German company is brought in to crank the eBook versions in the various formats desired by the iBookstore (iPad), Amazon (Kindle) and Barnes and Noble (Nook, I believe).  All in all, the schedule suggest we get out Vol I in Sept or Oct and then release the subsequent volumes in sequence (maybe one a month).  Then we just need to get enough word out to trigger the first speaking engagement, and boom!  The new "brief" will be born.

I can't wait.