Dateline: in the loft at Nona's, Terre Haute IN, 8 April 2005

Story caught by my partner Steff.

Here is the opening:

The return of democracy to the global agenda

More than elections, what matter are habits of the heart
†

SUBHASH AGRAWAL

Posted online: Saturday, April 09, 2005 at 0053 hours IST
†
Is there a democracy spring in the air? Whether forced, subsidised, organically discovered or artificially contrived, the world is seeing a widespread assertion of democracy, at least in rhetoric, if not actual deed. First, there was Afghanistan, soon followed by Ukraine, Iraq, Egypt, Palestine and Lebanon. And now, even Bhutan, with the tiny Himalayan kingdom all set for a historic swap between parliamentary democracy and monarchial power . . .

[then later in the piece]

Undoubtedly, American pressure and the resulting media attention are major triggers for the rather sudden pro-democracy shuffle. However, the real winds of change began just soon after the Iraq war. While we all noticed with bemusementóperhaps even some relishóthe bitter rhetoric and very public spat between America and Europe as a result of the action in Iraq, what we perhaps missed was an emerging common thread shared deeply on both sides of the Atlantic. It is the simple yet powerful notion that the great fault lines in the world are not along religious or cultural lines, but between societies that have either embraced or shunned knowledge, openness and progress.

This has now emerged as a mainstream western view and has been captured and articulated in a number of post-9/11 modern books and essays by influential writers. These include Robert Cooper, author of The Breaking Of Nations: Order & Chaos in the 21st Century, and a former special advisor on foreign affairs to Tony Blair, and Thomas PM Barnett, author of The Pentagonís New Map, and a professor at the Naval War College in Washington, DC. Barnett defines the tensions in the modern world as a gap between a functioning core of nations that are connected to the modern age and those disconnected from it.

Similarly, Cooper discusses the hypothetical progress of nations along a civilising path. And along an increasing scale of embrace of the world of knowledge, though he doesnít quite call it that, from pre-modern to modern to post-modern. In essence, what these and other thinkers are advocating is a new moral order, based on the rule of law, democracy and accountability. And which should ideally shape behaviour within nations as much as relations between nations.

Full story found here

Interesting piece. Guess I'll have to read this Cooper fellow's book. Heard good things about it. Will simply have to break down and buy it next time I take Kevin to B&N for his Mad magazines.

Nice how the Naval War College gets to keep feeding off the book despite asking me to leave because of its success the day before Christmas!

Not that I'm bitter about that at all. It was a wonderful Christmas, as all Christmases are when your Dean demands your immediate resignation signature on a scrap of paper he's just penned while his hands shake in anger.

Hmmm. Really must talk to Mark about somehow getting that scene in Vol. II . . .

No. Nope. Moved beyond. Gotta be more Indian about it. Karma and all that. His past lives, not mine.

Anyway, Neil would be sure to cut that from the Preface if I made any mention . . . Hey, wait a minute!

No. As 41 used to say, "Nah gonnah do it!"

I feel myself elevating . . . or maybe that's just the scotch Granddad Carl poured me. . .