The Pentagon's New Map: War and Peace in the Twenty-first Century

Thomas P.M. Barnett

Building upon the works of Thomas Friedman, Samuel Huntington, and Francis Fukuyama, The Pentagon's New Map describes recent U.S. military history and strategy, discusses where America's forces will likely be heading in the near future, outlines the crucial role the nation needs to play in establishing international stability, and provides much needed hope at one of the most difficult times in American history.

The Pentagon's New Map: War and Peace in the Twenty-first Century is on the National Capital Region Medical Joint Task Force list.

  • Tom Copeland read this book over 1 year ago and commented:

    I really enjoyed the parts of this book where Barnett talks about the Pentagon's "briefing culture". A white paper won't do, since the O-8's aides can just summarize it for him - you have to have a lively, entertaining, and insightful brief to get access to the upper reaches of the Pentagon.

    This book was written in 2004, and Barnett made some bold predictions. He thought that Kim Jong-il would be toppled by President Bush, but here we are in 2010 and Kim Jong-il is sinking South Korean ships. Barnett also predicts that the U.S. will add some more states from bits of Mexico... that remains to be seen.

    The book's thesis is that there is a "functioning Core" and a "disconnected Gap", and we need to encourage more of the former and less of the latter. It's an interesting strategic proposal.

    One more thing I learned from this book - a great phrase from J.R.R. Tolkien: "Hope without guarantees". A wonderful thought!

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