I am an admirer of renowned geo-politico grand strategist Thomas PM Barnett. And not just for getting the word "grand" in his job title. (Outside of the worlds of contract bridge and hip hop, it really is quite rare).  His thoughts on worldwide political and economic trends and how the US should position itself to best capitalize are always insightful and provocative.

However .... the problem with grand strategists is that they're thinking three or four moves ahead of the rest of us. In the realm of geo-political trends, that plays out to like 50 - 100 years. And while his arguments are persuasive and we trust his judgment, there's always the nagging suspicion that we don't know how good he is at his job. He might be nuts. Sure, in 50-100 years we can do some fact checking.  But by that time, our strategic plan is to have Fraters Libertas dedicated to covering news and developments in the world of Scottish indie-punk music, exclusively. So, who'll have the time?

Fortunately, a recent development will allow us to do some verification on the accuracy of Mr. Barnett on an accelerated schedule. From his latest post:

It seems clear that Favre wants to play for the Packers, and if he's going to play anywhere in the league, we're the logical team to give him a good shot at the Super Bowl. His implied threat of wanting to play for the Vikes so he can play against the Packers is simply a negotiating maneuver the Packers should ignore.

As this situation should resolve itself in the next couple of week's, Barnett is officially on the clock. Although I'd like to see Farve in purple this year, I really like reading Barnett. And I really can't afford to have to go back to getting my information on geo-political trends from Syl Jones and the Star Tribune editorial page.

Labels: Foreign Policy

Posted by Saint Paul--Link