Barnett, Thomas P. M.

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Barnett, Thomas P. M.

PERSONAL: Son of John E. (a lawyer) and Colleen (Clifford) Barnett; married; wife's name, Vonne; children: four. Education: University of Wisconsin, B.A. (honors); Harvard University, A.M., Ph.D.

ADDRESSES: Home—Portsmouth, RI. Office—Warfare Analysis and Research Department, Center for Naval Warfare Studies, U.S. Naval War College, Code 39, 686 Cushing Road, Newport, RI 02841. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: CNA Corporation, Alexandria, VA, project director for Center for Naval Analyses and Institute for Public Research, c. 1990-98; U.S. Naval War College, Newport, RI, professor and senior strategic researcher, 1998-; Barnett Consulting, Portsmouth, RI, owner, 1998-; Department of Defense, Year 2000 International Security Dimension Project, director, and assistant for strategic futures, Office of Force Transformation, 2001-03.

MEMBER: Phi Beta Kappa.

WRITINGS:

Romanian and East German Policies in the Third World: Comparing the Strategies of Ceausescu and Honecker, Praeger (Westport, CT), 1992.

The Pentagon's New Map: War and Peace in the Twenty-first Century, Putnam (New York, NY), 2004.

Contributor of articles to Esquire, New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, and Washington Post.

SIDELIGHTS: Military theorist Thomas P. M. Barnett's second book, The Pentagon's New Map: War and Peace in the Twenty-first Century, "is a must read for people who are paid to be or are learning to be strategists," Alan L. Gropman wrote in the Washington Times: "it is packed with new and usually sound ideas."

In order to reduce emerging threats to the United States, Barnett theorizes in his book, the United States must concentrate on connecting the areas that have not yet been reached by economic development to the global economy. The author terms the developed nations—the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Russia, China, Japan, Australia, and Israel—the "core," and the undeveloped regions of Africa, Asia, and South America the "gap." Nearly all threats to the United States originate in the gap, so "shrinking the gap" should be an effective way to reduce those threats. In order to assist with integrating the gap into the core, Barnett suggests that the U.S. military be restructured to make it better suited to peacekeeping and nation-building operations. Barnett's strategy in The Pentagon's New Map is "clear and comprehensive," wrote Library Journal contributor Zachary T. Irwin. Reviewing the book in Business Week, Stan Crock called the book "provocative" and noted that "when describing the inner workings of the Pentagon, Barnett is insightful and often amusing." A Publishers Weekly reviewer also praised the work, commenting that among its "most compelling aspects is its description of the negotiating, infighting and backbiting required to get a hearing for unconventional ideas in the national security establishment."