Thomas P.M. Barnett :: Weblog

[I forgot to post the endnotes for Chapter One before the Director's Commentary for Chapter Two, so, I'm going backwards a little, but y'all are smart enough to track with me, right? ;-)]

Chapter 1. The Seven Deadly Sins of Bush-Cheney

6. Having triggered this global counterreaction . . . autocracies (read, Russia and China).

The classic expression of this view is found in Robert Kagan, The Return of History and the End of Dreams (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008).

6. This would be a double mistake . . . logically more willing to defend it.

Oddly enough, the classic expression of this view is found in a slightly younger Robert Kagan, Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003). What a difference a second Bush administration makes!

But First, the Virtues Worth Citing

8. In the grand sweep of history . . . "stakeholder" in global security--Zoellick's term.

"Deputy Secretary Zoellick Statement on Conclusion of the Second U.S.-China Senior Dialogue," December 8, 2005, found online at www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2005/57822.htm.

11. This wave of disintegrating integration is beyond . . . will endure across this century.

This phrase comes from Clyde V. Prestowitz, Three Billion New Capitalists: The Great Shift of Wealth and Power to the East (New York: Basic Books, 2005).

11. As Fareed Zakaria notes . . . and thriving the region is despite Iraq's violence.

Fareed Zakaria, The Post-American World (New York: W.W. Norton, 2008), p. 8.

Now for the Sins

Lust, Leading to the Quest for Primacy

12. The Bush administration's allegedly secret plan . . . Paul Wolfowitz.

The initial version of the "Defense Planning Guidance for the 1994-99 fiscal years" was leaked to the New York Times on March 7, 1992: "U.S. Strategy Plan Calls for Insuring No Rivals Develop," by Patrick E. Tyler, New York Times, March 8, 1992.

12. At the time, I can tell you, few . . . America's "unipolar moment" of the early 1990s.

Krauthammer first used this term in his Henry M. Jackson Memorial Lecture delivered in Washington, D.C., September 18, 1990. This lecture was later adapted into an article: Charles Krauthammer, "The Unipolar Moment," Foreign Affairs, "America and the World" issue, 1990/91, vol. 70, no. 1.

13. But after 9/11 forced a strategic redirect . . . declaration of a "global war on terror."

In the 1970s, the Central Intelligence Agency commissioned a "Team B" of outside experts to compete analytically with the CIA's "Team A" on describing the nature of the Soviet threat.

15. To remain "fit" . . . grand strategy needs to attract more allies than it repulses.

On Boyd's life and influence, read Robert Coram, Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War (New York: Little, Brown, 2002); on this specific point, see Chet Richards, "Grand Strategy," found online at www.d-n-i.net/fcs/boyd_grand_strategy.htm, and Mark Safranski, editor, The John Boyd Roundtable: Debating Science, Strategy, and War (Ann Arbor, MI: Nimble Books, 2008), which contains a foreword by yours truly on Boyd's impact upon the field.

Anger, Leading to the Demonization of Enemies

18. In Fiasco . . . personnel that sum up this danger.

Thomas E. Ricks, Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq (New York: Penguin Books, 2007), pp. 290-91.

Greed, Leading to the Concentration of War Powers

19. As Charlie Savage notes . . . "just as those powers had come under fierce assault."

Charlie Savage, Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy (New York: Little, Brown, 2007), p. 26.

19. In subsequent years, Cheney . . . the president of the United States to do his job."

Cheney made these comments to Cokie Roberts on ABC's This Week in early 2002; see Savage, Takeover, pp. 26 and 75.

20. There is no surer sign of this . . . grand strategists in the collective public mind.

See Michael Cavna, "Comedians of Clout: In a Funny Way, Satirical Takes Can Color Perceptions of the Presidential Contenders," Washington Post, June 12, 2008; and Michiko Kakutani, "Is Jon Stewart the Most Trusted Man in America?" New York Times, August 15, 2008.

Pride, Leading to Avoidable Postwar Failures

21. Already in print are numerous . . . jihadists from abroad, soft partition).

Besides Ricks, the two best accounts are found in Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone (New York: Vintage Books, 2007); and George Packer, The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2005).

21. In his 2008 political memoir . . . Rice's personal management style.

Douglas J. Feith, War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism (New York: Harper, 2008), pp. 249-50.

22. The main beneficiary of such confusion . . . stabilizing Iraq in the early postwar months).

For the most damning portrait of Cheney, see Scott McClellan, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception (New York: Public Affairs, 2008); on the mobilization of message "force multipliers," see David Barstow, "Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon's Hidden Hand: Courting Ex-Officers Tied to Military Contractors," New York Times, April 20, 2008.

23. Some, like onetime neoconservative . . . at the end of the Cold War.

See Francis Fukuyama, "After Neoconservatism," New York Times Magazine, February 19, 2006; and his opening chapter, "Nation-Building and the Failure of Institutional Memory," in Fukuyama, ed., Nation-Building: Beyond Afghanistan and Iraq (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006), pp. 1-16.

23. Other examples cited . . . coordinated efforts with Northern Alliance forces.

See Ricks, Fiasco, Part One--"Containment"; and Larry Diamond, "What Went Wrong and Right in Iraq," in Fukuyama, ed., Nation-Building, pp. 173-75.

23. Nor should we be surprised that the most prominent Shia . . . decision-making.

See Ricks, Fiasco, pp. 56-57; and Aram Roston, The Man Who Pushed America to War: The Extraordinary Life, Adventures, and Obsessions of Ahmed Chalabi (New York: Nation Books, 2008).

23. As Thomas Ricks observes . . . was tear down the goalposts at halftime in the game."

Ricks, Fiasco, p. 145.

23. The White House would deny . . . "If you break it, you own it").

Cited in Bob Woodward, Plan of Attack (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004), p. 150.

24. So Rumsfeld was right . . . Army you might want or wish to have at a later time."

See "Troops Put Thorny Questions to Rumsfeld: Defense Chief Speaks to Iraq-bound Soldiers in Kuwait," CNN.com, December 9, 2004, found online at www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/12/08/rumsfeld.troops/.

Envy, Leading to the Misguided Redirect on Iran

25. As Vali Nasr argues . . . completely predictable.

See Vali Nasr, The Shia Revival: How Conflicts Within Islam Will Shape the Future (New York: W. W. Norton, 2006), chaps. 7-9.

25. Much as Turkey has . . . liberation from Saddam Hussein's dictatorship.

Cited in Andrew Purvis, "Istanbul's Economic Tension," Time, May 1, 2008.

Sloth, Leading to the U.S. Military Finally Asserting Command

28. For a presidency devoted to expanding . . . Petraeus's longtime mentor.

See Bob Woodward, The War Within: A Secret White House History, 2006-2008 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008), pp. 129-46, 276-82, 296-99, and 331-33.

28. After Petraeus's historic testimony . . . President of the United States.

Quoted in Woodward, The War Within, p. 392.

30. Together, these two "monks of war" . . . published formally in December 2006.

Thomas P. M. Barnett, "The Monks of War," Esquire, March 2006, found online at www.esquire.com/features/articles/2006/060426_mfe_March_06_Generals_1.html.

30. For as Sarah Sewall, a Harvard human rights experts . . . fundamentally at odds."

The U.S. Army/Marine Corps, Counterinsurgency Field Manual (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007), p. xxxix.

Gluttony, Leading to Strategic Overhang Cynically Foisted upon the Next President

31. U.S. defense spending as a percentage . . . hovering in the 4.3-4.4 percent range.

These data are compiled from the "Truth and Politics" website page ("Relative Size of US Military Spending, 1940-2003") found online at www.truthandpolitics.org/military-relative-size.php#gdp-graph.

31. Yes, the American military has spread itself out . . . to about thirty or so foreign states.

This calculation was supplied by Henry H. Gaffney, Director of the Strategy and Concepts Group in the Center for Strategic Studies at the Center for Naval Analyses, Alexandria, Virginia; it is buttressed by Tim Kane, "Global U.S. Troop Deployment, 1950-2003" (Washington, DC: Heritage Foundation Center for Data Analysis Report #04-11, 27 October 2004), found online at www.heritage.org/Research/NationalSecurity/cda04-11.cfm.

31. Finally, consider this measure of individual burden . . . one out of every 800 Americans.

In 1968, roughly one million Americans served abroad in uniform, out of a total population of approximately 200 million. Today, somewhat less than 400,000 troops are stationed abroad, out of a national population of over 300 million. For details, see Kane, "Global U.S. Troop Deployment, 1950-2003."