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Concept
Thomas P. M. Barnett
Summary
Thomas P.M. Barnett (born 1962) is an American military geostrategist and former chief analyst at Wikistrat. He developed a geopolitical theory that divided the world into "the Functioning Core" and the "Non-Integrating Gap" that made him particularly notable prior to the 2003 U.S. Invasion of Iraq when he wrote an article for Esquire in support of the military action entitled "The Pentagon's New Map" (which would later become the title of a book that would elaborate on his geopolitical theories). The central thesis of his geopolitical theory is that the connections the globalization brings between countries (including network connectivity, financial transactions, and media flows) are synonymous with those countries with stable governments, rising standards of living, and "more deaths by suicide than by murder". These regions contrast with those where globalization has not yet penetrated, which is synonymous with political repression, poverty, disease, and mass-murder, and conflict. These areas make up the Non-Integrating Gap.
Key to Barnett's geostrategic ideas is that the United States should "export security" to the Gap in order to integrate and connect those regions with the Core, even if this means going to war in Gap countries, followed by long periods of nation-building.
Barnett was born in Chilton, Wisconsin and grew up in Boscobel, Wisconsin. After graduation from Boscobel High School, Barnett received a B.A. (Honors) from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in Russian language and literature, and international relations with an emphasis in U.S. foreign policy. He received his MA in regional studies: Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia and his PhD in political science from Harvard University.
From 1998 through 2004, Barnett was a senior strategic researcher and professor in the Warfare Analysis & Research Department, Center for Naval Warfare Studies, U.S. Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island.
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