Book Review - Blueprint for Action
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BLUF: 4/5 stars - a must read.
Blueprint is a follow-up to his first book, "Pentagon's New Map” and offers some concrete steps to shrink the gap--those countries that remain disconnected from globalization. The ego-centric writing isn’t too bad this go around and once you get past it, his ideas are exceptional (though wordy)…however, I think political realities make it difficult to ever implement.
Barnett’s basic premise stems from an idea of Core nations versus Gap nations and that current warfare is 4GW (Fourth Generation Warfare). For a great 4GW definition: . Citing that stabilization and reconstruction costs have exceeded the cost of major war operations by more than four to one, Barnett suggests that future warfare will center around waging peace and that our military structure needs to change to accommodate this.
His military recommendations include: a need for a Leviathan force (heavy armor) to win the war and a System Administrators force (military security, NGOs, departmental reps) to adminster the peace; three regional commands: NORTHCOM (N. America/Latin America), Core Facilitator (JFCOM, STRATCOM, Transporation Cmd), and Gap Focus (Islamic, Asia-Pacific rim, Latin America, Sub-saharan Africa); less emphasis on big ticket items (which are designed for the next great war and are unnecessary/ineffective in 4GW operations); force structure that favors infantry/special ops, military police, civil/public affairs, Psyops.
Barnett outlines an “A to Z Structure” to shrink the gap:
UN Security Council serves as the global grand jury
Functional Executive Body which issues “warrants” - recommends the G-8 (eventually expanding to the G-20 or so); coalition formed and serves the “warrants” using a Leviathon force; SysAdmin force assumes control - which he posits would be predominantly the assets of other countries which don’t have the Leviathon-type forces
Reconstruction via International Reconstruction Fund (new organization under the World Bank or IMF)
Criminal prosecutions at the International Criminal Court - Hague. This will also have to be supported by a new rule set to support the core-wide judicial system
Intelligence implications: establish indicators of “connectedness” and tracking countries worldwide. I recall seeing a classified slide awhile back that kinda did this in terms of “democratization”, but not sure it’s institutionalized, readily available, nor based on collaborative analysis.
“Blueprint for Action” is a great read and worth the time. Interestingly, many of Barnett’s ideas were reflected in the recent Princeton Project Papers on “Forging A World of Liberty Under Law” which I attended yesterday.
Blueprint is a follow-up to his first book, "Pentagon's New Map” and offers some concrete steps to shrink the gap--those countries that remain disconnected from globalization. The ego-centric writing isn’t too bad this go around and once you get past it, his ideas are exceptional (though wordy)…however, I think political realities make it difficult to ever implement.
Barnett’s basic premise stems from an idea of Core nations versus Gap nations and that current warfare is 4GW (Fourth Generation Warfare). For a great 4GW definition: . Citing that stabilization and reconstruction costs have exceeded the cost of major war operations by more than four to one, Barnett suggests that future warfare will center around waging peace and that our military structure needs to change to accommodate this.
His military recommendations include: a need for a Leviathan force (heavy armor) to win the war and a System Administrators force (military security, NGOs, departmental reps) to adminster the peace; three regional commands: NORTHCOM (N. America/Latin America), Core Facilitator (JFCOM, STRATCOM, Transporation Cmd), and Gap Focus (Islamic, Asia-Pacific rim, Latin America, Sub-saharan Africa); less emphasis on big ticket items (which are designed for the next great war and are unnecessary/ineffective in 4GW operations); force structure that favors infantry/special ops, military police, civil/public affairs, Psyops.
Barnett outlines an “A to Z Structure” to shrink the gap:
UN Security Council serves as the global grand jury
Functional Executive Body which issues “warrants” - recommends the G-8 (eventually expanding to the G-20 or so); coalition formed and serves the “warrants” using a Leviathon force; SysAdmin force assumes control - which he posits would be predominantly the assets of other countries which don’t have the Leviathon-type forces
Reconstruction via International Reconstruction Fund (new organization under the World Bank or IMF)
Criminal prosecutions at the International Criminal Court - Hague. This will also have to be supported by a new rule set to support the core-wide judicial system
Intelligence implications: establish indicators of “connectedness” and tracking countries worldwide. I recall seeing a classified slide awhile back that kinda did this in terms of “democratization”, but not sure it’s institutionalized, readily available, nor based on collaborative analysis.
“Blueprint for Action” is a great read and worth the time. Interestingly, many of Barnett’s ideas were reflected in the recent Princeton Project Papers on “Forging A World of Liberty Under Law” which I attended yesterday.
