Dr. Barnett is voting for Kerry.
I came in during the presentation and was transfixed. Far more depth and detail than this article. I looked at TIVO for a "repeat" so I could record it, but couldn't get a match. Anyone know how to see when , if at all, a show is repeated on C-SPAN? Show was "American Perspectives".
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China's internal structure is explosively unstable, consisting as it does of a crypto-statist overpowerful government in one part, a rapidly expanding entrepreneurial second part, and a miserably poor agrarian rural third part. The Politburo are riding the tiger; now that a couple of hundred million citizens have tasted the better life offered them by the prospect of even a modest version of entrepreneurial capitalism, the government quite literally DARE NOT take its continued development away. Equally, the Politburo haven't a clue what to do, long-term, with the 700-million-odd peasants, some of whom are beginning to demand similar opportunities. Where exactly the fault lines will occur, I would not attempt to say, but the explosion's schwerpunkt will be somewhere in the vicinity of the first major failure produced by the vaunted ''One China, two systems'' policy.
The Russians, love them or hate them, are between the devil and the deep blue sea. The nation is going nowhere further into the ''Core'', especially economically, until consistent rules of law and private property are developed and implemented. Will this occur? Possibly enough, but probably not soon enough, for Russia is sitting on half a dozen ticking internal bombs. The muslim problem is just the highest profile one at this time, but there are numerous others. For example, it's entirely unclear how long the narod will tolerate a declining standard of living simultaneously while receiving more and more information about prosperity in other nations. The ancient Russian saying about relieving the plight of the peasants is these days back with a vengeance and a modernised flavour: ''G-d is too high up, and Putin is too far away.''
Additionally, Siberia is FAPP indefensible in its entirety, and when (not if) some sufficiently greedy nation makes an attempt upon its vast resources, Russia will have a huge dilemma: defend its territory and watch some huge fraction of its not-exactly-robust economy unravel in the process, and possibly even the nation itself, or submit to a de facto partition. And all this business is just the ''warm-up'' to nastier problems still.
It's all a dog's dinner, and any man's view of and hopes for the sequel can be as correct or as incorrect as any other man's, but the notion that these nations can be tidily treated as exactly two discrete sub-components of this academically pristine ''Core/Gap'' dichotomy is simply laughable.
The author drones on and on about America's export of 'security'. He could have saved everyone alot of time and mentioned the old cliche that America's chief exports are guns and butter. Okay, grain, oats, rice, etc.
But the author is obviously disrespectful of the chief distinguishing characteristic of America, freedom. He is also unwilling to connect that distinguishing trait with technological innovation and business prosperity.
So what has the United States provided the world in return? Clearly we are a leader in technology and cultural exports, but these are fundamentally private-sector transactions that any advanced economy can provide.
Completely wrong. This statement completely ignores the foundation upon which the American economy is built and which is truly unique in all the world.
America has for better or worse introduced the greatest economic inventions to itself nationwide and to the world attracted to its success. Supermarkets in France, Home Depots in Lithuania, Computers and operating systems in every country, and on and on. The refinement of these innovations and their products may be attributed to other economic cultures, but more often than not refinements are speared by American entrepreneurs and counselors themselves, e.g. Deming in post-WWII Japan.
American sales, promotion techniques and marketing are so pervasive that France must pass laws to outlaw English and Mullahs must brainwash their young that America is evil.
And all of this American success can be attributed causally to the stubborn notion that no government may control absolutely the American citizen. There are illusions of hierarchy and many Americans accept a hierarchical imposition but there are always those that rebel against such structures. And more importantly, the laws of America promote such rebellion.
There is no other country with that kind of culture. You cannot find it anywhere except in America. The only country that exhibits some notion of this rebellious attribute is Russia but it is not yet established there in economic terms.
To be lenient one can say the author makes a nice summary of information already hashed and rehashed. Perhaps he will make himself into a cottage industry of Beltway-ThinkTanking pundit preaching.