November 2, 2005
Colloquium Topic: Warfighting in the Twenty-First Century
Terrorism and globalization have combined to end the great-power model of war that has developed over 400 years. Instead, the world is divided into an increasingly expanding "functioning core" of economically developed, politically stable states integrated into global systems and a "non-integrating gap," the most likely source of threats to U.S. and international security. A global perspective model calls for a transformation that integrates political, economic and military elements to bring the out-dated Cold War military to a position where it can deal with new and expanding threats.
Colloquium Speaker: Thomas P. M. Barnett
Dr. Thomas P. M. Barnett is a strategic planner who has worked in national security affairs since the end of the Cold War and has operated his own consulting practice since 1998. Recently, Tom founded a consulting partnership, The New Rule Sets Project LLC, which was acquired by Enterra Solutions LLC in August of 2005, with Dr. Barnett as Senior Managing Director. A New York Times-bestselling author and a nationally-known public speaker, Dr. Barnett is in high demand within government circles as a forecaster of global conflict and an expert on military transformation. An award-winning teacher, Prof. Barnett has written for Esquire, Wired, and the Washington Post. Dr. Barnett is best known as the author of The Pentagon's New Map: War and Peace in the Twenty-First Century (2004). His latest book is Blueprint for Action: A Future Worth Creating (2005). From 1998 through 2004, Prof. 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 RI, where he taught and served in a senior advisory role. From November 2001 to June of 2003, Dr. Barnett was on temporary assignment as the Assistant for Strategic Futures, Office of Force Transformation (OFT), where he worked on a cluster of strategic concepts that link change in the international security environment to the imperative of transforming U.S. military capabilities to meet future threats. At the Naval War College, Dr. Barnett served as Director of the New Rule Sets Project, an ambitious effort to draw new "maps" of power and influence in the world economy so as to expand the U.S. Military's - and specifically, the U.S. Navy's - vision of where and how it can wield maximum influence across the international security environment of the Era of Globalization. Prior to this study, Dr. Barnett directed the Year 2000 International Security Dimension Project. Previously, Dr. Barnett served as a Project Director in the two major divisions of The CNA Corporation. While at CNA he served as a member of the Naval Force Capabilities Planning Effort that developed the new strategic concepts eventually published in the Navy's White Paper, From The Sea, the first draft of which he co-authored along with a group of senior naval officers. Professor Barnett has a BA (Honors) from the University of Wisconsin with a double-major in Russian Language and Literature and International Relations (emphasis-U.S. Foreign Policy). Dr. Barnett earned an AM in Regional Studies: Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia and a PhD in Political Science (major-International Relations; minor-Comparative Politics) from Harvard University.