I was listening to C-SPAN this morning when they had some guy on to interview and he kept saying things like "the gap" and "the core" so I became interested. It was Thomas P.M. Barnett and he is a strategic consultant who works for the U.S. Naval War college. He's a professor, but his writings are lucid and a little funny sometimes, and he has a novel way of viewing the world.

Heads up for eBay: it's called Bollywood, not Hollywood. Remember the difference, cause it mostly comes down to how you portray sex.

The story tells you once again that this so-called "clash of civilizations" is really mostly a "clash of gender issues"

That's your "clash of civilizations." Not some grand military struggle between tectonic forces, but a melodrama played out in living rooms.

Update After I published this I noticed someone's previous post disappeared. I did not intend this.

Update II After reading most of his blog I've slightly changed my mind.
I like his writing and he makes a lot of good points, but it's when you congeal them into a cohesive whole that problems start. He denies he is a neo-con, and I kinda believe him - he's worse. If you start putting together his ideas it becomes clear that he wants to transform America into a state funding a giant military and an army of international social workers, and he is not doing it in the best interests of the U.S. (which is something at least the Neo-cons pay lip service to) but instead for the world. I still reccommend him, but from a position of understanding the full spectrum of international policy thinking.