Thomas P. M. Barnett
This article's lead section may not adequately summarize key points of its contents. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article. (January 2010) Thomas P.M. Barnett Thomas P.M. Barnett Born 1962 (age 52–53) Chilton, Wisconsin, U.S. Nationality American Occupation military geostrategist Thomas P.M. Barnett (born 1962) is an American military geostrategist and 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 Magazine 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 countries form the Functioning Core. These regions contrast with the 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.