Wednesday, January 21, 2015

THOMAS BARNETT'S NEW PENTAGON MAP SIMILAR TO WALLERSTEIN'S WORLD SYSTEMS THEORY

I haven't read  The New Pentagon Map (2004)  but most developed countries' foreign policy objectives promote a 'free market' neoliberal economic model, which the International Monetary Fund applies. Wikipedia summarizes the New Pentagon Map's thesis: 'The world can be roughly divided into two groups: the Functioning Core, characterized by economic interdependence, and the Non-Integrated Gap, characterized by unstable leadership and absence from international trade. The Core can be sub-divided into Old Core (North America, Europe, Japan, Australia) and New Core (China, India, South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Russia). The Disconnected Gap includes the Middle East, South Asia (except India), most of Africa, Southeast Asia, and northwest South America...."


This sounds incredibly like Immanuel Wallerstein's  World Systems theory, which is a Marxist critique of globalization and the international production/distribution/consumerist model. In Wallerstein's view, the core countries (or Old Core, according to the New Pentagon Map) is not holding up well, and in fact, is leading the world into chaos. See his homepage http://iwallerstein.com/.


 I'd better read Barnett's book to figure out what he ripped off from Wallerstein, before I engage in any more critiques.