Georgia has become the West’s “inconvenient truth.” Though he never quite says it this way, that is the message of Ronald Asmus’ masterful first version of the history of the Russian-Georgian War of 2008, “A Little War That Shook the World.”

When a major publisher publishes a book by an author whose book jacket describes him as “a renowned expert in geopolitics and forecasting,” one might be expected to take it seriously.  Indeed, George Friedman's The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century was dutifully reviewed by mainstream reviewers as such when Doubleday released it last year. 

On 5 May 1946, People’s Age, a communist newspaper, noted in a commentary that granting the right to complete self-determination to all the nationalities living in India would eliminate the possibility of a constitutional solution along communal lines.

Thomas Ricks’ new book The Gamble is an excellent account of how the US strategy in Iraq changed in late 2006 in response to the near disaster that was the US occupation of Iraq starting in 2003.

The use of unmanned systems in warfare has exploded over the last decade. An interesting novelty just a few years ago, today the battlefield is swarming with unmanned vehicles that fly, hover, sit, roll, crawl, and swim.

Over the last four days, I've given you a thematic look at Great Powers: America and the World After Bush, the next book by Pentagon's New Map author Thomas Barnett, that goes on sale February 5th.  Because of the meatiness of the material, I mostly stuck to summary, trying to synthesize some far-ranging ideas into easily digestible bites.  In this post, I'll take a more analytical look at the book as a whole.

On Barack Obama's second day in office, the Bush administration is fast fading into memory.   As accidental tax evader Timothy Geithner prepares to take over at Treasury in an administration where transparency and the rule of law will be touchstones, it's an excellent time to begin looking at the global economy.

Barack Obama has been president for more than 24 hours now.  America is once again beloved by one and all.  Hubris and overreach are things of the past, as the inmates of Gitmo have been freed and the troops are all home from Iraq, participating in rebuilding the infrastructure at home.   Or, certainly, change is in the air.