Tomorrow is the deadline for the exit of US Forces from the cities in Iraq, as per the details of the Status of Forces Agreement between the (then) Bush and Maliki governments.

President Obama told CBS' "Face the Nation" that the Bush administration had lost its focus in Afghanistan and that his team will "refocus attention on al Qaeda."

Thomas Barnett has answered five questions I posed to him about his new book, Great Powers: American and the World After Bush.  This is the final piece in my week-long series on Barnett for the New Atlanticist.

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.

As I write this, Barack Obama is minutes away from taking the oath of office as president of the United States.   It's a fitting time, then, for an overview of the foreign policy challenges and opportunities ahead.

Let's continue our look at Thomas Barnett's forthcoming book, America and the World After Bush, with Chapter Two: A Twelve-Step Recovery Program for American Grand Strategy.

Today is the last full day of the presidency of George W. Bush.  Tomorrow, at noon Eastern time, Barack Obama will take the reins of power, inaugurating a new era filled with Hope and Change and Renewing America's Promise.   It is, therefore, a fitting time to look back at the last eight years and ahead to the future.

To do that, I'm going to begin a week-long series based on Thomas Barnett's forthcoming book, Great Powers: America and the World After Bush.