The Thom-Thom Club

A couple months back I featured a lecture by Thomas Barnett on the deployment US military might in a post-Cold War world. Below is a talk he gave in Maine where he moves from a diagnostic to a prescriptive point of view on the the topic. It's a fascinating point of view, proffered by a guy who seems to have genuine fun giving his presentation.

Then, another sequel talk of sorts. I'm sure most followers of this blog know Thomas Friedman, who penned The Lexus and the Olive Tree and, more famously, The World is Flat. He takes a different look at some of the issues Barnett touches on, but from an economic (specifically petro-political) perspective.

War with Iran

Extending our poly-sci coverage from last week, I've found a couple of interesting pieces about Iran. Our foreign policy approach to that country is an issue that will almost certainly need to be addressed by whoever wins the election on November 4, and I've selected these pieces to try and give a little context. These pieces offer very different perspectives on the country. The first is a citizen journalist piece that briefly looks at life inside Iran and the fear that the US may launch a war against the county.

A View from Iran


The second piece is more formal telejournalism and investigates whether or not the US has already started a proxy war with Iran through resistance groups on the Iraq-Iran border.


America's Secret War

A Couple of Looks at 'Fortress America'

With the American elections just three weeks away I went out looking for some different points of view on Election 2008, and I ran across this surprisingly good piece of citizen journalism from Current.com that explored attitudes toward Americans by citizens of other countries. Check it out...

The View from Over There



Of course, most of the folks featured in those videos can't vote in American elections so for a slightly more domestic point-of-view check out this videographic presentation from The Economist magazine on Anglo-Saxon attitudes to many common issues. It's an interesting comparison of American and British cultures.


Divided We Stand