Rightwords... Prudent Conservatism

The Logic of it All



In his prescient book, The Pentagon’s New Map, Tom Barnett created a logical “Decalogue” that defined the link between the military posture of the world and the market posture of the world. In short, he delineated the following ten aspects in a dependent sequence:

1. Look for resources, and ye shall find: for fossil fuels, more will be found, so supply and demand aren’t the main problem. Sources for electricity can be found. It is moving the energy from those who have it to those who need it that is the problem.

2. No stability, no markets: consumer markets are built on trust that the supplier will extend credit to the consumer by some mechanism, and have every expectation of being paid in return. Stability of a nation leads to ease of extending credit.

3. No growth, no stability: A growing economy promotes attitudes of risk-taking, entrepreneursmanship, and a rising demand for increased stability in order to feed growth further. Without growth, the economy stagnates, and rules become "optional".

4. No resources, no growth: without stable access to energy resources, emerging nations cannot sustain sufficient growth without seriously damaging their environments.

5. No infrastructure, no resources: The infrastructure for moving energy resources to a nation in the form of electric and pipe lines and LNG vessels is the foremost need for developing its economy.

6. No money, no infrastructure: Most developing nations cannot self-finance their own buildup of infrastructure, hence they must seek foreign aid and financing, else they will labor in vain to expand their economy.

7. No rules, no money: Foreign investors need to see the rule of law, transparency, and good corporate governance before they will invest their money.

8. No security, no rules: Well-formed rules of law are only nurtured and maintained under the blanket of real internal and external security for the nation.

9. No Leviathan, no security: Many nations have historically provided their own defensive forces (a Leviathan writ small), but today there is only one nation capable of providing the Leviathan force worldwide to shelter those who are weak from potential predator nations, and that is the US.

10.No will, no Leviathan: To be willing to spend both resources and lives to maintain and deploy a significant Leviathan force in defense of smaller nations is a sterling act of faith and dedication to the principles of freedom, free trade, and democracy. This nascent and sometimes very real threat to deploy the Leviathan acts as an effective preventative against rogue and aggressive nations, and hence contributes enormously to world security.

That the US has done so efficiently and effectively more than once speaks for itself. The US, so far, has had the will to act in this role, and the faith that such acts will ultimately result in greater world stability and peace. This, despite the shrill cries of the moment against such acts by those who believe the US has an entirely different motive, that of empire-building. This is nonsense, of course, as any rational citizen knows instinctively. One merely has to ask the Kuwaitis, or the Germans, or the Japanese. All three conquered by the US and Allies, and allowed to reconstruct themselves.

# posted by Mannning @ 6:06 PM