A interesting story appeared in the March issue of Esquire magazine. Entitled "The Pentagon's New Map", this story is an interesting insight into the thinking of a U.S. military strategist and his view of the world. He basically says that countries disconnected from globalization (politically, economicly, and otherwise) are the areas that are the cause/result/location of political, economic and military problems. He devides the world into "Functioning Core" (i.e. North America, Europe, North Asia & Australia) and the "Non-Integrating Gap" (i.e. South America, Africa, South Asia).
As I said, it is an interesting read, but I disagree with his assesment overall and I have to nitpick a few points:
-North Korea is inexplicably left in the Functioning Core on his maps. If there was ever a country that was disconnected from global economic and political system it is North Korea.
-His priorities to fix this problem are 1)protect the core, 2) isolate the gap, 3) shrink the gap. He pats himself on the back for even including the last one, but I think there might be some global resentment to the US by the time we get arround to #3 on his list.