re: "A Foreign Policy Insurgency?"

Cheryl Rofer at WhirledView ("A Look at World Politics & Most Everything Else") posted an interesting book review.

Money quote(s):

"Connectivity, a central concept in Barnett’s thinking, is changing the world. The connectivity provided by fax machines and primitive e-mail helped to undercut the Soviet Union and got the Tianmen Square rebels’ story out in 1989. Now we get tweets as Mumbai is being attacked. We have hardly begun to exploit that connectivity. "

"I belong to a cluster of bloggers who discuss foreign policy and other topics. We read each other’s blogs and link among them. Barnett calls us, if I understand him correctly, superempowered individuals. I’m not entirely happy with the jargon aspect of that phrase or what Barnett seems to mean by it. I have access to a great many things through the internet, true; but there are limits to the power that gives me. One of thosee limits is being heard. If I write a blog and nobody reads it, does it really exist?"

&

"Very Special People. That term, abbreviated VSPs, refers to those whose ideas Count, who are listened to by the media and the political class. The requirements for entry into VSP status include credentialization by a university (Ph.D. preferred) or holding a high position in an appropriate government organization. And, of course, to be okayed by the VSP community."