The Game Of Risk

Readers still puzzling over what makes Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld tick will gain new insight into the "energizer bunny" from Thomas P.M. Barnett's The Pentagon's New Map: War and Peace in the 21st Century, a book to be released this spring by Putnam. A defense analyst at the Pentagon, Barnett has laid out an elaborate strategy paper that serves as a de facto planning document for Rumsfeld and the rest of the Bush administration in their implementation of globalization. In it, Barnett rationalizes the workings of the modern empire, ends up creating a "story line for the future," and sets out a "hopeful image," which includes the overthrow of the North Korean government, the makings of a democratic Iraq as "globally connected" as Israel, an overthrow of the mullahs in Iran, and new territorial acquisitions by the U.S. "The United States will admit new members to its union in coming decades, and these will come first from the Western Hemisphere, but over time from outside as well," he writes. "By 2050 the United States could include a dozen more states. The first president of Mexican heritage will be elected directly from a Mexico state. But this historical pathway will not be contiguous, as we have learned in the case of Hawaii and Alaska, and there is nothing wrong with cherry-picking the best economies as an inducement for harmonizing economic policies throughout the Western Hemisphere."

Why not start off with a bang by dumping Cheney and installing Vicente Fox as vice president?

Additional reporting: Alicia Ng, Ashley Glacel, and Phoebe St John