The Pentagon's New Map

The Pentagon's New Map is a book on grand strategy and world development by Thomas P.M. Barnett. His chief premise is that conflict, in the modern world, is most likely between nations not part of what he calls the "connected core". This is not a traditional have-and-have-not model; the core is most defined in access to information.

He also discusses a military strategy model based on connectedness. A fully connected nation can produce a high-technology military force that can "takedown" any plausible less connected force, but is not necessarily best for building peace by connecting the disconnected state to the core. Calling such forces "juggernaut", he assumes they are the militaries of single advanced nations, or at least high-technology alliances such as NATO.

Once Juggernaut has taken down resistance, he calls what has often been called peace operations or nation-building as the "system administrator" function. System administrator forces are inherently multinational, and, as far as possible, should draw from the culture of the disconnected state. Barnett sees the system administrator function as particularly appropriate for regional organizations, like the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The regional organization may also have a peace enforcement armed force, experienced in the language and culture, such as the ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG). In general, he sees regional organizations as more adaptable than the United Nations

System administrator services, however, do not need to wait for a war; they are the fundamental mechanism of avoiding war.

Barnett's view is quite different than Samuel Huntington's The Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of World Order,  in that Barnett assumes that aggressive action can forestall major conflict.