Thomas P. M. Barnett

Thomas P. M. Barnett is an American military geostrategist and former chief analyst at Wikistrat. He developed a geopolitical theory that divided the world into "the Functioning Core" and the "Non-Integrating Gap" that made him particularly notable prior to the 2003 U.S. Invasion of Iraq when he wrote an article for Esquire in support of the military action entitled "The Pentagon's New Map". The central thesis of his geopolitical theory is that the connections the globalization brings between countries are synonymous with those countries with stable governments, rising standards of living, and "more deaths by suicide than by murder". These regions contrast with those where globalization has not yet penetrated, which is synonymous with political repression, poverty, disease, and mass-murder, and conflict. These areas make up the Non-Integrating Gap.