IPY visiting author to speak at UAF

Submitted by Cherie Solie
Phone: (907) 474-6264
04/02/07

Military strategist Tom Barnett will present a lecture at the University of Alaska Fairbanks on Friday, April 6, at 7:30 p.m. in the Charles W. Davis Concert Hall.

Barnett, author of "The Pentagon’s New Map" and "Blueprint for Action: A Future Worth Creating," will visit Fairbanks as part of the BP/ConocoPhillips Shared Voices program and as an International Polar Year visiting author. He will also present lectures in Juneau and Anchorage.

Barnett has worked in national security affairs since the end of the Cold War. His first book, "The Pentagon’s New Map," which analyzed the post-Sept. 11 world, argued that the U.S. military should stop thinking of the world in Cold War terms and craft rules to deal with a new global reality. His latest book, "Blueprint for Action," expands on these ideas by proposing strategic choices for the future.

"I define that future as the progressive expansion of the global economy in a deeply connective and sustaining way around the planet, or the shrinking of those regions that currently are poorly or unfairly connected to that economy and thus present us with the most security issues," Barnett states.

Barnett’s visit is sponsored by the UAF Center for Research Services, the University of Alaska geography program, BP and ConocoPhillips.

CONTACT: Cherie Solie, IPY statewide outreach manager, at (907) 474-6264 or c.solie@uaf.edu. Mike Sfraga, UA geography program director, at (907) 474-7494 or mike.sfraga@alaska.edu.