Clash of Titans
I had to come out of hiding for the Barnett vs. Robb friction (good posts at Zenpundit and Phatic Communion -which is back on the blogroll) with a quote from Kevin Kelly’s older book “New Rules for the New Economy” (Kelly is a cofounder/editor of Wired and someone who really gets the new world of networks – his great book is available online through that link ):
There are two elementary kinds of loops: Self-negating loops such as thermostats and toilet bowl valves, which create feedback loops that regulate themselves, and self-reinforcing loops, which are loops that foster runaway growth such as increasing returns and network effects.
Bottom line is Barnett is looking for self reinforcing feedback loops and Robb keeps a finger on the negative feedback loops regulating the international system.
As is nature – the negative will outweigh and dictate the positive. Things get worse (and will) before they get better. There is a larger framework at play shaping the international system, but it’s not Barnett’s vision. Disruptive innovation overcomes sustaining innovation.
I’m glad to be back I missed this thing. Good news is I was able to do quite a bit of book reading, so theoretically my productivity should increase.
Oh, and glad to see that P.C. is alive and well.
I’m glad to see you are back!
(Sorry about the ambiguity in my posts concerning the continuation of P.C. — and thanks for dropping by!)
Let me push back at that dichotomy. I’d charachterize Robb’s models as competing reinforcing loops (nation-states’ versus the global guerillas’). Global guerillas don’t regulate the international system towards an equilibrium. Or do I misunderstand you?
cheers,
Just so you know, I’m not ignoring the question, I’m working on a post that should shed some light on it.
I look forward to it.
PS: Get the RSS feed off the footer and into the header!
Done