I gotta put in a plug here for The Next 100 Years by George Friedman. I got it after reading his occasional STRATFOR reports in John Mauldin's newsletters; STRATFOR does geopolitical analysis and forecasting. (Stop rolling your eyes; this guy has his feet on the ground.)

Do not confuse this guy with the bubbleheaded Thomas Friedman. I'm only 10% of the way through but it is already such a gold mine of revelations about the history and motivations of US world strategy for, say, control of the high seas. Every paragraph expounds something important that makes me go, "Wow, I didn't realize that..." but the reasoning is airtight. This guy sees the world from a professional perspective that lays bare many mysteries. Check it out.

Ooh, bare mysteries. We would have killed for those when I was in jr. high.

Thanks, you've actually intrigued me. I've had a dismal run of books lately and could use something that makes me sit up and go "wow."

Disrecommended reading:
Titanic's Last Secrets by the authors of Shadow Divers, a helluva book. A bad episode of a cable channel "Mysteries of the World" program, with weak conclusions, stretched to book length.

Elsewhere USA, Dalton Conley: a breathless romp through our fast-moving society and how it is shaping families and futures. If that sounds a lot like Future Shock, bravo. Conley has managed to repackage Toffler without once mentioning the man or his work. I'm sure it just wows his undergrad students but to anyone with a deeper well of larnin' it comes off as a stone skipping across a pond, impossibly arm-waving and lightweight.

Maybe we need a book review forum?

I just bought it as an audio book on .

Just finished the book (due back at the library). When it gets into the future of space war, there are some huge Heinlein connections, especially on pages 188 and 202. Enjoy

(Sticking this book on the list to order next trip to the Powell's web site.)

The author's business site is http://www.stratfor.com/ . Much of the content is free. It seems from his articles post-financial collapse that they generally only get interested in economics when it threatens geopolitical stability. Which this apparently is doing, for Europe and Japan, in ways that are in content I haven't discovered and which may not be free.

If I had the discretionary cash I would so love to be a subscriber. Jerry Seinfeld does a bit about how guys read about international politics in the newspapers because they fantasize about being called in to help the State Department. I'm one of those guys.

Yes, his discussion seems to be "bigger" than things like the current economic bump. I was trying to discuss the book with my wife last night and she was bogged down in the small stuff that he's ignoring or skimming over. Whatever else the value of the book, the sense of... I don't know, studying this little blue marble in your hand is kind of exhilarating.

I was, amusingly enough, plowing through one of his thumping passages on the superiority of the US in world seas as the news of the pirate rescue came in.

Have had little reading time - will finish this shortly.

I agree, Peter - it's one of those situations where some active, frisky world-policing would pay dividends. However, there seems to be an odd reluctance to do ANYTHING - I was almost shocked at how hard the Navy stressed its case for opening fire, as if the situation needed any justification, let alone bend-over-backward, we-hadda-doit, gosh-we're-sorry justification.

Pirates. Kidnapping. US hostage. Weapons in play. BLA-BLA-BLAM, game over. How do you send a six-pack to a SEAL team?

I further fail to understand why the merchant ships have not armed themselves. I understand it's not a usual practice and probably needs some preparation and licensing/approval/something, but this situation has been going on for a while and likely will continue. A couple of sniper rifles and a few AR-15s per ship would cut the incidence to zero, methinks.

Even after the Bush era, I sincerely hope this is not a sign that the Obama administration has smaller balls than the Carter team.

About halfway through (damn I need to find more reading time... I've never had so little) and I noticed a couple of things worth noting.

First, and quite unusually, Friedman has written this book military-style instead of business-style. Nearly all mass-market/pop books are written business-style, which is fact-fact-fact-conclusion. Great for building suspense, hiding your goals, and dragging the reader along.

Military style is summary/conclusion-fact-fact-fact, and for complex, counter-intuitive stuff like this, it's great. He outlines his notions, then spends several pages supporting them point by point. You're never left wondering where he's going and the presentation of even abtruse and detached facts is given a basis, a foundation on which to grasp them, rather than floating around until the author oh-so-graciously assembles them for you. Fabulous.

I am also in awe at the spareness of his writing. In this era of mega-books, I fully expected this to be a 600+ page brick. But with the sort of intellectual candor and grace Heinlein would have appreciated, he boils things down to essentials - like, for example, reducing the key reasons for the attack on Pearl Harbor to one succinct (and accurate) sentence.

I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Best piece of speculative fiction (yeah I know - it's not technically fiction) I've read in a long, long time, and as Jim says, so Heinlein-esque in its style. Thanks, Peter, for recommending. I'm starting on it again.

Haven't read the book myself, but as my secret vice is C-SPAN, I note that George Friedman is slated to appear on C-SPAN 2 ("BookTV") next Monday, 20 April, at 7 AM EDT for an hour. You may wish to catch it. Maybe I'll ask Mr. Tivo to watch it for me.

Stratfor just posted an article that enabled me to understand for the first time the US relationship with Cuba: http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20090413 ... ssion_cuba . If you can't see it, you can sign up for a free introduction to Stratfor that will let you access everything, I think.

Now I'm looking to see if they have anything to say about pirates...

Just checked on the library status of my reserve: there are 17 copies in the system and I am now no. 61 on the list; two weeks ago I was 65. I figure I'll get it 'round about August.

Gahd, there must be some slow readers in your tree. It's not that big a book.