Mind the gap

February 22, 2006 RSS Feed Print

Here is a map showing the location of riots protesting the Danish cartoons. And here's a link to Thomas Barnett's "nonintegrated gap." Notice the similarity? Barnett, as faithful readers of this blog will know, argues that the major task before us in the "functioning core" (North America, much of South America, Europe, India, Japan, and East Asia) is to integrate the "nonintegrated gap" (the Muslim world from the Maghreb to Pakistan, Indonesia, as well as the Philippines and part of Andean Latin America) into the free-market, rule-of-law core. The riots occurring largely in the gap (and in Muslim communities in Europe) are just the latest symptoms of the problem.

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Michael Barone

Michael Barone

U.S. News Weekly

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Michael Barone is a senior writer for U.S.News & World Report and principal coauthor of The Almanac of American Politics. He has written for many publications—including the Economist and the New York Times.

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