Anne-Marie Slaughter — Globalizing NATO

Power in a network flows from connectedness, or what network theorists call “centrality.” The most powerful member of a network is the node that has the most connections to others, which means that a node can increase its power not only by adding connections directly, but also by increasing the connectedness of nearby nodes.

In other words, the US can increase its own power both by connecting to other NATO members (and then ensuring that NATO is connected to as many other countries and organizations as possible) and by increasing the connectedness of those other countries and organizations. If NATO connects with the African Union, for example, and increases the AU’s connectedness, then both NATO and the AU become more central to the network and hence more powerful in terms of their ability to exercise influence and marshal resources.

The logic of centrality as a source of power creates a virtuous circle, in which members of a network gain advantage by bringing more members into the network and connecting more densely to them. That is exactly the logic behind NATO’s transformation.

Read it at Project Syndicate
Globalizing NATO

by Anne-Marie Slaughter, a former director of policy planning in the US State Department (2009-2011) and a former dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, is Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University.

The libertarian in me is waving a red flag that this is an incredibly dangerous direction to take, which when coupled with central bank independence, sets the world up for a centralized "new world order" as "the last empire," in which the stated agenda is spreading democracy and maintaining a orderly peace, but where the hidden agenda is making the world safe for "market capitalism" with all its warts, like state capture by vested interests. This seems to be the direction in which TPTB are heading.


See also


GLOBAL NATO: A Geostrategic Instrument of Worldwide Military Conquest — A Historical Review and Analysis (1949-2012)
by Ludo De Brabander and Georges Spriet


How NATO can revitalize its role
Frederick Kempe