Thanks Sean!

Sean Meade

Thomas Barnett

This past week has seen a change at the blog that holds the leadoff slot at my Favorite Blog Links. Thomas Barnett announced that his long-time and excellent webmaster Sean Meade was leaving. Normally this would not be cause for another blog to take notice. But, this blog would not exist if it wern't for Sean encouraging me to join the fray that is blogging. I took him to heart and havn't looked back since. Last year, when Great Powers: America and the World After Bush was published, Sean invited me to conduct an online reading group to read and discuss the book. For that experience I am forever grateful to both Sean and Tom. Blogging has also introduced me to a network of blog friends that are as treasured as any friend one could have. This past week, it led me to be invited to become a guest blogger on a new blog about Naval History sponsored by U.S. Naval Institute and the Naval History and Heritage Command. I own a hearty thanks to Sean for his encouragement and continued friendship which made it all possible.

Tom wrote that he would be soldiering on alone, I might note that his solitary effort has produced 33 concise quality posts in the past three and a half days. Here is a sample of some of them.

Gosh! The borderless world that we all dreamed about isn't happening!

The New Core East will get over its fixation on boys versus girls

The riser's ego naturally swells

The Pullout of combat troops will proceed, but trainers will remain in Iraq past 2011

Just prior to Tom announcing Sean's leaving these two gentlemen, and I give them both credit for this feat, saw the blog mark the incredible milestone of 10,000 posts since it's founding.

The 10,000th Post

Tom wrote this article to explain why he blogs. It serves as a templete for all who sit down before the keyboard and grid themselves to be a blogger. He explains how blogging is crucial to his calling.

In this sense, generating and maintaining the blog magnificently expanded my professional "RAM," or random-access memory storage capacity. Without that upgrade, I simply couldn't write or think at the level I do today, nor could I cover as much of the world or so many domains. Without that reach, I couldn't be much of an expert on globalization, which in turn would seriously curtail my ambitions as a grand strategist -- because nowadays, strategic thinking requires a whole lot more breadth than merely mastering the security realm. To be credible and sustainable in this complex age, grand strategy requires a stunning breadth of vision when judged by historical standards. So as far as this one-armed paperhanger is concerned -- no blog, no grand strategist.

Contained within this article are gems of wisdom on how to blog and make it work for the author and the reader. Read-on, of you have the desire to join this hardy band of on-line pamphleteers who add their knowledge and opinion to the electronic wind that is the Internet.

In closing, as Tom noted several times in the 10,000 post article, much of it was possible because of the efforts of his Webmaster, Sean Meade. For that and much more, Sean deserves our most sincere thanks and good wishes in his future pursuits.