Bio
The view south of Anchorage
Barry Scott Zellen is an author, journalist, and political theorist specializing in the philosophy of war, the evolution of strategic theory, state-tribe conflict, and the foundations of world order. Much of his early field work was rooted in the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America, where he developed his ideas on the state-tribe interface, the tribal foundations of world order, and the persistence of tribal governance in remote regions well into the post-Westphalian era.
After riding his cherry-red 250cc Honda Rebel motorbike up the Alaska Highway in 1988, he settled down in the Western Arctic region, staying there until the year 2000, where he managed several indigenous language media properties affiliated with the Northern Native Broadcast Access Program (NNBAP), a program funded by the Government of Canada’s Department of Canadian Heritage dedicated to the preservation of indigenous culture, language and identity and the development of media organizations serving the remote indigenous communities of the high north.
The media organizations Zellen led included the Native Communications Society of the NWT (1995 to 1998), serving the Dene and Metis communities of the Mackenzie River Valley; and Northern Native Broadcasting, Yukon (1998 to 2000), serving the First Nations communities of the Yukon and northern BC. He also served as editor of the unique bilingual Inuvialuit newspaper, Tusaayaksat (1990 to 1993), serving the indigenous communities of the Western Beaufort Sea and Mackenzie Delta region. Throughout the 1990s, he contributed to the ongoing efforts to preserve and revitalize the indigenous languages of the Far North, and to develop print, broadcast and later web media to serve the indigenous peoples of the region. In 1991, he launched a research project called the Arctic Security Project (ASP), now known as the Fast Changing Arctic Project (FCAP), with a grant from the Canadian Institute for International Peace and Security (CIIPS). The project continues to this day, a full twenty years later!
At the start of the new millennium, Zellen headed south to Silicon Valley, where he broadened his media interests to include technology and defense journalism. Starting in 2000, Zellen rolled out a series of new electronic trade
publications built upon the OnPub web publishing platform, created by web entrepreneur and coding prodigy Corey Taylor,
all part of the TechnologyInnovator publishing group, including: EnterpriseInnovator; SecurityInnovator; DefenseInnovator; HPinnovator; WirelessInnovator; SMBInnovator (beta); EnergyInnovator (beta); and TransportationInnovator (beta). He also launched a series of regional and community news publications, also built upon the OnPub code stack, including: TheSourdough and ArcticBusinessJournal serving the high north; and TribalVoice and AboriginalBusinessJournal serving the global indigenous community; TheGringo for expats living south of the border; TheShoestring serving the worldwide community of frugalistas; and IndochinaToday serving expats living in
Southeast Asia and the Malaysian Archipelago (the region historically known as the "East Indies.")
In addition to his publishing activities, Zellen has provided editing and writing services to numerous clients in the technology and security sectors, including: IBM, Hewlett Packard, Vividata, 101communications, The Linux Magazine, Open Source Developers Journal, In-site Tokyo, Entrepreneur Books, Intersec, Intelligence & Warning America, Investor Ideas, Hill & Knowlton, Blanc + Otus, Ripple Effect Communications, and the US Naval Postgraduate School. From 2003 through 2005, Zellen served as author of Hewlett Packard's daily in-house technology roundup, the Competitive Intelligence in Action (CIA) Report, providing thousands of HP staff and managers with daily updates and analysis of issues affecting the enterprise IT industry. After the strategic shock of 9/11 and the start of the Global War on Terror (GWOT), Zellen increasingly turned his attention to the role technology and strategic innovation would play in what became known as the "Long War;" from 2002 through 2009, he served as Counterterrorism and Homeland Security correspondent for Intersec. From 2004 to 2010 he served as managing editor of the Strategic Insights Journal, and from 2008 through 2012 as editor-in-chief of The Culture and Conflict Review, published by the Naval Postgraduate School. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S. (ARCUS) and on the editorial board of the Journal of Defense Management (JDM) and Journal of Defense Studies & Resource Management (JDS&RM).
In addition to Zellen's journalism and research efforts, he is a published author with eight books in print, and
several more volumes forthcoming in the months ahead.
Published Works
Zellen has authored several books on the changing Arctic:
His first is Breaking the Ice: From Land Claims to Tribal Sovereignty in the Arctic (Lexington Books 2008). Now in its second printing, BTI examines the political modernization of the Arctic as the region's indigenous people reclaimed much of their traditional sovereignty using contemporary constitutional, legal, and political processes, resulting in the emergence of a neotribal fusion of indigenous and modern political institutions, with overlapping governing structures transforming the relationship of tribe and state from inherent conflict to collaboration and functional integration.
In its sequel, On Thin Ice: The Inuit, the State and the Challenge of Arctic Sovereignty (Lexington Books, November 2009), Zellen examines the ongoing challenges of asserting sovereignty in the Arctic region, as indigenous sub-state and modern state actors each seek to influence the evolution of diplomatic and strategic policies in the circumpolar region, and to determine Arctic security policies, resulting in the emergence of new concepts wedding indigenous, sub-state cultural values with "raison d'etat."
Zellen's third book on the Far North is Arctic Doom, Arctic Boom: The Geopolitics of Climate Change in the Arctic (Praeger 2009), published in October 2009 as part of Praeger's Security and the Environment Series. ADAB examines the geostrategic impacts of a polar thaw, and questions the politically-biased climate-change industry, and its overly pessimistic presumptions of climate doom, positing that a post-Arctic world could be a more united, properous and peaceful world. Published two months before the climate-gate scandal broke, Zellen's book offered a new, prescient, and non-partisan perspective on what he calls the "post-Arctic world."
After riding his cherry-red 250cc Honda Rebel motorbike up the Alaska Highway in 1988, he settled down in the Western Arctic region, staying there until the year 2000, where he managed several indigenous language media properties affiliated with the Northern Native Broadcast Access Program (NNBAP), a program funded by the Government of Canada’s Department of Canadian Heritage dedicated to the preservation of indigenous culture, language and identity and the development of media organizations serving the remote indigenous communities of the high north.
The media organizations Zellen led included the Native Communications Society of the NWT (1995 to 1998), serving the Dene and Metis communities of the Mackenzie River Valley; and Northern Native Broadcasting, Yukon (1998 to 2000), serving the First Nations communities of the Yukon and northern BC. He also served as editor of the unique bilingual Inuvialuit newspaper, Tusaayaksat (1990 to 1993), serving the indigenous communities of the Western Beaufort Sea and Mackenzie Delta region. Throughout the 1990s, he contributed to the ongoing efforts to preserve and revitalize the indigenous languages of the Far North, and to develop print, broadcast and later web media to serve the indigenous peoples of the region. In 1991, he launched a research project called the Arctic Security Project (ASP), now known as the Fast Changing Arctic Project (FCAP), with a grant from the Canadian Institute for International Peace and Security (CIIPS). The project continues to this day, a full twenty years later!
At the start of the new millennium, Zellen headed south to Silicon Valley, where he broadened his media interests to include technology and defense journalism. Starting in 2000, Zellen rolled out a series of new electronic trade
publications built upon the OnPub web publishing platform, created by web entrepreneur and coding prodigy Corey Taylor,
all part of the TechnologyInnovator publishing group, including: EnterpriseInnovator; SecurityInnovator; DefenseInnovator; HPinnovator; WirelessInnovator; SMBInnovator (beta); EnergyInnovator (beta); and TransportationInnovator (beta). He also launched a series of regional and community news publications, also built upon the OnPub code stack, including: TheSourdough and ArcticBusinessJournal serving the high north; and TribalVoice and AboriginalBusinessJournal serving the global indigenous community; TheGringo for expats living south of the border; TheShoestring serving the worldwide community of frugalistas; and IndochinaToday serving expats living in
Southeast Asia and the Malaysian Archipelago (the region historically known as the "East Indies.")
In addition to his publishing activities, Zellen has provided editing and writing services to numerous clients in the technology and security sectors, including: IBM, Hewlett Packard, Vividata, 101communications, The Linux Magazine, Open Source Developers Journal, In-site Tokyo, Entrepreneur Books, Intersec, Intelligence & Warning America, Investor Ideas, Hill & Knowlton, Blanc + Otus, Ripple Effect Communications, and the US Naval Postgraduate School. From 2003 through 2005, Zellen served as author of Hewlett Packard's daily in-house technology roundup, the Competitive Intelligence in Action (CIA) Report, providing thousands of HP staff and managers with daily updates and analysis of issues affecting the enterprise IT industry. After the strategic shock of 9/11 and the start of the Global War on Terror (GWOT), Zellen increasingly turned his attention to the role technology and strategic innovation would play in what became known as the "Long War;" from 2002 through 2009, he served as Counterterrorism and Homeland Security correspondent for Intersec. From 2004 to 2010 he served as managing editor of the Strategic Insights Journal, and from 2008 through 2012 as editor-in-chief of The Culture and Conflict Review, published by the Naval Postgraduate School. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Arctic Research Consortium of the U.S. (ARCUS) and on the editorial board of the Journal of Defense Management (JDM) and Journal of Defense Studies & Resource Management (JDS&RM).
In addition to Zellen's journalism and research efforts, he is a published author with eight books in print, and
several more volumes forthcoming in the months ahead.
Published Works
Zellen has authored several books on the changing Arctic:
His first is Breaking the Ice: From Land Claims to Tribal Sovereignty in the Arctic (Lexington Books 2008). Now in its second printing, BTI examines the political modernization of the Arctic as the region's indigenous people reclaimed much of their traditional sovereignty using contemporary constitutional, legal, and political processes, resulting in the emergence of a neotribal fusion of indigenous and modern political institutions, with overlapping governing structures transforming the relationship of tribe and state from inherent conflict to collaboration and functional integration.
In its sequel, On Thin Ice: The Inuit, the State and the Challenge of Arctic Sovereignty (Lexington Books, November 2009), Zellen examines the ongoing challenges of asserting sovereignty in the Arctic region, as indigenous sub-state and modern state actors each seek to influence the evolution of diplomatic and strategic policies in the circumpolar region, and to determine Arctic security policies, resulting in the emergence of new concepts wedding indigenous, sub-state cultural values with "raison d'etat."
Zellen's third book on the Far North is Arctic Doom, Arctic Boom: The Geopolitics of Climate Change in the Arctic (Praeger 2009), published in October 2009 as part of Praeger's Security and the Environment Series. ADAB examines the geostrategic impacts of a polar thaw, and questions the politically-biased climate-change industry, and its overly pessimistic presumptions of climate doom, positing that a post-Arctic world could be a more united, properous and peaceful world. Published two months before the climate-gate scandal broke, Zellen's book offered a new, prescient, and non-partisan perspective on what he calls the "post-Arctic world."
 Breaking the Ice |
 On Thin Ice |
Arctic Doom, Arctic Boom
The States of Mind Project: Realism as History's Bridge Linking Theory to Action
In addition to his work on the Arctic, Zellen has completed the first six volumes in an ongoing, multi-year, multi-volume project on the origins and evolution of the modern state, and how realism has served as an enduring bridge linking theory to action for over two millennia as mankind has struggled valiantly to expand a viable zone of sovereignty from the city-state to the global level.
The first four-volumes of the States of Mind project were published as a set by Praeger Security International in August 2011, looking at the genesis of realist theory in the classical era and its evolution across the stage of history. This treatise on the realist tradition probes the effort by political thinkers to catalyze action across two millennia of recurrent chaos, in mankind's continuing search for an enduring, pacific political order. This 1250 page set, originally titled States of Mind: The Realist Tradition and Foundation of Western Order, was re-titled The Realist Tradition in International Relations: Foundations of Western Order with its four volumes titled State of Hope, State of Fear, State of Awe, and State of Siege.
This celebration and revival of the oft-overlooked first Waltzian image as the fundamental building block of world order and the ultimate driver of all variants of international systems is at once a rebuttal of the neorealist paradigm as it is of the more fragmented constructivist response to neorealism, while nonetheless recognizing the underlying aspiration of constructivism: the articulation of ideational blueprints for constructing new political orders. Zellen's variant of realist theory is called constructive realism, laying at the nexus between both realism and idealism as well as neorealism and constructivism -- a grand unified theory bridging political thought and action.
The first four-volumes of the States of Mind project were published as a set by Praeger Security International in August 2011, looking at the genesis of realist theory in the classical era and its evolution across the stage of history. This treatise on the realist tradition probes the effort by political thinkers to catalyze action across two millennia of recurrent chaos, in mankind's continuing search for an enduring, pacific political order. This 1250 page set, originally titled States of Mind: The Realist Tradition and Foundation of Western Order, was re-titled The Realist Tradition in International Relations: Foundations of Western Order with its four volumes titled State of Hope, State of Fear, State of Awe, and State of Siege.
This celebration and revival of the oft-overlooked first Waltzian image as the fundamental building block of world order and the ultimate driver of all variants of international systems is at once a rebuttal of the neorealist paradigm as it is of the more fragmented constructivist response to neorealism, while nonetheless recognizing the underlying aspiration of constructivism: the articulation of ideational blueprints for constructing new political orders. Zellen's variant of realist theory is called constructive realism, laying at the nexus between both realism and idealism as well as neorealism and constructivism -- a grand unified theory bridging political thought and action.
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State of Doom: Bernard Brodie, the Bomb and the Birth of the Bipolar World
Zellen's State of Doom: Bernard Brodie, the Bomb, and the Birth of the Bipolar World was published in December 2011. It explores one of the greatest strategic minds of the 20th century, and the chief intellectual architect of the nuclear age -- Bernard Brodie -- and his efforts not only to reintroduce a new generation of students to the classic work of Carl von Clausewitz, but to modernize Clausewitzian theory for the new, unprecedented dangers of the nuclear era and the realization of the hitherto abstract conception of absolute warfare.
State of Complexity ... and Beyond!
Forthcoming in June 2012, is Zellen's ninth monograph, The Art of War in an Asymmetric World: Strategy for the Post-Cold War Era, originally dubbed State of Complexity. It explores the efforts by contemporary strategic theorists to tackle the challenges of international terrorism and insurgency after the Cold War, and in particular the post-9/11 years -- presenting an intellectual and strategic history of our own time and our innovative adaptations to a new array of asymmetrical and unanticipated threats. Featuring the works of key theorists of asymmetry such as John Arquilla, Thomas P.M. Barnett, Arthur K. Cebrowski, Jim Gant, Samuel P. Huntington, Robert D. Kaplan, David J. Kilcullen, William H. McRaven, and David Ronfeldt, this book bridges the fields of counterinsurgency, homeland security, counterterrorism, cyberwarfare, and the technology of war.
Also forthcoming is Zellen's tenth monograph, State of Recovery: The Race to Secure America after 9/11 -- Technology, Innovation and the War on Terror, a retrospective on the ten years of innovation that followed the September 11 attacks as technologists sought to redress the many security challenges confronting America and the West after the Twin Towers fell. Successfully peer-reviewed, his newest monograph is expected to come to press in late 2012.
In addition to his work on strategic and international relations theory, Zellen continues to study the strategic consequences of the polar thaw and to map the geopolitics of the post-Arctic world. Forthcoming in November 2012 will be Zellen's newest Arctic volume, The Fast-Changing Arctic: Rethinking Arctic Security for a Warmer World, with contributions from the world's leading Arctic security experts from America, Canada, Europe and Asia.
Several new book projects are also underway, scheduled for completion in the months ahead ... Stay tuned!
Also forthcoming is Zellen's tenth monograph, State of Recovery: The Race to Secure America after 9/11 -- Technology, Innovation and the War on Terror, a retrospective on the ten years of innovation that followed the September 11 attacks as technologists sought to redress the many security challenges confronting America and the West after the Twin Towers fell. Successfully peer-reviewed, his newest monograph is expected to come to press in late 2012.
In addition to his work on strategic and international relations theory, Zellen continues to study the strategic consequences of the polar thaw and to map the geopolitics of the post-Arctic world. Forthcoming in November 2012 will be Zellen's newest Arctic volume, The Fast-Changing Arctic: Rethinking Arctic Security for a Warmer World, with contributions from the world's leading Arctic security experts from America, Canada, Europe and Asia.
Several new book projects are also underway, scheduled for completion in the months ahead ... Stay tuned!
