The Bellarmine Feint

The Bellarmine Feint is an intellectual thriller reminiscent of the late Michael Crichton’s wrapping an adventure around a scientific core. The underlying theme is that the pursuit of progress and prosperity through constant innovation and novelty is threatened by the limits discovered in the new science of complexity theory. It turns out that moderation is not just an ethical or pragmatic consideration, but a scientific necessity.The Vatican, bent on restoring the importance of tradition and order, devises a plan to use this discovery to both preserve its existence, and to curb the conduct of the modern secular state. 


In order to test this strategy, Dr. Alan Voldt, an unaware player, is sent to Turkey in 2018 to finalize an inter-university exchange agreement. Voldt is an unlikely candidate to be a lay numerary of the Vatican’s Order of Opus Dei. The former Youngstown State tight end and Marine platoon leader is a controversial authority on the rise and fall of civilizations. Although a committed Catholic, he follows in the footsteps of St. Augustine, who until well into his thirties had prayed, “Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet.” At 41, Voldt has still not turned that corner. 


Turkey’s controversial entry to the European Union gets tangled up with the Vatican strategy through Voldt’s furtive affair with Sila Gyor, a prominent Turkish TV anchor. Her views on Turkey’s future reflect a yearning for Ottoman past glory. This conflicts with a family tradition loyal to the Ataturk European-oriented vision. The ensuing contention over her son’s allegiance leads to tragic consequences. Inexorably, Turkey’s MiT and America’s CIA are drawn into the plot, because interpretations of the Vatican strategy assume conspiratorial dimensions.


In parallel, a Canadian-based Russian oligarch, Maksim Ioshchenkov, also has an interest in Voldt for his access to human terrain analysis--the mapping of tribal, clan, family and clique dynamics underlying formal social structures. This knowledge is essential to his ambition to reopen oil and gas fields in the volatile northern Afghan province of Jozwan. The matter disturbs Voldt. Having been wounded in Afghanistan, the prospect of returning threatens to release his repressed PTSD nightmares. Despite his best efforts he is unable to avoid facing his demons.


About the Author: 

Czerwinski is a retired professor. On the faculty of the Pentagon’s National Defense University, Washington, D.C. he researched and taught the military applications of complexity theory. He has lectured at West Point, Georgetown and Tufts, among others. His publications include the text Coping with the Bounds, and an anthology Complexity, Global Politics and National Security, as well as articles in the Marine Corps Gazette and the Army journal, Parameters. He lives in South Carolina with his wife Sue.


Keywords: Complexity, Moderation, Adventure, Chaos, Turkey, Opus Dei, Nonlinearity, Afghanistan, CIA, Danube