How Globalization Spurs Terrorism: The Lopsided Benefits of "One World" and Why That Fuels Violence

by Fathali M. Moghaddam

From the publisher:
This book explores modern Islamic terrorism in the context of globalization and cultural evolution. 21st century terrorism is different and new, first because it relies heavily on electronic communication systems and other aspects of modern technologies, and second, because it is in large part a product of fractured globalization, with its associated threats to the collective identity of Muslims.

Part one of this work contrasts globalization as an ideal with globalization as it is actually taking place, with its enormous contradictions and threats. Moghaddam, a longtime and highly respected terrorism and conflict researcher, argues that globalization is resulting in serious threats to the basic psychological needs of some, particularly in connection with collective identity.

Part two explores how globalization has brought sudden contact between different groups with no previous history of large-scale contact, resulting in a rapid decline in diversity. Terrorism is one of the dysfunctional defense mechanisms of people in such conditions, facing external threats.

Part three describes long-term solutions, focusing particularly on the role of women and the nature of the family in traditional Islamic societies. Moghaddam shows us why globalization is resulting in what he calls "catastrophic evolution," the rapid decline and disappearance of minority cultures and languages, and why that brings a clash of ideologies and the rise of extremism. There are also other dangerous trends, and those call for inspired solutions, springing from an understanding that traditional conflict-resolution, evolved in the shadow of the Cold War, is no longer effective and needs to change.

Creating Young Martyrs: Conditions That Make Dying in a Terrorist Attack Seem Like a Good Idea

by Alice LoCicero and Samuel J Sinclair

From the publisher:
The authors explain how and why we must understand the conditions that spur youths to become martyrs by making them think suicide bombings and other acts of self-destructive terrorism are a "good" way to die. LoCicero and Sinclair present cutting-edge research and theory about the political, social, and living conditions that raise the risk of children deciding to join organizations that use terrorist tactics, and, having joined, to volunteer for missions in which they intentionally die while causing death and destruction, in order to make an impact. Equally important, LoCicero and Sinclair offer concrete suggestions about how ordinary Americans can help reduce and prevent terrorism around the globe.

"What could possibly lead young people, in their teens or even younger, to knowingly take their own lives in order to kill others? LoCicero and Sinclair provide thoughtful, original, and provocative answers to this question. Unlike other recent discussions of the motives that drive terrorist violence, the authors take a developmental and cultural perspective, focusing on the evolving mind of the young person who lives in a world in which his or her people are dominated by powerful others and basic human rights and opportunities are scarce. Based on the best modern and classic scholarship and their own in-depth interviews with young and older persons in war-torn regions, they provide a powerful analysis that is sure to add to our understanding of one of the most vexing problems facing today's world." - Tom Pyszczynski, Ph.D, Professor of Psychology, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs

Top Ten Global Justice Law Review Articles 2007

by Amos N Guiora

From the publisher:
Top Ten Global Justice Law Review Articles 2007 is a thorough and accessible review of the most salient, the most controversial, and the most illuminating essays on security law in the previous calendar year. In this edition, Professor Amos Guiora presents the ten most vital and pertinent law review articles from 2007 written by both scholars who have already gained international prominence as experts in security law as well as emerging voices in the security-law debate. These articles deal with issues of terrorism, security law, and the preservation of civil liberties in the post-9/11 world. The chosen selections derive not just from the high quality and expertise of the articles' authors, but equally from the wide diversity of legal issues addressed by those authors. Guiora combines the expertise of scholars from such accredited institutions as Harvard, Stanford, the U.S Military Academy and the U.S. Department of Defense to provide a valuable resource for scholars and experts researching this important subject area.
This annual review provides researchers with more than just an authoritative discussion on the most prominent security debates of the day; it also educates researchers on new issues that have received far too little attention in the press and in academia. These expert scholars and leaders tackle and give voice to these issues that range from cyberterror to detention of suspected terrorists to France's tightening of its civil liberties policy to new restrictions on religious philanthropy and beyond. Together, the vast knowledge and independent viewpoints represented by these ten authors make this volume, of what will be an annual review within the Terrorism, 2nd Series, a valuable resource for individuals new to the realm of security law and for advanced researchers with a sophisticated understanding of the field. Top Ten Global Justice Law Review Articles 2007 serves as a one-stop guidebook on how both the U.S. and the world generally are currently waging the war on terror.

Amos N. Guiora is a professor of law at The S. J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah where he teaches Criminal Law, Global Perspectives on Counter-terrorism, Religion and Terrorism and National Security Law. In addition, Guiora incorporates innovative scenario-based instruction to address national and international security issues. At the S.J. Quinney College of Law, Guiora, in collaboration with other leading experts at that school, helps lead the school's efforts to provide cutting-edge research, innovative training, and public service initiatives in the prevention and mitigation of global conflict. Professor Guiora has also served in the Judge Advocate General's Corps of the Israel Defense Forces as a Lieutenant Colonel. His senior command postings in the IDF were Commandant of the IDF School of Military Law, Judge Advocate of the Navy and Home Front Command, and Legal Advisor to the IDF's Gaza Strip operations. He brings immense practical experience in combating terrorism to his work on Top Ten Global Justice Law Review Articles.

Constitutional Politics in the Middle East: With Special Reference to Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan

by Said Amir Arjomand

From the publisher:
This book is the first comparative and interdisciplinary study of constitutional politics and constitution-making in the Middle East. The historical background and setting are fully explored in two substantial essays by Linda Darling and Saïd Amir Arjoman

Saïd Amir Arjomand is Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and the founder and President (1996-2002, 2005-08) of the Association for the Study of Persianate Societies.

From LWBN
This book's exact release date is unknown but falls within this month.

The Terrorist Threat from Thailand: Jihad or Quest for Justice?

by Rohan Gunaratna and Arabinda Acharya

From the publisher:
Since January 2004, the violence in the southern provinces of Thailand has claimed more than 2,000 lives. The violence has also adversely affected the local economy and quality of life in the southern provinces. The atmosphere of fear and intimidation is dividing the society on religious lines, with growing apprehension that what began as a separatist nationalist conflict might well end up as a clash between Buddhism and Islam. There is also a strong potential for the Muslim insurgency in southern Thailand to get sucked into the global jihad.

Rohan Gunaratna and Arabinda Acharya provide a short history of the conflict, which dates at least to the early 1900s, as well as an analysis of factors contributing to the most recent escalation of violence, which began in 2001 but assumed an alarming proportion in 2004. The authors shed light on the causes of the Southern Thai conflict and examine its potential to spread from Thailand to neighboring countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Even more alarming, the authors find that there is the possibility that this predominantly localized conflict could escalate into an international Islamic jihad. In addition to analyzing the insurgents capabilities and opportunities, the authors provide a critique of government policies and make astute suggestions for resolving the conflict.

Rohan Gunaratna is head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is also senior fellow at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacys Jebsen Centre for Counter-Terrorism Studies, Boston. Gunaratna is the author of twelve books, including Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror, an international bestseller. His latest book is Countering Terrorism: Can We Meet the Threat of Global Violence?, coauthored with Michael Chandler, chairman of the UN Taliban and al Qaeda monitoring group. He is Visiting Professor at Sydney University's Center for International and Security Studies. Arabinda Acharya is manager of strategic projects at the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His area of research includes conflict, human security, and political violence and terrorism, with an emphasis on terrorist ideology and terrorist financing.

Enemy Combatants and U. S. Courts

by Karen J. Greenberg and Joshua L. Dratel (Editors)

From the publisher:
The Enemy Combatants Papers presents the five major enemy combatant cases of the post-9/11 era. Presented in narrative form, these original documents tell the story that clarifies the questions at the heart of the American detention of alleged combatants in the war on terror. These documents discuss the right to counsel, the right to a trial, the right for the accused to see the evidence against him, and the intersection between domestic and international law. The book highlights the tension between the needs of national security and the liberties allotted to alleged enemies of the state by highlighting the basic question of what the U.S. Constitution guarantees and to whom. In these documents, the reader can follow the evolving arguments about presidential powers in time of war, habeas corpus, the Geneva Conventions, balance of powers, and matters of detention and prisoner treatment. Complemented with a comprehensive timeline and appendices that include the relevant cases from the Civil War, World War II, and the Korean War and the premises for setting up military commissions and Combatant Status Review Tribunals, this book is meant for those who seek to understand the issues - legal, political, and military - that have dominated the search for balance between justice and security in the war on terror.

Karen J. Greenberg is the Executive Director of the Center on Law and Security. She is the editor of the NYU Review of Law and Security, co-editor of The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib, and editor of the books Al Qaeda Now and The Torture Debate in America. She is a frequent writer and commentator on terrorism, international law, the war on terror, and detainee issues. Her work has been featured in the L.A. Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Nation, the American Prospect, and on major media outlets. Joshua Dratel is a practising attorney in New York City. He is past President of the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Along with Major Dan Mori, Dratel assisted in the defense of Australian detainee David Hicks. He also defended al Qaeda member Wadih el Hage after the bombings in Tanzania and Kenya. Dratel has written articles on defending terrorism cases, including Ethical Issues in Defending a Terrorism Case: How Secrecy and Security Impair the Defense of a Terrorism Case and Ethical Issues in Defending a Terrorism Case: Stuck in the Middle. He is co-editor of The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib. He received his B.A. from Columbia College and his law degree from Harvard Law School.

A History of Modern Iran

by Ervand Abrahamian

From the publisher:
In a reappraisal of Iran's modern history, Ervand Abrahamian traces its traumatic journey across the twentieth century, through the discovery of oil, imperial interventions, the rule of the Pahlavis and, in 1979, revolution and the birth of the Islamic Republic. In the intervening years, the country has experienced a bitter war with Iraq, the transformation of society under the clergy and, more recently, the expansion of the state and the struggle for power between the old elites, the intelligentsia and the commercial middle class. The author is a compassionate expositor. While he adroitly negotiates the twists and turns of the country's regional and international politics, at the heart of his book are the people of Iran. It is to them and their resilience that this book is dedicated, as Iran emerges at the beginning of the twenty-first century as one of the most powerful states in the Middle East.

"Ervand Abrahamian has done for Iran what de Tocqueville did for France, showing how the revolution continued the work of the ancien regime, through the ever increasing power of the state." - Edward Mortimer, Senior Vice-President, Salzburg Global Seminar, and author of Faith and Power: the Politics of Islam

"Ervand Abrahamian's authoritative overview of twentieth-century Iran fills a large gap in the literature of Iranian studies. His predilection for social analysis and class studies provides an original prism through which the reader gains fresh insights into the drama of the drawn-out conflict between traditional vested interests and growing state power. Drawing on a lifetime of research and writing, Abrahamian has produced a book that successfully combines erudition and original scholarship with accessibility. Specialists and general readers alike will benefit greatly from its reading." - Andrew Whitley, Director, UNRWA Representative Office

"Ervand Abrahamian's A History of Modern Iran is a splendidly well-researched and well-written, interpretive overview of 19th and 20th century Iran. The main developments under the Qajar and Pahlavi dynasties and under the Islamic Republic, the important role of Shiism in Iran's history, the origins of modernization, the quest for democratic reform at various junctures, popular participation in the revolutions of 1906 and 1978--Abrahamian covers all this and much, much more. This book, by a first rate historian, is a must read for students and those interested in modern Iranian history." - Haleh Esfandiari, Director, Middle East Program, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Islamic Terror: Conscious and Unconscious Motives

by Avner Falk

From the publisher:
Independent scholar Falk analyzes Islamic terror from many standpoints, including religious, cultural, historical, political, social, economic and, above all, psychological. Trained as a clinical psychologist, Falk's writings specialize in psychohistory and political psychology. Here, he examines topics including infantile experience and adult terrorism, the meaning of terror, terrorists and their mothers, narcissistic rage and Islamic terror, and whether terrorists are "normal" people, as some scholars claim. He also describes the infantile development of terrorist pathology, non-psychoanalytic theories of terrorism, globalization's effect on terrorism, and the notion of the clash of civilizations.

Examining the emotional structure of traditional Muslim families, Falk also shows us the Muslim child's ambivalence toward his or her parents, how Muslims abuse women and children, the roots of Muslim rage, and why all of that plays into future terrorism development. Other topics addressed in this reader-friendly analysis include history's first Islamaic terrorists, and three important cases - two recent deadly terrrists, and the last a primary figure in our current "war on terror."

The central idea throughout the book is that a person's attitude toward terror and terrorism - as well as whether he or she becomes a murderous terrorist, or one who wages a global war on terror - has much to do with that person's own terrifying experiences in infancy and childhood. Such terror, usually experienced first in the earliest experience with the mother - is symbolically expressed, as Falk shows, in fairy tales and myths about terrifying withces and female monsters. Further terror may be experienced in one's relationship with the father, and also in various traumatic ways otherwise in childhood. It is these early terrors, when extreme and uncontrollable, that most often produce terrorists and wars on terror, Falk argues. Thus, this book focuses on the conscious, but also the irrational and unconscious, causes of terrorism.

AVNER FALK is an internationally-known Israeli scholar, expert in the fields of psychohistory and political psychology. He trained as a clinical psychologist at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and at Washington University in St. Louis. He practiced psychotherapy for 25 years, during which he served as Senior Clinical Psychologist at several mental health centers, before becoming a full-time independent scholar. He has authored seven earlier books, including Anti-Semitism: A History and Psychology of Hatred (Praeger, 2008), Fratricide in the Holy Land: A Psychoanalytic View of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, and Napoleon Against Himself: A Psychobiography.

The United States and Iran: Sanctions, Wars and the Policy of Dual Containment

by Sas Fayazmanesh

From the publisher:
When and why did the United States policy of containment of Iran come about? How did it evolve? Where is it going?

Much has been said about the US policy of dual containment, particularly as it pertains to Iraq. However, there has been little in-depth analysis of this policy when it comes to Iran.

Sasan Fayazmanesh explores this often neglected subject by analyzing the history of this policy. The analysis includes the role that the Carter and Reagan Administrations played in the Iran-Iraq war, the numerous sanctions imposed on Iran by the Clinton Administration and the aggressive and confrontational policy toward Iran adopted by the George W. Bush Administration after the events of September 11, 2001.

This topical read synthesizes a range of primary sources, including firsthand reports, newspaper articles and electronic media, and presents a coherent analysis of the ebbs and flows in the US thinking on Iran and Iraq.

Terrorism in the 21st Century

by Cynthia C. Combs

From the publisher:
Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century helps readers understand what terrorism is and realistically assess the future of this phenomenon. Putting terrorism into historical perspective and approaching it as a form of political violence, this text offers tools like the latest data and numerous case studies to facilitate the critical analysis of terrorist acts and break down what, who, why, and how. Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century surveys national and international responses, evaluating their effectiveness and concluding with notes on future threats and trends.

Understanding Terriorism and Political Violence

by Dipak Gupta

From the publisher:
This ambitious book has two inter-related objectives, proposing a new theory of human behaviour and then analyzing terrorism in the light of this general theory.

It starts with a new theoretical construct regarding individual motivations. Dipak Gupta posits that in order to understand human motivation, along with self-interest, we must take into account our other primordial instinct: to belong to a group. On the basis of this expanded view of human motivations, the book provides an understanding of the lifecycle of terrorist organizations. Since the lifecycle of a group is inextricably intertwined with public policies, the author also examines the role of the authorities in promoting, maintaining, and suppressing violent dissent.

This innovative and broad-ranging new book will be essential reading for advanced students of terrorism studies and political science, and of great interest to students of social psychology and sociology.

Japanese Public Opinion and the War on Terrorism

by Robert D. Eldridge and Paul Midford (Editors)

From the publisher:
In this volume the contributors argue that the events of 9-11 and the subsequent "war on terrorism" have had big implications for Japan. These events have called into question the assumptions and limits of Japan’s war-renouncing constitution. Within hours of the 9-11 attacks Japan began making important policy innovations that suggested to many analysts a new readiness to support and participate in the use of force overseas, even to the extent of fighting hand-in-hand with US forces in conflicts far from Japanese shores. The authors consider these questions by examining an understudied variable, public opinion.

Robert Eldridge is Associate Professor at the Osaka School of International Public Policy. Paul Midford is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Politica Science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

How Should the U.S. Proceed in Iraq?

by William Dudley

From the publisher:
Books in this anthology series focus a wide range of viewpoints onto a single controversial issue, providing in-depth discussions by leading advocates. Articles are printed in their entirety and footnotes and source notes are retained. These books offer the reader not only a full spectrum of dissent on the subject, but also the ability to test the validity of arguments by following up on sources used as evidence. Extensive bibliographies and annotated lists of relevant organizations to contact offer a gateway to further research. This series provides a quick grounding in the issues, a challenge to critical thinking skills, and an excellent research tool in each inexpensive volume.

The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals

by Jane Mayer

From the publisher:
A dramatic and damning narrative account of how America has fought the "War on Terror"

In the days immediately following September 11th, the most powerful people in the country were panic-stricken. The radical decisions about how to combat terrorists and strengthen national security were made in a state of utter chaos and fear, but the key players, Vice President Dick Cheney and his powerful, secretive adviser David Addington, used the crisis to further a long held agenda to enhance Presidential powers to a degree never known in U.S. history, and obliterate Constitutional protections that define the very essence of the American experiment.

THE DARK SIDE is a dramatic, riveting, and definitive narrative account of how the United States made terrible decisions in the pursuit of terrorists around the world-- decisions that not only violated the Constitution to which White House officials took an oath to uphold, but also hampered the pursuit of Al Qaeda. In gripping detail, acclaimed New Yorker writer and bestselling author, Jane Mayer, relates the impact of these decisions—U.S.-held prisoners, some of them completely innocent, were subjected to treatment more reminiscent of the Spanish Inquisition than the twenty-first century.

THE DARK SIDE will chronicle real, specific cases, shown in real time against the larger tableau of what was happening in Washington, looking at the intelligence gained—or not—and the price paid. In some instances, torture worked. In many more, it led to false information, sometimes with devastating results. For instance, there is the stunning admission of one of the detainees, Sheikh Ibn al-Libi, that the confession he gave under duress—which provided a key piece of evidence buttressing congressional support of going to war against Iraq--was in fact fabricated, to make the torture stop.

In all cases, whatever the short term gains, there were incalculable losses in terms of moral standing, and our country's place in the world, and its sense of itself. THE DARK SIDE chronicles one of the most disturbing chapters in American history, one that will serve as the lasting legacy of the George W. Bush presidency.

Jane Mayer is the co-author of two bestselling and critically acclaimed narrative nonfiction books, LANDSLIDE: THE UNMAKING OF THE PRESIDENT, 1984-1988, and STRANGE JUSTICE: THE SELLING OF CLARENCE THOMAS, the latter of which was a finalist for the National Book Award. Mayer was also awarded the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in connection with THE DARK SIDE. She is currently a Washington-based staff writer for The New Yorker, specializing in political and investigative reporting. Before that, she was a senior writer and front-page editor for The Wall Street Journal, as well as the Journal's first female White House correspondent. She lives in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with her husband, Bill, and their daughter, Kate.

Humanitarian Intervention after Kosovo: Learning from Mistakes in East Timor, Iraq and Darfur

by Aidan Hehir

From the publisher:
This title offers a critical analysis of the record of global civil society and the normative thesis since NATO's intervention in Kosovo. The book advances a new direction for the humanitarian intervention debate. This book unites theory and practice; it provides an in depth analysis of events through case studies of Iraq, Darfur and others, while other chapters build on this data to provide robust theoretical arguments. It makes an important contribution to the theoretical thinking on humanitarian intervention. It examines what makes a 'just' war at a time when a number of recent international issues have reignited the debate regarding internal intervention.

When should the international community intervene to prevent suffering within sovereign states? This book argues that since Kosovo, the normative thesis has failed to influence international politics, as evidenced by events in Iraq and Darfur. This critique rejects realism and offers a new perspective on this important issue.

The Sutras of Abu Ghraib: Notes from a Conscientious Objector in Iraq

by Aidan Delgado

From the publisher:
A young man's transformation from Army Reserve volunteer to Buddhist conscientious objector and critic of the war in Iraq

In 2003 Aidan Delgado was deployed to Nasiriyah and Abu Ghraib with the U.S. Army Reserve. When his colleagues learned that he spoke some Arabic, they made use of him but also began to mistrust him. Delgado's opposition to the war mounted as he saw American arrogance and abuse of unarmed Iraqis run rampant. Concluding that war ran counter to his Buddhist principles, he sought Conscientious Objector status and was honorably discharged. Back home, he began to speak out against the injustices he had seen.

The Sutras of Abu Ghraib is Delgado's account of those days in Iraq. In chronicling the struggles of military life and the dehumanizing effects of war, he examines the attitudes that make prisoner abuse possible and explores his own developing Buddhist beliefs against a brutal backdrop. It is a tale of the cost—but also the urgent necessity—of moral courage.

Aidan Delgado served with the U.S. Army Reserve in Iraq and is now an active member of Iraq Veterans Against the War and the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. A 2006 graduate of the New College of Florida, he lives in Sarasota, Florida.

New Protective State: Government, Intelligence and Terrorism

by Peter Hennessy

From the publisher:
The gathering of intelligence by the Secret Services is an issue of major importance in the modern world. It was on this basis that Bush and Blair decided to go to war, ensuring that arguments both for and against will go on beyond our own generation.

This title discusses the gathering of intelligence by the Secret Services.

Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism: Ethics and Liberal Democracy

by Seumas Miller

From the publisher:
No one denies the impact of terrorism in the contemporary world, but when it comes to understanding the nature of terrorism and its ethical implications there is little agreement. Terrorism and our responses to it give rise to the profound moral issues addressed in this book, including the moral permissibility/impermissibility of terrorists using lethal force against non-combatants in the service of political goals, the practices of assassinating and torturing terrorists, and the infringement of civil liberties by security agencies for the purpose of protecting the lives of citizens against terrorist attacks.

By placing terrorism within the broader framework of contemporary liberal democracies, the author provides a strong basis with which to understand the effects of terrorism and the counter-measures used to combat it. This book is an important read for anyone interested in the ethics of terrorism in the modern world.

Babylon's Ark: The Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo

by Lawrence Anthony and Graham Spence

From the publisher:
The amazing story of the soldiers, conservationists, and ordinary Iraqis who united to save the animals of the Baghdad Zoo

Woven through the narrative is Anthony's obvious love of animals and his anger at what they suffer at the hands of humans, lending a poignancy and immediacy to the story - Booklist

Iraq, Vietnam, and the Limits of American Power

by Robert K. Brigham

From the publisher:
A revised and updated edition of Is Iraq Another Vietnam?

"A superb contribution to our understanding of how these conflicts are the same, how they are different, and how they shape our world."- General Wesley K. Clark, former NATO Supreme Commander and author of Waging Modern War

Robert K. Brigham is the Shirley Ecker Boskey Professor of History and International Relations at Vassar College. He is the author of numerous books and essays on American foreign relations, including Argument Without End: In Search of the Answers to the Vietnam Tragedy written with Robert S. McNamara and James G. Blight.

By His Own Rules: The Story of Donald Rumsfeld

by Bradley Graham

From the publisher:
Once considered among the best and brightest of his generation, Donald Rumsfeld was exceptionally prepared to assume the Pentagon's top job in 2001. Yet six years later, he left office as the most controversial Defense Secretary since Robert McNamara, widely criticized for his management of the Iraq war and for his difficult relationships with Congress, administration colleagues, and military officers. Was he really the arrogant, errant, over-controlling Pentagon leader frequently portrayed — or as his supporters contend, a brilliant, hard-charging visionary caught in a whirl of polarized Washington politics, dysfunctional federal bureaucracy, and bad luck?

Bradley Graham, who closely covered Rumsfeld's challenging tenure at the Pentagon, offers an insightful biography of a complex and immensely influential personality. What emerges is a layered and revealing portrait of a man whose impact on U.S. national security affairs will long out-live him.

Bradley Graham has spent more than twenty-five years at The Washington Post in various reporting and editing assignments focused on military and foreign affairs. The author of Hit to Kill: The New Battle Over Shielding America From Missile Attack, he lives in Washington, D.C.

Terrorism Informatics: Knowledge Management and Data Mining for Homeland Security

by by Hsinchun Chen, Edna Reid, Joshua Sinai, Andrew Silke, and Boaz Ganor (Editor)

From the publisher:
Terrorism informatics has been defined as the application of advanced methodologies, information fusion and analysis techniques to acquire, integrate process, analyze, and manage the diversity of terrorism-related information for international and homeland security-related applications. The wide variety of methods used in terrorism informatics are derived from Computer Science, Informatics, Statistics, Mathematics, Linguistics, Social Sciences, and Public Policy and these methods are involved in the collection of huge amounts of information from varied and multiple sources and of many types in numerous languages. Information fusion and information technology analysis techniques which include data mining, data integration, language translation technologies, and image and video processing play central roles in the prevention, detection, and remediation of terrorism. While there has been substantial investment on computer technology research applications to terrorism, much of the results and the literature has been a fragmented hodgepodge that is too narrowly focused on unconnected and unlinked discipline domains. As a result, there has been little effort to relate the research across the discipline domains from which terrorism informatics is drawn.

TERROR INFORMATICS: Knowledge Management and Data Mining for Homeland Security will provide an interdisciplinary and comprehensive survey of the state-of-the-art of terrorism informatics domain along three basic dimensions: methodological issues in terrorism research; information infusion techniques to support terrorism prevention, detection, and response; and legal, social, privacy, and data confidentiality challenges and approaches. The book will bring "knowledge" that can be used by scientists, security professionals, counterterrorism experts, and policy makers.

The Suicide of Reason: Radical Islam's Threat to the West

by Lee Harris

From the publisher:
Whether by choice or not, the West finds itself in a low-grade yet bitter war with Islamic fanaticism. It is a war the West is singularly ill equipped to fight. The foe is resistant to any of the normal methods of conflict resolution such as negotiation, economic sanctions, or conventional armed confrontation.

The Suicide of Reason shows how modern liberal societies, whose political theories are born of the Enlightenment, are unfamiliar with the nature of mass fanaticism. The West can only think of fanaticism as a social pathology, a failure to modernize, rather than as what it is: a variety of social order that is not only fully viable in the modern world but also willing to use weapons to which the West is uniquely vulnerable. A governing philosophy based on reason, tolerance, and consensus cannot defend itself against a strategy of ruthless violence without being radically transformed-or destroyed. Extraordinarily original and thought-provoking, The Suicide of Reason explains the logic of fanatical movements from the Crusades through Nazism to radical Islam; describes how the Enlightenment overcame fanatical thinking in the West; shows why most Western attempts to address the problem are doomed to fail; and offers strategies by which liberal internationalism can defend itself without becoming a mirror of the tribal forces it is trying to defeat.

Lee Harris is the author of Civilization and Its Enemies: The Next Stage of History and a frequent contributor to Policy Review, the Wall Street Journal’s “Opinion Journal,” and other publications, both print and online. He lives in Stone Mountain, Georgia.

Go! Go! Go!: 17 Minutes That Changed the World

by Nigel McCrery

From the publisher:
n 1980, a group of terrorists seized the Iranian embassy in London and took captive everyone inside. When one of the hostages was murdered, the SAS Special Air Services of the British Army received their orders: “Go! Go! Go!” Seventeen minutes later, five of the six terrorists lay dead, and the last taken prisoner. The remaining hostages all survived, and no Special Forces man died. This mission carried out in daylight at the Prime Minister’s demand, so that the world could see catapulted the SAS overnight from obscurity to worldwide fame. Written with the active involvement of the men who participated, this fascinating work features a host of revelations that will surprise even the most dedicated SAS enthusiast, and interest everyone concerned with terrorism in our dangerous age.

Baghdad Bonanza: Iraq's Failed Reconstruction

by Pratap Chatterjee

From the publisher:
"If you feel you only have time to read two American writers about the disaster in Iraq, your choice is easy: Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker and Pratap Chatterjee of CorpWatch."-David Weir, Stanford University

After five years of occupation and billions of US dollars spent, Iraq has less electricity, less drinkable water, and even less oil than before the invasion. Who got the tens of billions of dollars to rebuild the country, and what did they do with the money? To find out, Pratap Chatterjee travels to Iraq three times and comes back telling stories and naming names. He describes spectacular examples of fraud, from the ex-convict who bought luxury cars and gold watches with money he received to fix a library, to the company that repainted the national airline's own equipment and tried to sell it back to the Iraqi government.

Chatterjee details how US contractors played a role in training death squads, why 190,000 missing US guns are exacerbating the security crisis, and what the big roles played by Halliburton and Bechtel are. Written in the same fast-paced style that made his Iraq, Inc. a hit, Baghdad Bonanza is fearless investigative writing, destined to have a profound impact. This is a complete how-NOT-to manual for policymakers and citizens alike, anyone concerned with the issues of occupation and reconstruction.

Pratap Chatterjee is managing editor of CorpWatch. He is the author of Earth Brokers (Routledge, 1994), and he has written for the Financial Times and the Guardian. Chatterjee has appeared on CNN International, BBC, Fox, and MSNBC, and he was the recipient of a National Federation of Community Broadcasters award for his work in Afghanistan.

The War on Islam

by Enver Masud

From the publisher:
A collection of essays revised to include new information about the war on terror, this analysis examines world affairs and dispels myths put forth from a doctored and complacent United Sates media. Urgent, important, and topical, this treatise gives insight into American's reputation around the world as well as how to rid the American public of their misconceptions about Islam. This exploration also attempts to increase international understanding of Islam and Muslim life, offering a balanced truth of the culture and religion.

Enver Masud is the founder and CEO of the Wisdom Fund. He worked as an engineering and management consultant for the World Bank and USAID around the world.

Inside Iran

by Mark Edward Harris

From the publisher:
The Islamic Republic of Iran is at the center of world attention politically, socially, and culturally—but it remains largely a cipher to the West. Award-winning photographer Mark Edward Harris has traveled throughout Iran to produce the first contemporary photographic book on a place seldom seen or understood. His images of daily life offer a fascinating look at a society of juxtapositions—ancient and modern, commercial and spiritual, serene and intense, political and personal. With chapter introductions and extended captions providing context for the images, Inside Iran is a crucial look at a country whose future is likely to influence our own.

Mark Edward Harris has traveled and photographed in more than 70 countries and is the author of several books, most recently Inside North Korea. He lives in Los Angeles.

Generation Kill

by Evan Wright

From the publisher:
Within hours of 9/11, America's war on terrorism fell to those like the 23 Marines of the First Recon Battalion, the first generation dispatched into open-ended combat since Vietnam. They were a new breed of American warrior unrecognizable to their forebears-soldiers raised on hip hop, Internet porn, Marilyn Manson, video games and The Real World, a band of born-again Christians, dopers, Buddhists, and New Agers who gleaned their precepts from kung fu movies and Oprah Winfrey. Cocky, brave, headstrong, wary, and mostly unprepared for the physical, emotional, and moral horrors ahead, the "First Suicide Battalion" would spearhead the blitzkrieg on Iraq, and fight against the hardest resistance Saddam had to offer.

Generation Kill is the funny, frightening, and profane firsthand account of these remarkable men, of the personal toll of victory, and of the randomness, brutality, and camaraderie of a new American war.

Evan Wright is a reporter for Rolling Stone.

From LWBN
This is the first paperbak edition of a previously published hardback.

War and Media Operations: The US Military and the Press from Vietnam to Iraq

by Thomas Rid

From the publisher:
This is the first academic analysis of the role of embedded media in the 2003 Iraq War, providing a concise history of US military public affairs management since Vietnam.

In late summer 2002, the Pentagon considered giving the press an inside view of the upcoming invasion of Iraq. The decision was surprising, and the innovative "embedded media program" itself received intense coverage in the media. Its critics argued that the program was simply a new and sophisticated form of propaganda. Their implicit assumption was that the Pentagon had become better at its news management and had learned to co-opt the media.

This new book tests this assumption, introducing a model of organizational learning and redraws the US military’s cumbersome learning curve in public affairs from Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, the Persian Gulf, Somalia, the Balkans to Afghanistan, examining whether past lessons were implemented in Iraq in 2003. Thomas Rid argues that while the US armed forces have improved their press operations, America’s military is still one step behind fast-learning and media-savvy global terrorist organizations.

War and Media Operations will be of great interest to students of the Iraq War, media and war, propaganda, political communications and military studies in general.

The Speed of Heat: An Airlift Wing at War in Iraq and Afghanistan

by Thomas W. Young

From the publisher:
With its fleet of large transport aircraft, the United States military can put personnel and equipment anywhere on the globe within hours. In the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in particular, virtually every soldier, every bullet, every pint of blood, and every bite of food have arrived in the war zone by airlift.

This book tells the story of one Air National Guard airlift wing as related by its members. The 167th Airlift Wing of the West Virginia Air National Guard consisted of a squadron of 12 C-130 cargo planes, their crews, and all the supporting sections—in all, more than 1,200 people. The author, a former Associated Press reporter turned aviator, flew as an active member of that unit and interviewed nearly 70 servicemen and women for this book. They include aircrews who dodged heat-seeking missiles, mechanics who made combat repairs, flight nurses who treated and transported the wounded, even two motor pool truck drivers struck by a roadside bomb.

Senior Master Sergeant Thomas W. Young is a flight engineer with the West Virginia Air National Guard and a former writer and editor for the broadcast division of the Associated Press. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia.

Global Security Watch - Iran: A Reference Handbook

by Thomas R. Mattair

From the publisher:
This book explains the foreign policy decisions of Iranian leaders, as well as the foreign policy decisions of its neighbors and major world powers.

Iran is not treated primarily as a problem to be dealt with by the United States and its friends. There is an effort to understand not only the concerns and policies of the United States and its allies, but also to understand Iranian concerns and policy. Thus, this book is better able than many others to explain the actions, reactions, and interactions of all the relevant actors and to explore the prospects for future war or peace.

Mattair provides a comprehensive analysis of Iran's relations with its neighbors and major world powers. He begins with a review of Iran's foreign relations from the time of Iran's founding in the 5th century B.C. through the Islamic era beginning in the mid-600's A.D., and the native dynasties that ruled in more recent centuries as Iran faced challenges from foreign powers such as the Ottoman Empire and Western colonial empires. The rule of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, from 1941 until 1979, is analyzed in detail, covering his efforts to deter aggression by the Soviet Union, forge an alliance with the United States, assert Iran's power in the Persian Gulf, and exercise Iran's economic power, particularly through its oil wealth.

The bulk of the book, however, focuses on the foreign relations of the Islamic Republic of Iran since 1979, during the time in which Ayatollah Khomeini and his successors have ruled. The reasons for Iran's early revolutionary activism, its antagonism toward the United States and Israel, and its war with Iraq from 1980 to 1988, are carefully examined. The reasons for international efforts to contain Iran, particularly efforts by the United States, are also analyzed. Iran's more pragmatic policies are explained, as well, including its close relations with Russia and China, its efforts to repair relations with Saudi Arabia and the other Arab states of the Gulf, its cooperation with U.S. efforts to topple the Taliban in Afghanistan after September 11, 2001, and its offer of comprehensive negotiations with the United States in May 2003. Finally, Mattair analyses the current global debate about whether diplomacy, sanctions, or military action are appropriate responses to Iran's nuclear programs, its role in Iraq and the Persian Gulf, and its resistance to Israel.

"Dr. Mattair has written a superb, insightful work that thoroughly lays out the issues, history, and options regarding our relationship with Iran. It is a must read for those interested in this critical problem and for those who will decide our course of action." - General Anthony C. Zinni, USMC, (Ret.), Former Commander in Chief, U.S. Central Command, commanding U.S. military forces in the Middle East, 1997-2000; Former special envoy to Israel and the Palestinian Authority, 2002

Treating Victims of Weapons of Mass Destruction: Medical, Legal and Strategic Aspects

by Patrick Barriot and Chantal Bismuth (editors)

From the publisher:
During the last century, the weapons of war became increasingly sophisticated and their effects ever more remote from the actual user. Militarization of nuclear atomic forces, chemicals and biological agents has considerably enlarged the arena of warfare, but of possibly even greater concern is the threat of such agents being deployed by terrorists. This book was originally published in French in 2004: subsequent events, such as the London bombings in July 2005, have only reinforced the importance of all doctors and emergency personnel understanding the various agents that could be used and having the knowledge to deal with victims of an attack or even an industrial accident. The book has therefore been translated into English to make it available to a wider audience.

The book was coordinated by Chantal Bismuth, Professor of Medicine who has acted as an advisor for the Minister of Health in France and is an international consultant in toxicology. Her co-editor, Patrick Barriot, is an anaesthetist with operational experience in the Paris Fire Brigade and the 11th division of Paratroops who is now responsible for the department of ‘Biological risks from new technologies’. The authors are representative of the doctors who would have to deal with the human casualties of warfare or a terrorist attack. They review all weapons of mass destruction, both chemical and biological, including the use of bacteria, anthrax and viruses such as variola and influenza. In each case, they describe the pathogenic agent, the human consequences, organizational aspects of care for the victims and best practice for treatment. As one author reports, “The infections caused by potential biological warfare agents are seldom taught in the course of medical studies and the majority of physicians never encounter these types of pathology in their daily professional practice. Since its eradication, people are not trained to recognize smallpox or to make the differential diagnosis between anthrax and bronchitis.” Other chapters cover the effects of nuclear weapons and radiation on humans as well as the features of Gulf War syndrome. An important chapter deals with the organization of medical responses to chemical or biological attack: “Planning, equipping, and training responder services are the best responses to the dispersion of chemical and biological agents.”

The book addresses all those involved in the security of the civilian population, the organization of rescue services and the treatment of victims.

Restoring Justice After Large-scale Violent Conflicts: Kosovo, DR Congo and the Israeli-Palestinian Case

by Ivo Aertsen, Jana Arsovska, Holger-C Rohne, Marta Valinas, and Kris Vanspauwen (editors)

From the publisher:
This book provides a comparative analysis of the potential of restorative justice approaches to dealing with mass victimization in the context of large-scale violent conflicts – focusing on case studies from Kosovo, Israel-Palestine and Congo, incorporating contributions from leading authorities in these areas.

One of the main objectives of the book is to examine if, how and to what extent restorative justice is applicable in various different cultural, social and historical contexts, and what common themes can be identified within the different regions under analysis.

The book will also provide a critical analysis of the UN Basic Principles on the use of restorative justice programmes in criminal matters as applied to the context of large scale violence.

The 9/11 Encyclopedia

by Stephen E. Atkins

From the publisher:
Horror. Sadness. Protests. Military action. Conspiracy theories. From personal loss to economic upheaval to a paradigm shift in U.S. foreign relations, few events in the past 100 years have impacted American life so greatly as the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

This comprehensive two-volume set details every event leading up to 9/11, going back up to a decade prior to the attacks, and including all participants from any place in the world. Also covered are events since the attack that have influenced our understanding of the ordeal. With A-Z entries, descriptive sidebars, and over 40 primary documents, The 9/11 Encyclopedia is an essential source for understanding one of the blackest marks on the pages of American history.

Volume one presents A-Z entries on the event, including:

# Conspiracy theories
# Economic impact of 9/11
# FBI and 9/11
# Flight 93
# Hamburg Group
# John O'Neill
# Khalid Sheik Mohammad
# Logan Airport
# Mohammad Atta
# New York Fire Department
# Osama Bin Laden
# Ramzi Ahmed Yousef
# World Trade Center Bombing (1993)

Volume two includes over 40 primary documents relating to the event. Selections include:

# Osama Bin Laden's declaration of Jihad
# Richard Clarke's memorandum to Condoleezza Rice on al-Qaeda
# Oral testimony from survivors of the 9/11 attack
# Interview with Mullah Umar Muhammad
# The White House declaration on the humane treatment of al-Qaeda and Taliban Detainees

STEPHEN E. ATKINS is Associate University Librarian for Collection Management at Texas A&M University. His numerous published works include Encyclopedia of Modern American Extremists and Extremist Groups (Oryx 2002), Historical Encyclopedia of Atomic Energy (Greenwood 2000), which was awarded a Booklist Editors' Choice Award for 2000, and Terrorism: A Handbook (1992).

Iran, North Korea and the Emerging Nuclear Proliferation Crisis

by Arjun Makhijani

From the publisher:
North Korea has the bomb, as do eight other countries. Iran is developing the capacity to make one. Behind them, more than 30 other countries, including Japan, Egypt, Ukraine, Brazil, Turkey, Venezuela, and South Korea have the potential to become nuclear powers in the years ahead. Arjun Makhijani, one of the world's leading experts on nuclear proliferation, explains why the world could be on the brink of President Kennedy's nightmare - dozens of nuclear states, all threatening to use these apocalyptic weapons against one another. How can the global community stop the frightening rush to nuclear standoffs around the globe? This up-to-the-minute book reveals the untold story of the nuclear arms race in North Korea and Iran and how we can stop the spread of nuclear weapons before it's too late.

Warring Friends: Alliance Restraint in International Politics

by Jeremy Pressman

From the publisher:
Allied nations often stop each other from going to war. Some countries even form alliances with the specific intent of restraining another power and thereby preventing war. Furthermore, restraint often becomes an issue in existing alliances as one ally wants to start a war, launch a military intervention, or pursue some other risky military policy while the other ally balks. In Warring Friends, Jeremy Pressman draws on and critiques realist, normative, and institutionalist understandings of how alliance decisions are made.

Alliance restraint often has a role to play both in the genesis of alliances and in their continuation. As this book demonstrates, an external power can apply the brakes to an incipient conflict, and even unheeded advice can aid in clarifying national goals. The power differentials between allies in these partnerships are influenced by leadership unity, deception, policy substitutes, and national security priorities.

Recent controversy over the complicated relationship between the U.S. and Israeli governments--especially in regard to military and security concerns--is a reminder that the alliance has never been easy or straightforward. Pressman highlights multiple episodes during which the United States attempted to restrain Israel's military policies: Israeli nuclear proliferation during the Kennedy Administration; the 1967 Arab-Israeli War; preventing an Israeli preemptive attack in 1973; a small Israeli operation in Lebanon in 1977; the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982; and Israeli action during the Gulf War of 1991. As Pressman shows, U.S. initiatives were successful only in 1973, 1977, and 1991, and tensions have flared up again recently as a result of Israeli arms sales to China.

Pressman also illuminates aspects of the Anglo-American special relationship as revealed in several cases: British nonintervention in Iran in 1951; U.S. nonintervention in Indochina in 1954; U.S. commitments to Taiwan that Britain opposed, 1954-1955; and British intervention and then withdrawal during the Suez War of 1956. These historical examples go far to explain the context within which the Blair administration failed to prevent the U.S. government from pursuing war in Iraq at a time of unprecedented American power.

Jeremy Pressman is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Connecticut.

From LWBN
This book's exact release date is unknown but falls within this month. This is the first paperbak edition of a previously published hardback.

Global Terrorism

by James M. Lutz and Brenda Lutz

From the publisher:
This textbook is a comprehensive introduction to global terrorism helping students to understand the history, politics, ideologies and strategies of both contemporary and older terrorist groups.

From LWBN
This book's exact release date is unknown but falls within this month.

Security versus Justice?: Police and Judicial Cooperation in the European Union

by Elspeth Guild and Florian Geyer (editors)

From the publisher:
One of the most dynamic areas of EU law since the great changes brought to the EU constitutional order by the Amsterdam Treaty in 1999 has been cooperation in the fields of policing and criminal justice. Both fields have already been the subject of substantial legislative effort in the EU and an increasing amount of judicial activity in the European Court of Justice. In 2007 – after the Constitutional Treaty of 2004 failed – the new Reform Treaty planned very substantive changes to these policies.

Bringing together a wide-ranging set of topics and contributors, this book enables readers to understand these changes by examining three key questions: how did we get to the Reform Treaty; what have been – and still are – the key struggles in competence; and how do the changes fit into the transformation of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters in the EU?

Elspeth Guild is based at the Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels, Belgium and is a Professor of European Migration Law at Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. Florian Geyer is based at the Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels, Belgium.

From LWBN
This book's exact release date is unknown but falls within this month.

From Terrorism to Politics

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Counterterrorism: Democracy's Challenge

by Andrea Bianchi and Alexis Keller (editors)

From the publisher:
Terrorist violence is no novelty in human history and, while government reactions to it have varied over time, some lessons can be learnt from the past. Indeed, the debate on when and how a state should use emergency powers that limit individual freedoms.

Andrea Bianchi is Professor of International Law at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva and at the Faculty of Law of the Catholic University, Milan. In 2004 he edited Enforcing International Law Norms against Terrorism

From LWBN
This book's exact release date is unknown but falls within this month.

The Arab Center: The Promise of Moderation

by Marwan Muasher

From the publisher:
Marwan Muasher, a prominent Jordanian diplomat, has been instrumental in shaping Middle East peace efforts for nearly twenty years. He served as Jordan’s first ambassador to Israel and was also ambassador to the United States, spokesperson at peace talks in Madrid and Washington, minister of foreign affairs, and deputy prime minister in charge of reform. Here he recounts the behind-the-scenes details of diplomatic ventures over the past two decades, including such recent undertakings as the Arab Peace Initiative and the Middle East Road Map.

Muasher’s insights into internal Arab politics and the successes and failures of the Arab Center are uniquely informed and deeply felt. He assesses how the middle road approach to reform is faring and explains why current tactics used by the West to deal with Islamic groups are doomed to failure. He examines why the Arab Center has made so little progress and which Arab, Israeli, and American policies need rethinking. Part memoir and part analysis, this book reveals the human side of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It is essential reading for all who share the hope that moderate, pragmatic Arab voices will be heard in today’s vitriolic debates over how to achieve an enduring peace in the Middle East.

The Military Error: Baghdad and Beyond in America's War of Choice

by Thomas Powers

From the publisher:
Why did George W. Bush invade Iraq? What were the real motives, the overarching policy decisions that drove events from September 11 until the war began?

To a large extent, we still don’t know. But by now we do know in some detail, as Thomas Powers carefully explains in the essays collected here, how the administration made its case for war, using faulty intelligence to argue that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and posed a mounting threat to the Middle East. Once Iraq was occupied and the weapons turned out not to exist, the case for war seemed to disappear as well. Bit by bit the evidence–the documents suggesting that Iraq was trying to buy yellowcake uranium in Niger, the aluminum tubes that the United States claimed were meant for uranium enrichment, the Iraqi defector code-named Curveball who claimed Saddam had mobile biological weapons labs–has been exposed as unreliable, misinterpreted, “cherry-picked,” exaggerated, or just fake.

But as faulty as the intelligence was, it was always only a pretext, a way of persuading Congress, America, and the world to support a war that President Bush had already decided to wage. The real question remains: Why did Bush insist on a war of choice, refusing to accept any solution short of an American occupation of Iraq? The answers Powers proposes to that question, which assess the Iraq invasion as an insistence on responding to political and cultural conflicts with military action, suggest an overarching failure of American policy in the region that, as long as it remains insufficiently understood and publicly debated, will make it difficult for any president to change course.

No one is better prepared than Powers to evaluate the way the Bush administration used intelligence to make its case for war, used the CIA for political ends, and used arguments of secrecy to advance both its geopolitical agenda and its claims for executive power. But beyond the now-familiar stories of nonexistent WMDs, The Military Error proposes a new, deeper analysis of the error of using military force, which has succeeded primarily in generating opposition and increasing resistance to American aims. America went into Iraq full of bright hopes and confident ideas, but Powers argues that those ideas, based on the ability of force to solve problems, defeat opponents, and make friends, were largely illusions. Such illusions, as we learned at great cost in Vietnam, die hard, but we can make decisions about our future role in Iraq only by understanding the errors that got us embroiled there in the first place.

Thomas Powers is the author of The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA, Heisenberg’s War: The Secret History of the German Bomb, Intelligence Wars, and The Confirmation, a novel. He won a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 1971 and has contributed to The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Book Review, Harper’s, The Nation, The Atlantic, and Rolling Stone.

Condor Blues: British Soldiers at War

by Mark Nicol

From the publisher:
This honest and visceral account of British soldiers in Iraq, focusing on two platoons based at Camp Condor in Maysan Province, provides shocking insight into the consequences of the flawed thinking behind Allied operations in Iraq.

Mark Nicol is the author of the acclaimed Ultimate Risk and Last Round, and writes for the Mail on Sunday. He is also the defence analyst for Sky, GMTV and Radio Five Live.

From LWBN
This is the first paperback edition of a previously published hardback.

Justice at War: The Men and Ideas that Shaped America's War on Terror

by David Cole

From the publisher:
How did America become a nation that tortured prisoners, spied on its citizens, and gave its president unchecked powers in matters of defense? Has justice been the greatest casualty of the war on terror?After the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Bush administration swiftly began to rethink its approach to national security. In a series of memos and policy decisions, many top secret and only made public much later, the administration’s lawyers dismissed the Geneva conventions as “quaint,” justified the torture of suspected terrorists, argued that the president in his capacity as commander in chief was bound by no laws in defending the nation at home and abroad, and approved a domestic surveillance program that flagrantly violated US law.

In Justice at War, David Cole takes a critical look at the men who made the decisions that shaped America’s war on terror. After September 11, Attorney General John Ashcroft aggressively expanded federal law enforcement powers. John Yoo, who served in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, drafted some of the most controversial memos justifying torture. David Addington, Dick Cheney’s counsel, argued for virtually unlimited presidential power. Alberto Gonzales, Bush’s counsel, seemed willing to defend the president’s view on any issue.

Yet Cole believes that America can prevail against the threat of terror, not by dismantling the checks and balances that guarantee the fairness of our justice system but by restoring them. He discusses how Michael Mukasey, the new attorney general, may try to improve the Justice Department’s tattered reputation. He explains why the Supreme Court rejected the president’s claim of authority to try enemy combatants in military tribunals under rules that violated the Geneva conventions. And he considers arguments by legal scholars about the limits of constitutional protections when the nation is under the threat of terrorism.Yet above all we must remember that the Constitution embodies principles that we should not give up in times of fear, Cole argues: “Both the strength and security of the nation in the struggle with terrorists rest on adherence to the rule of law, including international law, because only such adherence provides the legitimacy we need if we are to win back the world’s respect.”

David Cole is a professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center. His latest book, written with Jules Lobel, is Less Safe, Less Free: Why America Is Losing the War on Terror.

Savage Mules: The Democrats and Endless War

by Dennis Perrin

From the publisher:
Americans see the Democratic Party as the anti-war party: vacillating flip-floppers in the eyes of conservatives; or, in the liberal view, restrained, measured wagers of war as "last resort." In November 2006, voters put the Democrats into Congress to bring an end to the Iraq war. Yet the Democrats supported the "surge," giving Bush more money than he himself requested, and voted through the next $459.6 billion defense budget.

In this hard-hitting examination of their role in the War on Terror, political analyst and satirist Dennis Perrin shatters the myth of the reluctant-warrior Democrats. He explores Democrat collusion in the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and support for Israeli assaults on Gaza and Lebanon, while revealing their overlooked appetite for planning wars and selling them to the electorate. Compelling and bleakly humorous, Savage Mules shows a party at odds with its public image on this key issue in the race for the White House.

Dennis Perrin is the author of Mr. Mike: The Life and Work of Michael O'Donoghue, The Man Who Made Comedy Dangerous and American Fan: Sports Mania and the Culture That Feeds It. His work has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, The Realist, Huffington Post, Mother Jones, at MSNBC, and in numerous independent weeklies and newspapers. He was a jokewriter for Bill Maher, and has blogged under the name Red State Son.

My Guantanamo Diary: The Detainees and the Stories They Told Me

by Mahvish Khan

From the publisher:
Mahvish Khan is an American lawyer, born to immigrant Afghan parents in Michigan. Outraged that her country was illegally imprisoning people at Guantanamo, she volunteered to translate for the prisoners. She spoke their language, understood their customs, and brought them Starbucks chai, the closest available drink to the kind of tea they would drink at home. And they quickly befriended her, offering fatherly advice as well as a uniquely personal insight into their plight, and that of their families thousands of miles away.

For Mahvish Khan the experience was a validation of her Afghan heritage—as well as her American freedoms, which allowed her to intervene at Guantanamo purely out of her sense that it was the right thing to do. Mahvish Khan's story is a challenging, brave, and essential test of who she is — and who we are.

Law and the Long War: The Future of Justice in the Age of Terror

by Benjamin Wittes

From the publisher:
Benjamin Wittes offers the first nonpartisan critique of a crucial front in America’s war on terror—the legal battles fought by and among the Bush administration, the U.S. Congress, and the Supreme Court

Six years after the September 11 attacks, America is losing a crucial front in the ongoing war on terror. It is losing not to Al Qaeda but to its own failure to construct a set of laws that will protect the American people—its military and executive branch, as well as its citizens—in the midst of a conflict unlike any it has faced in the past. Now, in the twilight of President Bush’s administration, Brookings Institution fellow Benjamin Wittes offers a vigorous analysis of the troubling legal legacy of the Bush administration as well as that of the U.S. Congress and the Supreme Court. Law and the Long War tells as no book has before the story of how America came to its current impasse in the debate over liberty, human rights, and counterterrorism and draws a road map for how the country and the next president might move forward.

Moving beyond the stale debate between those fixated on the executive branch as the key architect of counterterrorism policy and those who see the judiciary as the essential guarantor of liberty against governmental abuses, Wittes argues that the essential problem is that the Bush administration did not seek—and Congress did not write—new laws to authorize and regulate the tough presidential actions this war would require. In a line of argument that is sure to spark controversy, Wittes reveals an administration whose most significant failure was not that it was too aggressive in the substance of its action, but rather that it tried to shoulder the burden of aggressiveness on its own without seeking the support of other branches of government. Using startling new empirical research on the detainee population at Guantánamo Bay, Wittes avers that many of the administration’s actions were far more defensible than its many critics believed and actually warranted congressional support. Yet by resisting both congressional and judicial involvement in its controversial decisions, the executive branch ironically prevented both of those branches from sharing in the political accountability for necessary actions that challenged traditional American notions of due process and humane treatment.

Boldly offering a new way forward, Wittes concludes that the path toward fairer, more accountable rules for a conflict without end lies in the development of new bodies of law covering detention, interrogation, trial, and surveillance. Sure to discomfort and ignite debate, Law and the Long War is the first nonideological argument about a controversial issue of vital importance to all Americans.

Benjamin Wittes is a Fellow and Research Director in Public Law at the Brookings Institution. A former editorial writer for The Washington Post specializing in legal affairs, he currently writes a column for The New Republic Online and is a contributing editor for The Atlantic Monthly. He is a member of the Hoover Institution Task Force on National Security and Law.

Security Informatics and Terrorism: Patrolling the Web:Social and Technical Problems of Detecting and Controlling Terrorists' Use of the WWW

Edited by C.S. Gal, P.B. Kantor and B. Shapira

From the publisher:
This work is intended to be of interest to counter-terrorism experts and professionals, to academic researchers in information systems, computer science, political science and public policy, and to graduate students in these areas.

The goal of this book is to highlight several aspects of patrolling the Web that were raised and discussed by experts from different disciplines. The book includes academic studies from related technical fields, namely, computer science and information technology, the strategic point of view as presented by intelligence experts, and finally the practical point of view by experts from related industry describing lessons learned from practical efforts to tackle these problems.

This volume is organized into four major parts: definition and analysis of the subject, data-mining techniques for terrorism informatics, other theoretical methods to detect terrorists on the Web, and practical relevant industrial experience on patrolling the Web.

Social Dynamics of Global Terrorism and Prevention Policies

by N. Çabuk Kaya and A. Erdemir, editors

From the publisher:
Over the course of the first decade of the third millennium, terrorism has become a phenomenon that no state, society, or individual can afford to ignore. Particularly in the post-9/11 world, terrorism has not only turned into an ubiquitous fact and an omnipresent spectacle but also an alarming global concern. It is, nevertheless, surprising for many people that the global convergence towards growing fear and anxiety of terrorism has not necessarily led to a parallel convergence in our understanding and definition of the phenomenon. Defining terrorism today is no simpler a task than the days of the French revolution during which the term was first coined. Although definitional exercises are often perceived by various politicians and practitioners as yet another bizarre avocation of scholars, attempts to redefine the term terrorism time and again is neither straightforward nor vein.

This edited volume is compiled in response to the challenge of global terrorism, bringing together over two dozen scholars and practitioners from around the world who are experts on the study of terrorism.

Should Governments Negotiate With Terrorists?

by Amanda Hiber

From the publisher:
Books in this anthology series focus a wide range of viewpoints onto a single controversial issue, providing in-depth discussions by leading advocates. Articles are printed in their entirety and footnotes and source notes are retained. These books offer the reader not only a full spectrum of dissent on the subject, but also the ability to test the validity of arguments by following up on sources used as evidence. Extensive bibliographies and annotated lists of relevant organizations to contact offer a gateway to further research. This series provides a quick grounding in the issues, a challenge to critical thinking skills, and an excellent research tool in each inexpensive volume.

Between Terror and Democracy: Algeria since 1989

by James D. Le Sueur

From the publisher:
This book by an internationally recognized expert on Algeria and political Islam, tells the story that began with that country's attempt to make the transition from authoritarianism to democracy - a move never made after the imposition of martial law in 1992 by a military government forestalling the imminent electoral success of the Islamist National Salvation Front. The principle Islamist leaders were arrested, other militants went underground, and the aggressive actions of the military government spun the country into chaos. Islamists declared a jihad against the state which responded in turn with extreme methods of suppression. During the next decade, over 100,000 civilians were killed, often caught in the crossfire. Today, despite the historic 2005 amnesty referendum, which sought to end the standoff between the State and Islamic militants, the violence continues to threaten the stability of the current government as well as the entire region. Between Terror and Democracy: Algeria since 1989 is mandatory reading for those seeking to understand the current international situation.

James D. Le Sueur is Associate Professor of history at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and a Senior Associate Member of the Middle East Center at St. Antony's College, Oxford.

Media and Peace: From Vietnam to the 'War on Terror'

by Graham Spencer

Much is known about the media's role in conflict, but far less is known about the media's role in peace. Graham Spencer's study addresses this deficiency by providing a comparative analysis of reporting conflicts from around the world and examining media receptiveness to the development of peace. This book establishes an argument for the need to rethink journalistic responsibility in relation to peace and interrogates the consequences of news coverage that emphasizes conflict over peace.