Freedom National

In US Foreign Policy and Defense Strategy, the authors analyze the strategic underpinnings of hegemony, assess the national security establishment that sustains dominance, consider the impact on civil-military relations, and explore the intertwining relationships between foreign policy, defense strategy, and commercial activities.

Unmanned is an in-depth examination of why seemingly successful wars never seem to end. The problem centers on drones, now accumulated in the thousands, the front end of a spying and killing machine that is disconnected from either security or safety. Drones, however, are only part of the problem. William Arkin shows that security is actually undermined by an impulse to gather as much data as possible, the appetite and the theory both skewed toward the notion that no amount is too much.

America's power is in decline, its foreign policy adrift, its allies alienated, its soldiers trapped in a war that even generals regard as unwinnable. What has happened these past eight years is well known. Why it happened continues to puzzle. Daydream Believers combines in-depth reporting and analysis to explain how George W. Bush and his aides got so far off track - and why much of the nation followed.

What most frightens the average American? Terrorism. North Korea. Iran. But what if none of these are probable or consequential threats to America? What if the world today is safer, freer, wealthier, healthier, and better-educated than ever before? What if the real dangers to Americans are noncommunicable diseases, gun violence, drug overdoses, and even hospital infections? In this compelling look at what they call the "Threat-Industrial Complex", Michael A. Cohen and Micah Zenko explain why politicians, policy analysts, academics, and journalists are misleading Americans....

In the 25 years after 1989, the world enjoyed the deepest peace in history. In The Rise and Fall of Peace on Earth, the eminent foreign policy scholar Michael Mandelbaum examines that remarkable quarter century, describing how and why the peace was established and then fell apart. Mandelbaum argues that the widespread peace ended because three major countries put an end to it with aggressive nationalist policies aimed at overturning the prevailing political arrangements in their respective regions.

In Institution Building in Weak States, Andrew Radin argues that the international community's approach to building state institutions needs its own reform. This innovative book proposes a new strategy, rooted in a rigorous analysis of recent missions.

Today's militaries are increasingly reliant on highly networked autonomous systems, artificial intelligence, and advanced weapons that were previously the domain of sci-fi writers. In such a world, what can we do to decrease the chances of war? In Future Peace, Robert H. Latiff questions our overreliance on technology and examines the pressure-cooker scenario created by the growing animosity between the US and its adversaries, our thinly stretched global military, the capacity for technology to catalyze violence, and the American public's lack of familiarity with these topics.

Mediante una investigación documental profundísima y un reporteo riguroso, Juan Alberto Cedillo ofrece una investigación inaudita que trae luz sobre estos fenómenos y aclara preguntas fundamentales de la lucha que desgarra, con saña particular, el norte de México. La base de estas historias son los propios testimonios de los capos, ofrecidos en México y Estados Unidos. Sus relatos explican una de las mayores heridas del país, al tiempo que desmontan algunos de los mitos más arraigados en torno al narcotráfico y los cárteles.

Fateful Decisions: Inside the National Security Council provides students with valuable insights into the origins, workings, strengths, and weaknesses of the National Security Council.

It has long been a truism that prior to George W. Bush, politics stopped at the water's edge - that is, that partisanship had no place in national security. In Arsenal of Democracy, historian Julian E. Zelizer shows this to be demonstrably false: Partisan fighting has always shaped American foreign policy and the issue of national security has always been part of our domestic conflicts.

New technologies have provided both incredible convenience and new threats. The same kinds of digital networks that allow you to hail a ride using your smartphone let power grid operators control a country's electricity - and these personal, corporate, and government systems are all vulnerable. In Ukraine, unknown hackers shut off electricity to nearly 230,000 people for six hours. North Korean hackers destroyed networks at Sony Pictures in retaliation for a film that mocked Kim Jong-un.

In poll after poll, one of the threats facing our nation is the use of a cyber attack to cause a grid-down scenario. There are many bad actors on the international stage capable of cyber terror on a massive scale. The list is long, including Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Syria, and now even terrorist groups like ISIS. Each is capable of wreaking havoc in the US by shutting down our power grid and enjoying the resulting chaos.

With food scarcity driven by falling water tables, eroding soils, and rising temperatures, control of arable land and water resources is moving to center stage in the global struggle for food security. “In this era of tightening world food supplies, the ability to grow food is fast becoming a new form of geopolitical leverage. Food is the new oil,” Lester R. Brown writes. What will the geopolitics of food look like in a new era dominated by scarcity and food nationalism?

What should we do to solve America's border crisis? Whatever it takes! That's the no-nonsense approach of Arizona congressman J. D. Hayworth, one of America's most outspoken and eloquent conservative spokesmen. J. D. has walked the border and seen firsthand the devastation that illegal immigration inflicts on law-abiding Americans. He's read the intelligence reports, talked to the Border Patrol and the Marines, and knows how intolerable illegal immigration is in a post-9/11 world.

If someone knew when and where the next major terrorist attack was to be to take place against America, wouldn't the US intelligence community want to know about it? In Countdown to Terror, US Congressman Curt Weldon, proves that "Ali," an informant with access to the minutes of the most secret Iranian councils does have details about many plots against the US. In fact, he has outright predicted - days, weeks, or months in advance - numerous terrorist plots that were actually carried out our thwarted at the last minute.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the architect of the 9/11 attacks, has carried out many of the biggest terrorist plots of the past 20 years, including the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the Millennium Plots, and the beheading of Daniel Pearl. As the world awaits his trial, best-selling author and investigative journalist Richard Miniter brings to life his shocking, true story.

Cyber Blockades is the first book to examine the phenomena of blockade operations in cyberspace, large-scale attacks on infrastructure or systems that aim to prevent an entire state from sending or receiving electronic data. Cyber blockades can take place through digital, physical, and/or electromagnetic means. Blockade operations have historically been considered acts of war, thus their emergence in cyberspace has significant implications for international law and for our understanding of cyber warfare.

Communist China is lying, cheating, and stealing its way into becoming a global superpower. And what’s worse, President Obama is not only letting this happen but helping China do so. So argues best-selling author William Triplett II and Washington Times editor Brett M. Decker in their shocking book, Bowing to Beijing.

The proliferation and misuse of small arms and light weapons is one of the most pressing security threats of the 21st century. From Sudanese refugees hunted by gun-toting militias to air passengers targeted by shoulder-fired missiles, no one is safe from this deadly scourge. Providing a gripping overview of these cheap and easily obtainable weapons, the threat they pose in the wrong hands, and strategies for reining them in, this guide is required listening for anyone wishing to fully understand one of today’s key threats.

Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon began working on this book shortly after leaving the National Security Council, where, as director and senior director for counterterrorism, they watched the rise of al-Qaeda and helped coordinate America’s fight against Usama bin Laden and his organization. They warned in articles and interviews about the appearance of a new breed of terrorists who were determined to kill on the grand scale.