It's a fictional action/drama with some abstracts of reality, depicting the views and chronicles of an ex-Navy Seal as he comes to terms with his family obligations and his chosen life of clandestine missions for a private security firm. It begins with a soldier that joined the service in 1977 and watched the birth of terrorism as we know it today. Starting with the uprising in Iran against the Shah, it then leads into the hostage crisis that lasted 444 days. He tells a story of how he was discharged for his insubordinate actions in opposition of a group of rebels in Beirut after the Marine base was truck bombed. He gives his views on terrorism as an experienced combat soldier. He also talks about his wife, the love of his life, who is employed by the CIA. Then he explains how he got back into the black operations for the money and the action. The story follows his career as it began with a private security firm and discusses how he spent much of his time consulting the United States government on terrorism. As his company calls upon him by request of his former commanding officer, a Navy Admiral he befriended years before. He is asked to run a black ops mission to rescue a high profile person who has been kidnapped by a Middle Eastern terrorist group during a peace mission in Iraq. He examines the terrorists' behaviors and their incentives for violence, and voices his own opinions and explanations of their actions. During his missions, he references the past wars the world has fought. Then he explains the good and bad points that have come from these wars with a patriotic and a soldier's view. He also discuses his conflicts as a family man and a covert soldier that has kept him frombeing a good father and husband at times.

This edited volume examines the group dynamics of social reconciliation in conflict-affected societies by adopting ideas developed in social psychology and the everyday peace discourse in peace and conflict studies. The book revisits the intra- and inter-group dynamics of social reconciliation in conflict-affected societies, which have been largely marginalised in mainstream peacebuilding debates. By applying social psychological perspectives and the discourse of everyday peace, the chapters explore the everyday experience of community actors engaged in social and political reconciliation. The first part of the volume introduces conceptual and theoretical studies that focus on the pros and cons of state-level reconciliation and their outcomes, while presenting theoretical insights into dialogical processes upon which reconciliation studies can develop further. The second part presents a series of empirical case studies from around the world, which examine the process of social reconciliation at community levels through the lens of social psychology and discourse analysis. This book will be of much interest to students of peacebuilding, conflict resolution, social psychology, discourse analysis and international relations in general.

This book engages with the concept, true value, and function of democracy in South Asia against the background of real social conditions for the promotion of peaceful development in the region. In the book, the issue of peaceful social development is defined as the conditions under which the maintenance of social order and social development is achieved - not by violent compulsion but through the negotiation of intentions or interests among members of society. The book assesses the issue of peaceful social development and demonstrates that the maintenance of such conditions for long periods is a necessary requirement for the political, economic, and cultural development of a society and state. Chapters argue that, through the post-colonial historical trajectory of South Asia, it has become commonly understood that democracy is the better, if not the best, political system and value for that purpose. Additionally, the book claims that, while democratization and the deepening of democracy have been broadly discussed in the region, the peace that democracy is supposed to promote has been in serious danger, especially in the 21st century. A timely survey and re-evaluation of democracy and peaceful development in South Asia, this book will be of interest to academics in the field of South Asian Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies and Asian Politics and Security.

This book explains how colonial legacies and the postcolonial state of Pakistan negatively influenced the socio-political and cultural dynamics and the security situation in Pakistan's Pashtun 'tribal' areas, formerly known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). It offers a local perspective on peace and conflict resolution in Pakistan's Pashtun 'tribal' region. Discussing the history and background of the former-FATA region, the role of Pashtun conflict resolution mechanism of Jirga, and the persistence of colonial-era Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) in the region, the author argues that the persistence of colonial legacies in the Pashtun 'tribal' areas, especially the FCR, coupled with the overarching influence of the military on security policy has negatively impacted the security situation in the region. By focusing on the Jirga and Jirga-based Lashkars (or Pashtun militias), the book demonstrates how Pashtuns have engaged in their own initiatives to handle the rise of militancy in their region. Moreover, the book contends that, even after the introduction of constitutional reforms and FATA's merger with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, little has changed in the region, especially regarding the treatment of 'tribal' Pashtuns as equal citizens of Pakistan. This book explains, in detail, why indigenous methods of peace and conflict resolution, such as the Jirga, could play "some" role towards long-term peace in the South Asian region. Historically and contextually informed with a focus on North-West Pakistan, this book will be of interest to academics researching South Asian Studies, International Relations, Peace and Conflict Studies, terrorism, and traditional justice and restorative forms of peace-making.

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 Road to Balcombe Street: The IRA Reign of Terror in London is the highly detailed account and analysis of law enforcement negotiation lessons learned from the infamous hostage standoff between the London Metropolitan Police (the Met) and four members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the winter of 1975. With eye-witness and first-hand testimony, this book examines the events leading up to the clash and their political context as well as how both sides handled the hostage situation and the strategies and tactics used by the police to safely diffuse the volatile situation. Comprehensive and readable, The Road to Balcombe Street: The IRA Reign of Terror in London looks at not only the six days making up the standoff but places the confrontation in unique historical context by giving a detailed summary of IRA activity in London in the years leading up to the siege. In addition, this vital study explores the aftershocks arising from the apprehension of the IRA team as well as the hostage negotiation lessons learned in the conflict. This useful resource also features a thorough bibliography and list of electronic resources. The Road to Balcombe Street: The IRA Reign of Terror in London is a useful resource for practicing law enforcement negotiating teams and professionals; history, sociology, and social psychology students and educators; and general readers as well.

The Road to Balcombe Street: The IRA Reign of Terror in London is the highly detailed account and analysis of law enforcement negotiation lessons learned from the infamous hostage standoff between the London Metropolitan Police (the Met) and four members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the winter of 1975. With eye-witness and first-hand testimony, this book examines the events leading up to the clash and their political context as well as how both sides handled the hostage situation and the strategies and tactics used by the police to safely diffuse the volatile situation. Comprehensive and readable, The Road to Balcombe Street: The IRA Reign of Terror in London looks at not only the six days making up the standoff but places the confrontation in unique historical context by giving a detailed summary of IRA activity in London in the years leading up to the siege. In addition, this vital study explores the aftershocks arising from the apprehension of the IRA team as well as the hostage negotiation lessons learned in the conflict. This useful resource also features a thorough bibliography and list of electronic resources. The Road to Balcombe Street: The IRA Reign of Terror in London is a useful resource for practicing law enforcement negotiating teams and professionals; history, sociology, and social psychology students and educators; and general readers as well.

Monographs in Organizational Behavior & Industrial Relations

Whereas states formerly had a right to wage war under a wide range of cicumstances, now war is legally permitted only in self defence. Yet wars persist. If their incidence is to be reduced, we must understand the forces that maintain war as an institution. The contributors to this book consider the nature of war and the forces that sustain it from diverse perspectives ranging from anthropology, history, political science, theology, philosophy, international law, economics, psychiatry and biology. The complexity of modern war requires understanding not only of several layers of social complexity - individuals, groups, societies - but also of the dialectical relations between those levels. This implies that individuals can contriburte towards a reduction in wars incidence.

From the battles of the great warrior Tecumseh to the escapades of flying ace Billy Bishop to the tragedy of troops killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan, this book traces the Canadian experience of war through the centuries.

This book examines the military characteristics and potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the new global revolution in military affairs. Offering an original perspective on the utilization, imagination, and politics of AI in the context of military development and weapons regulation, the work provides a comprehensive response to the question of how we might reflect on the AI revolution in warfare and what can be said about the ways in which this has been handled. In the first part of the book, AI is accommodated, both theoretically and empirically, in the strategic context of the 'Revolution in Military Affairs' (RMA). The book offers a novel understanding of autonomous weapons as multi-layered composite systems, pointing to a complex, non-linear interplay between evolutionary and revolutionary dynamics. In the second section, the book provides an impartial analysis of the related politics and operations of power, whereby increases in military budgets and R&D of the great powers are met and countered by advocacy networks and scientists campaigning for a ban on lethal autonomous weapons. As such, it moves beyond popular caricatures of 'killer robots' and points out some of the problems which result from over-reliance on such imagery. This book will be of much interest to students of strategic studies, critical security studies, arms control and disarmament, science and technology studies and general International Relations.

Volume one of a two-volume set, The Military History of Tsarist Russia is the first overview in English of the rise of the armed forces in Russia, from the Muscovite army of the 15th century through the reforms, expansions, and westernization of Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, and the victory over Napoleon in 1812-1815. Essays also highlight the ideological conflict between Westernization and Russiafication, and the revolution that brought down the Romanovs in 1917. The eleven chapters by acknowledged experts provide a fine introduction to Russian military and naval history.

This book provides a holistic view of the conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbours and studies the global implications of their fraught relations. Focusing on the conflict from its beginning in the late 19th Century, the author provides a well-rounded and balanced narrative by examining its religious, ideological, ethnic, political, national, regional and international dimensions. The volume covers a wide range of issues such as the conflicting historical legacy of the city of Jerusalem, Jewish longing for a homeland, the partition of Palestine, various wars and conflicts since 1948, Palestinian resistance, Arab Boycott of Israel and the Abraham Accords. It also tackles the contested national claims and the refugee question and looks at various peace-making efforts, including the role of external stakeholders such as the US, UK, Russia and India. A comprehensive study of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the book is richly supported by a swath of references to materials, documents, maps and video links. It will be an essential reading for students, academics, and teachers of politics and international relations, national security, geopolitics, history, military and strategic studies, Middle East studies, conflict resolution and peace-making.

It is my intention that this book be used as a Supplemental History Book for Christian Schools, and Home Schools, as it speaks of a whole century of wars, but it's also including wars during biblical times. In every chapter, I pointed out as to what started the wars and how they could have been prevented. This book will open the eyes of the reader, giving them closer insight as to what happened in the previous century of wars that the United States felt it had to enter into. I am sharing In-depth knowledge of wars, some information I am sure our History Books omitted. It is also important that our youth today know about Biblical Leaders, the wars they caused or fought. This is a mad, mad world. It's full of hatred and deceit. If we're to get our youth back on track as to leading this world (because they are the leaders of tomorrow), they need to be educated regarding historical good/bad leadership, Biblical and current. There is a need for constant reminders of sick leaders like Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, and the likes of them. So our young minds today won't model after the sick leaders of yesterday.

Puerto Rican soldiers have been consistently whitewashed out of the narrative of American history despite playing parts in all American wars since WWI. This book examines the online self-representation of Puerto Rican soldiers who served during the War on Terror, focusing on social networking sites, user-generated content, and web memorials.

The Distributed Functions of Emergency Management and Homeland Security outlines the roles and responsibilities of various individuals and agencies involved in homeland security and all aspects of emergency management. Each chapter focuses on the practical and applied aspects of a range of public servants in various departments and the organizations that they represent. Rather than presenting a theoretical exploration alone, the book examines the practical knowledge and hands-on skills related to various functions and how their decisions and actions play into the larger framework of safety and security —in the public, private and nonprofit sectors. Every professional has a unique and integral part to play in fulfilling their roles and obligations, whether it be in relation to prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response or recovery operations. Personnel that frequently come to mind in such scenarios include emergency managers, geographers and land-use planners, EMTs and paramedics, fire fighters, police officers, public health officials, nurses, public administrators, and public information officers. And while these individuals are integral to homeland security and emergency management, there are other professionals that also perform essential duties that—while they aren’t first-to-mind—are vital to efforts relating to terrorism and disasters; this includes pilots in the aviation sector, the military, attorneys, psychologists, and forensic professionals serving in pathology, DNA, and dentistry roles. Chapters provide a holistic rendering of the homeland security and emergency management landscape to present all these various professional capabilities and contributions. This includes how current functions are coordinated as well as how future efforts might change relative to a more proactive, all-hazards and holistic approach. As such, the book will be a useful resource for students and practitioners to understand the dynamic professions—and various disciplines and fields—that impact disaster and terrorism preparedness and response capabilities.

"How a more positive form of identity politics can restore public trust in government Illiberalism, Thomas Main writes, is the basic repudiation of liberal democracy, the very foundation on which the United States rests. Itsays no to electoral democracy, human rights, the rule of law, toleration. It is a political ideology that finds expression in such older right-wing extremist groups as the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacists and more recently among the Alt-Right and the Dark Enlightenment. There are also left-of-center illiberal movements, including various forms of communism, anarchism, and some antifascist movements. The Rise of Illiberalism explores the philosophical underpinnings of this toxic political ideology and documents how it has infiltrated the mainstream of political discourse in the United States. By the earlytwenty-first century, Main writes, liberal democracy's failure to deal adequately with social problems created a space illiberal movements could exploit to promote their particular brands of identity politics as an alternative. A critical need thus is for what the author calls "positive identity politics," or a widely shared sense of community that gives a feelingof equal importance to all sectors of society. Achieving this goal will, however, be an enormous challenge. In seeking actionable remedies for the broken political system of the United States, this book makes a major scholarly contribution tocurrent debates about the future of liberal democracy. "

A date with destiny on the bloody fields of Waterloo
At the time of the Revolutionary Wars the position of Hanover was a precarious one. It was a small German state which shared-as head of state-the King of England. This made for a close connection with the British Empire but also for a vulnerable one with the major European powers. Exposed to France and never completely confident of the support of Russia or Prussia in time of need, it's fighting men nevertheless actively joined the cause to oppose French aggression wherever it arose. The leading Hanoverian families naturally provided the officer corps and men such as Alten and the subject of this book-Christian Ompteda-became renowned military figures in the battles of the Napoleonic Wars. We join Ompteda fighting with Hanoverian forces in the campaigns in the Low Countries before the occupation of his Fatherland in 1805 forced him and many of his countrymen into exile in England, where they formed one of the most respected elements of the British Army-The Kings German Legion. This highly respected unit served at Copenhagen, Walcheren, Sicily, in Spain and finally during the Waterloo campaign. This is the story of a talented, troubled and highly courageous officer driven by duty, loyalty and revenge to defeat the French invaders even at the expense of his own life.

This book takes an in-depth look at European Network Enabled Capabilities [NEC] and their implications for transatlantic interoperability in future coalition operations. It examines both national, NATO and EU capabilities, and analyses these in the three technology areas most crucial for interoperability: command and control (C2), communications (including computers), and intelligence gathering and dissemination (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance - ISR - platforms, the sensors mounted on these, and systems for fusing and distributing the data collected), as well as looking at the doctrinal and strategic commitment to NEC. It examines the industrial base supporting European NEC and the international frameworks for improving interoperability through NEC technologies. Finally, it makes recommendations for policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic on ways to improve military interoperability in future coalition operations through better common use of NEC.
The book's uniqueness lies in the way it tackles the issues of the "technology gap" and transatlantic interoperability, namely via a thorough understanding of Europe's capabilities. Unlike other books dealing with these subjects - that reach conclusions and make recommendations based on broad overviews and assumptions regarding European capabilities - this one relies on extensive data gathered on seven European countries, on NATO, and on the EU, and bases its findings on this data. Furthermore, it is the first book of its kind to focus specifically on European military transformation and NEC.

This book analyzes the determinants and scope of Soviet defense reform under Gorbachev from political, military, and economic perspectives.

Since 1961 the Adelphi Papers have provided some of the most informed accounts of international and strategic relations. Produced by the world renowned International Institute of Strategic Studies, each paper provides a short account of a subject of topical interest by a leading military figure, policymaker or academic.