Defined as operations other than war, stability operations can include peacekeeping activities, population control, and counternarcotics efforts, and for the entire history of the United States military, they have been considered a dangerous distraction if not an outright drain on combat resources. Yet in 2005, the U.S. Department of Defense reversed its stance on these practices, a dramatic shift in the mission of the armed forces and their role in foreign and domestic affairs. With the elevation of stability operations, the job of the American armed forces is no longer just to win battles but to create a controlled, nonviolent space for political negotiations and accord. Yet rather than produce revolutionary outcomes, stability operations have resulted in a large-scale mission creep with harmful practical and strategic consequences.

Jennifer Morrison Taw examines the military's sudden embrace of stability operations and its implications for American foreign policy and war. Through a detailed examination of deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, changes in U.S. military doctrine, adaptations in force preparation, and the political dynamics behind this new stance, Taw connects the preference for stability operations to the far-reaching, overly ambitious American preoccupation with managing international stability. She also shows how domestic politics have reduced civilian agencies' capabilities while fostering an unhealthy overreliance on the military. Introducing new concepts such as securitized instability and institutional privileging, Taw builds a framework for understanding and analyzing the expansion of the American armed forces' responsibilities in an ever-changing security landscape.

As a young girl the author wondered why she had no testimony, no story to share with others... She forgot God has an 'amazing omniscient sense of humor'. He gave her a story, one she never knew she had.

Who are we as women? What is our role in the kingdom of God? Are we only wives and mothers? Is there more to our lives? Can God use me? A look at the roles women are playing in the growth of the church. Discover and embrace your gifts, talents and passions and find new ways to use them to serve the Lord.

"Beware of the Bull" presents ten fascinating stories that will bewilder and entertain the reader with fantastic and hilarious situations, where the author's fertile imagination will lead the reader into a phantasmagorical and psychedelic wonderland of magic mixed with prosaic reality. The weird and wonderful storylines will entrap the reader, holding him or her spellbound to see where the bizarre events will lead.

Just what will be the outcome of the appearance of the ubiquitous spider, for example, in 'The Everlasting Spider'? And have you wondered what happens to those various household articles that mysteriously disappear? Don't be surprised if the answers to questions such as these turn out to be mind-blowing!