An account by the American missionary, Justin Perkins, of his years living among the Christians of Persia, with a new Introduction by John Ameer, setting the activities and experiences of the American missionaries in Persia in their historical context.

Gives a travelogue and a journal of his missionary activities in the Middle East between 1834 and 1841, primarily with the Church of the East.

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!

From fighting terrorists to stabilizing a war-torn country to waging all-out combat, military campaigns are increasingly shaped by networks that enable dispersed and disparate forces to collaborate by sharing data. Along with the high-precision sensors and weapons they connect, networks are turning information power into military power. Defense investment priorities are shifting from mechanized platforms and weapons to the information collectors, processors, links and services that compose these networks. With its unmatched defense resources and technological talents, the United States has pioneered networked warfare. But the United States will have company-not all of it friendly. For example, China and Al Qaeda, using very different doctrines, are showing interest in tapping the power of information. Indeed, Al Qaeda and its franchised affiliates are displaying cunning and resourcefulness in putting this power to work with virtually no investment. As adversaries exploit networks, the United States must seek new leverage by improving its fighters' ability to use information in war's confusing, critical, and violent conditions. Blessed with more, better, and timelier information, yet vexed by increasingly murky circumstances, the cognitive faculties of military decision makers-lieutenants no less than lieutenant generals-are more crucial than ever. In a forthcoming National Defense University book, the authors suggest why and how U.S. and allied forces should improve these faculties to attain new operational and strategic advantages, or at least to avoid the loss of the advantages they now enjoy. Although military combat is unique, the authors draw lessons from non-military sectors, including some in which urgent life-and-death decisions must be made. This paper summarizes their thinking. While this is neither the first nor the last word on why and how to gain cognitive advantage, it aims to take an integrated view, provide a geo-strategic context, broaden and heighten awareness, frame policy issues, offer preliminary advice, and indicate where research and analysis is needed.

As the world careens into the 21st century, the capacity and means by which the American Armed Forces defend their nation are entering a paradigm-breaking transition period. Previous transitions have been driven by the technologies of weapons and their platforms: from sail, to boiler, to turbine; from foot, to horse, to vehicle; from balloon, to manned aircraft, to unmanned aircraft. This is not so in the 21st century. We need to reset our "warfighting gyro," so to speak. To this end, taking the information revolution as a starting point, Battle-Wise argues that only by strengthening the relationship between information technology and brain matter will the U.S. military enhance its ability to outsmart and outfight future adversaries. We certainly have had our challenges in recent military operations. Despite the exceptional heroism, courage, and intellect of today's young military members, we need to reformulate the manner by which we prepare them. For decades we have given them the best weapons systems our country could produce. The authors believe, as I do, that the time has come to augment weapons systems and information networks with the intellectual tools that will enable them to gain and maintain cognitive superiority and thus turn the tables on our clever and nimble adversaries. Only by developing battle-wise soldiers-a daunting, but critically important effort on the part of our military leadership-can we expect to avoid the "second kick of a mule."