"Relying on a rich cache of previously classified notes, transcripts, cables, policy briefs, and memoranda, Andrew Cooper explains how oil drove, even corrupted, American foreign policy during a time when Cold War imperatives still applied,"* and tells why in the 1970s the U.S. switched its Middle East allegiance from the Shah of Iran to the Saudi royal family. While America struggles with a recess ion, oil prices soar, revolution rocks the Middle East, European nations risk defaulting on their loans, and the world teeters on the brink of a possible global financial crisis. This is not a description of the present, however, but the 1970s. In The Oil Kings, Andrew Cooper tells the story of how oil came to dominate U.S. domestic and foreign policy. Drawing on newly declassified documents and interviews with some of the key figures of the time, Cooper follows the political posturing and backroom maneuvering that led the U.S. to switch to OPEC as its main supplier of oil from the Shah of Iran, a loyal ally and leading customer for American weapons. The subsequent loss of U.S. income destabilized the Iranian economy, while the U.S. embarked on a long relationship with the autocratic Saudi kingdom that continues to this day. Brilliantly reported and filled with astonishing revelations--including how close the U.S. came to sending troops into the Persian Gulf to break the Arab oil embargo and how U.S. officials offered to sell nuclear power and nuclear fuel to the Shah--The Oil Kings is the history of an era that we thought we knew, an era whose momentous reverberations still influence events at home and abroad today.

In this remarkably human portrait of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Emperor of Iran, Andrew Scott Cooper examines the life of an infamously complex personality in a bold new light. The recent wave of instability in the Middle East has led Iranians and scholars to reassess the legacy of the Shah-widely denounced as a brutal, corrupt dictator-who championed Western-style reforms and launched Iran onto the world stage as a modern and powerful state. The Fall of Heaven was written with exclusive access to royalists and revolutionaries-most notably the Shah's widow Empress Farah, other members of the Pahlavi family, and the men who deposed them: Iran's first elected president Abolhassan Banisadr, along with other religious and political figures active in the revolutionary underground. These testimonials are set alongside first-person remembrances of White House officials, along with American diplomats and civilians in Tehran. Cooper takes readers from the Shah's lavish palace in Tehran to the dusty streets of Najaf, where Ayatollah Khomeini lived in exile, and from the Imperial Family's summer retreat on the Caspian Sea to the back alleys of Beirut, where Islamist revolutionaries plotted the regime's overthrow. Both epic and intimate, The Fall of Heaven re-creates the dramatic final days of a legendary ruling family, the deposition of which started the militant unrest that still affects the Middle East today.

Oil Kings offers the first inside look at how an oil crisis was manipulated by Alan Greenspan, Donald Rumsfeld, and President Ford (hoping to secure his re-election), helping to precipitate the fall of the Shah of Iran in 1979. Andrew Scott Cooper reveals the fatal struggle between the "oil kings", both Middle-Eastern and American, as they jockeyed for power, playing games that led directly to the rise of Iran's radical anti-American theocracy, which still exists today. An intrepid investigative reporter, Andrew Scott Cooper is the first to access newly declassified papers, and to interview key people who formulated US foreign poilicy in that period. Carefully connecting up the dots, he brilliantly reconstructs the history of that vexed decade when the modern world was changed forever.

A toolbox of twenty-one strategies kids can use to get along with others. Every child could use help with social skills and making friends. This book provides twenty-one concrete strategies children can use to express themselves, build relationships, end arguments and fights, halt bullying, and beat unhappy feelings. It s like a toolbox of kid-friendly social skills just open it up and pull out tools like: Mighty Might, which takes all the fun out of teasing Thought Chop, which helps kids resist self-defeating thoughts Squeaky Wheel, a type of persistence that gets results Coin Toss, a simple way to resolve small conflictsEach tool is clearly described, illustrated with true-to-life examples, and accompanied by dialogue and lines children can practice and use. Authentic stories and anecdotes show each tool in action. This revised and updated second edition incorporates electronic communication, cyberbullying, and social media with age-appropriate guidelines and stories. A note to adults includes up-to-date research on and recommendations for social skills and bullying. For kids, Speak Up and Get Along! makes learning social skills accessible and fun.

This book discusses the practice of no-fly zones in international affairs. The first no-fly zone was imposed over northern Iraq immediately after the first Gulf War, and since then they have become a regular recourse for policymakers confronted with humanitarian crises. They have come to be viewed as a feasible, essentially non-violent form of intervention that can be performed entirely from the air in a situation where some form of action is widely thought to be necessary but the political will for a ground operation is insufficient. Nonetheless, even among policy makers there is limited understanding of the requirements, the shortcomings and the potentialities of no-fly zones. This is the first comprehensive work on this topic, and examines the assumptions surrounding no-fly zones by focusing on issues such as authority, cost, possibility of escalation and effectiveness. Looking back at 25 years of experience with no-fly zones, the book's goal is to look at what historical lessons may be drawn and to make some predictions with regard to the politics and strategy of no-fly zones in the future. This book will be of much interest to students of air power, security studies, Middle Eastern Studies and IR in general

Love OU Football? Love trivia? Think you know every bit of trivia on Oklahoma Sooner Football? Think again. It's time to find out how smart you really are about the Sooners. Test your knowledge of one of the greatest sports programs in America. Learn the fascinating facts that made the Oklahoma Sooners an elite college football power. Anybody can recite a few famous players and coaches, but is your Sooner Nation IQ able to withstand 200 questions on everything from leading rushers to tackle artists? Just how much do you know about the home of the Sooners and the program's winning prowess? Will you earn a Ruf-Nek shotgun blast after getting a question right? We'll let you know. Test your skills. Wrack your brain. It's the ultimate Oklahoma Sooner IQ test. This book is for everyone: those who think they know everything about OU football, and those who don't know much about OU football history but love their Sooners. Good luck and Boomer Sooner

Just as a stream peacefully wanders through the natural world, over, around or between rocks, ROCK AND WATER provides skills to help you more effectively navigate the obstacles of life. Author, Scott Cooper, introduces 18 basic skills for enhancing and sustaining happiness that will uphold and carry inner peace and happiness from one day to the next - skills that are based on Scott Cooper's research in the fields of cognitive psychology and mindfulness/acceptance. Cognitive psychology is grounded in the reality that our happiness is strongly influenced by our thinking. It's not so much a situation that brings unhappiness, but, rather, our perception of a situation. Mindfulness/acceptance practice is grounded in applying more nonreactive acceptance to daily challenges. Often, cognitive-behavioural psychology and mindfulness/acceptance practice are treated separately and in isolation. ROCK AND WATER provides these concepts in a complementary form applying two simple metaphors from nature: · ROCK, the strong personal platform that reasonable thinking and sensible beliefs can provide · WATER, the peace that can come to our lives by learning to let go of things we can't easily change or that don't matter. In this new book, ROCK AND WATER, the author maintains the strong point of view that happiness is not enhanced by more "talk" about happiness, but by applying these conscious "hands-on" techniques that help you to cope with the inner sources of unhappiness - the pesky unpleasant thoughts and feelings that can come to us even if our lives are going well on the outside.

Businesses and schools today are looking for ways to spur the kind of creative thinking that leads employees and students to generate innovative ideas. Many are finding that the physical spaces in which people work and learn can provide a strong impetus to follow a creative train of thought. Space for Creative Thinking puts this trend into the knowledge-work context, discussing the underlying design concepts that factor into making a space that stimulates original thinking. The book follows this outline of theory with twenty compelling examples, which range from offices and schools to research facilities. Each case study is presented through photographs, as well as interviews with both designers and users. It concludes with a brief set of guiding principles for designing spaces that capture the essence of a Creative Thinking Space.

It starts with a serene sizzle that sends an intoxicating aroma wafting through the air in smoky, cirrus-cloud wisps. The simple act of grilling outdoors creates a sensory magic few can resist. Steaks, burgers, chicken, fish, and vegetables transform into flavor-drenched food like nothing you produce in your housebound kitchen. Maybe it's the open-air, blue-sky, backyard atmosphere. Maybe it's the satisfying pop-tsst of a newly opened can of beer or soda that helps set the mood. Maybe it's the laid-back attitude that a cook adopts when grilling. The BBQ & Outdoor Grilling Cookbook: 110 Recipes for Everything from Appetizers to Desserts contains recipes, tips, and grate guidelines to whisk you away to lazy summer days full of satisfying sighs. Inside this book are recipes for irresistible seasoned steaks, marinated chicken, and herb-touched seafood. Sauces, toppers, and side dishes are included, too. To hit your sweet spot, there is also a recipe that will show you how to make homemade root beer that could become an annual summertime tradition. It's that good There are also recipes for smoked food, a cooking trend that is fast becoming a favorite technique among backyard grillers. Patience is required, but the long, slow cooking results in smoky barbecued, tender-beyond belief foods. So step outside and have a searing relationship with your grill

Win new customers--and keep them coming back

Whether you run a billion-dollar company or a mom-and-pop small business, you have to know your customers and know what they want. Written by three marketing experts, "Tips & Traps for Marketing Your Business" is filled with marketing best practices that show you how to win over new customers and make existing customers more profitable. You'll also find practical and proven marketing tips and traps to help you grow your business, lessons learned from realworld experience, and tangible examples from the leading companies in business today. Connect with your target market Unlock hidden streams of profit and increase sales Develop and deliver a compelling story for your brand Effectively and profitably manage customer relationships Determine how much media weight is enough and how to avoid spending too much Attract customers to your Web site

Sticks and Stones helps parents teach kids how to speak up for themselves more assertively, gently, and effectively. Each chapter, based on the characteristics of a particular bird, uses a wealth of examples and imaginative exercises to give kids the confidence to speak truth to power.

This unique guide, beautifully illustrated with line drawings of each bird and informed by the author's gentle humor, will help kids be effective communicators and includes easy-to-follow exercises and sample scripts. Examples include:
Shut down bullies (The Way of the Blue Jay)
Overcome shyness (The Way of the Black Bird)
Counter peer pressure (The Way of the Hummingbird)
Resolve fights (The Way of the Dove)
Accept blame (The Way of the Crow)
And more

The planning guide marketers have relied on for two decades--updated and expanded

For more than 20 years, "The Successful Marketing Plan" has been the marketing professionals' go-to guide for creating plans that define and fulfill the needs of their target markets. In this substantially revised and expanded fourth edition, Roman Hiebing, Jr., Scott Cooper, and Steve Wehrenberg outline how to develop proven objectives, strategies, and tactics that deliver the bottom line.

Separating the plan into 10 market-proven, manageable components, "The Successful Marketing Plan" explains how to: Find the data you need to develop your plan Identify growth target markets Set realistic sales objectives Position your products through a strong branding program Condense your plan into a workable calendar of activities Arrive at a realistic budget and payback schedule Evaluate and test the plan's effectiveness

The authors of "The Successful Marketing Plan" have made extensive revisions to more than 50 percent of the book's content--from a new planning model to a more user-friendly business review section to a complete revision of the strategy chapters including a new message strategy chapter. Plus, the book contains completely updated chapters on advertising, media content, and interactive communications, in addition to updates in information sources, planning charts, and the Idea Starters appendix, which has more than 1,000 tactical ideas tied to specific objectives.

Great marketing begins with a great marketing plan. Use The Successful Marketing Plan to build a focused "real-world" marketing plan that will enable your company to thrive and grow in today's cost-conscious, winner-take-all competitive arena.