Past the Apogee: America Under Pressure

Description

Charles Krauthammer, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary and writer of a nationally syndicated column for The Washington Post, traces the path of the United States from its rise as a world power following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 to its current entanglement in the Middle East. He argues that the apparent failure of democracy in Iraq is not the fault of U.S. policy but the result of the unique history and culture of Iraq.

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The Military and Society

Description

John Allen Williams of Loyola University Chicago, Thomas E. Ricks of the Washington Post, Elizabeth Stanley of Georgetown University, and Mackubin T. of the Naval War College discuss several questions: "What is the current state of relations between the military and society?," "How representative is the military of civil society?," and "What effect is the War on Terrorism having on military-societal relations?"

The Question of Homeland Security

Description

Stephen Gale of the Foreign Policy Research Institute Center on Terrorism, Counter-Terrorism, and Homeland Security discusses what he believes students need to know to be able to understand and react to the homeland security issues the U.S. faces today and will face in the future. He explores the complexity of terrorism and understanding terrorism; and suggests approaching homeland security issues in war game terms, setting up scenarios and considering their ramifications.

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Understanding Jihadism

Description

Mary Habeck of Johns Hopkins University looks at the theories backing jihadism and the practice of jihadism. She examines the differences between Islamist and Salafi groups that believe change can be achieved by social/political means and those that believe change can only be realized through violence—the Jihadi groups.

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Understanding Terror Networks

Description

Marc Sageman, forensic psychiatrist, discusses the importance of gathering actual solid evidence on terrorists, as human beings, and the difficulties present in collecting this information. He describes the information he gathered on a group of modern Salafi terrorists and the environment they came from.

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Terrorism in Historical and Comparative Perspective

Description

Michael Radu of the Foreign Policy Research Institute's Center on Terrorism, Counter-Terrorism, and Homeland Security examines the definition of terrorism throughout history and around the globe—including how the media muddies the waters and how different nations and cultures today label certain acts as terrorism and refuse to label other actions as such.

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Islam and Islamism

Description

S. Abdallah Schleifer of the Washington News Bureau, Al Arabiya, compares and contrasts the interpretations of Islam that lead to Islamism and that lead to coexistence with or under other political systems. He focuses particularly on defining what, precisely, Islamism is and what adherents to the ideology believe.

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