SWAT teams, GSG9, EKO Cobra, SCO 19 these elite police units are used to dealing with dangerous situations, particularly in the fight against global terrorism. European political-economic journalist and author, Judith Grohmann, is the first outsider to be given access into the world of specialist counter-terrorism units in 16 countries around the globe, including the USA, Russia, Israel, the UK, and many more. Whether performing hostage rescues, subduing barricaded suspects, engaging with heavily-armed criminals or taking part in counter-terrorism operations, her interviews with the men and women concerned explain what their work really involves, their most dangerous missions, and the physical and mental training required for them to perform these high-risk operations, which fall outside the abilities of regular police officers.A truly intimate insight into a closed world.

A clear-headed, historically grounded strategy for fighting and defeating the greatest threat facing America today: “non-state” enemies such as insurgents and terrorists.

"Ian Lustick has written a brave, forceful, and very valuable book. I wish that every politician promising to 'defend' America would read what he has to say. Failing that, the voters should."—James Fallows, National Correspondent, The Atlantic Monthly

Front flap copy: Terrorists and insurgents, not foreign governments, now pose the greatest threat to America--and how to fight and defeat such "non-state" enemies is the single most urgent and vexing question confronting our military today. This timely book has some answers. Drawing on decades of experience with counterinsurgency--as a scholar, a strategist, and a military officer--James S. Corum brings unique insight to the problems we face. His book offers a deeply informed, closely reasoned and--most valuably--eminently sensible account of how circumstances and our actions (or inaction) have contributed to our present dilemma. With the lessons of recent history in clear view, Corum "lays out a workable strategy for meeting the often-overlapping threat raised by terrorist groups and insurgents. Critical to understanding the nature of modern-day warfare, Fighting the War on Terror" has broad implications for the future course of military, intelligence, and foreign policymaking. No one with an interest in the nation's security can afford to overlook it. Back flap copy: James S. Corum, PhD, is an associate professor at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in the Department of Joint and Multinational Operations at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He was recently a visiting fellow at Oxford University's All Souls College. While serving as a professor at the Air University, Corum developed and taught the course Terrorism and Small Wars. He is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Strategic Studies and Airpower Journal and the author of four books. A Lieutenant Colonel, Corum recently retired from the U.S. Army Reserve after six years of active duty and twenty-two years of reserve service, including duty in Iraq in 2004.

Richard Clarke has been one of America's foremost experts on counterterrorism measures for more than two decades. He has served under four presidents from both parties, beginning in Ronald Reagan's State Department becoming America's first Counter-terrorism Czar under Bill Clinton and remaining for the first two years of George W. Bush's administration. He has seen every piece of intelligence on Al-Qaeda from the beginning; he was in the Situation Room on September 11th and he knows exactly what has taken place under the United State's new Department of Homeland Security. Through gripping, thriller-like scenes, he tells the full story for the first time and explains what the Bush Administration are doing.

Terrorism kills far fewer Americans annually than automobile accidents, firearms, or even lightning strikes. Given this minimal risk, why does the U.S. continue expending lives and treasure to fight the global war on terror? In Monsters to Destroy, Navin A. Bapat argues that the war on terror provides the U.S. a cover for its efforts to expand and preserve American control over global energy markets. To gain dominance over these markets, the U.S. offered protection to states critical in the extraction, sale, and transportation of energy from their "terrorist" internal and external enemies. However, since the U.S. was willing to protect these states in perpetuity, the leaders of these regimes had no incentive to disarm their terrorists. This inaction allowed terrorists to transition into more powerful and virulent insurgencies, leading the protected states to chart their own courses and ultimately break with U.S. foreign policy objectives. Bapat provides a sweeping look at how the loss of influence over these states has accelerated the decline of U.S. economic and military power, locking it into a permanent war for its own economic security.

In this bestselling book the author goes behind the scenes with President George W. Bush and his teams as they lead the nation on a new kind of war.