States are more likely to engage in risky and destabilizing actions such as military buildups and preemptive strikes if they believe their adversaries pose a tangible threat. Yet despite the crucial importance of this issue, we don't know enough about how states and their leaders draw inferences about their adversaries' long-term intentions. Knowing the Adversary draws on a wealth of historical archival evidence to shed new light on how world leaders and intelligence organizations actually make these assessments. Keren Yarhi-Milo examines three cases: Britain's assessments of Nazi Germany's intentions in the 1930s, America's assessments of the Soviet Union's intentions during the Carter administration, and the Reagan administration's assessments of Soviet intentions near the end of the Cold War. She advances a new theoretical framework—called selective attention—that emphasizes organizational dynamics, personal diplomatic interactions, and cognitive and affective factors. Yarhi-Milo finds that decision makers don't pay as much attention to those aspects of state behavior that major theories of international politics claim they do. Instead, they tend to determine the intentions of adversaries on the basis of preexisting beliefs, theories, and personal impressions. Yarhi-Milo also shows how intelligence organizations rely on very different indicators than decision makers, focusing more on changes in the military capabilities of adversaries. Knowing the Adversary provides a clearer picture of the historical validity of existing theories, and broadens our understanding of the important role that diplomacy plays in international security.

As World War II ended, few Americans in government or universities knew much about the Soviet Union. As David Engerman shows in this book, a network of scholars, soldiers, spies, and philanthropists created an enterprise known as Soviet Studies to fill in this dangerous gap in American knowledge. This group brought together some of the nation's best minds from the left, right, and center, colorful and controversial individuals ranging from George Kennan to Margaret Mead to Zbigniew Brzezinski, not to mention historians Sheila Fitzpatrick and Richard Pipes. Together they created the knowledge that helped fight the Cold War and define Cold War thought. Soviet Studies became a vibrant intellectual enterprise, studying not just the Soviet threat, but Soviet society and culture at a time when many said that these were contradictions in terms, as well as Russian history and literature. And this broad network, Engerman argues, forever changed the relationship between the government and academe, connecting the Pentagon with the ivory tower in ways that still matter today.

From a systematic point of view, all intelligence work can be studied on three levels: Acquisition, analysis, and acceptance. The author focuses on the third of these levels, studying the attitudes and behavioural patterns developed by leaders during their political careers, their willingness to consider information and ideas contrary to their own, their ability to admit mistakes and change course in the implementation of a failing policy and their capacity to cooperate.

Farideh is plunged into a maelstrom of devilish politics and magical intrigue that will have far-reaching implications for the Forgotten Realms As the chaos of the Sundering rages around her, young warlock Farideh faces a more personal turmoil wrought by a deal she made with a devil years ago. Hoping to protect her twin sister, she leaves everything she holds dear to assist a wizard in a scheme that pits the devils of the Nine Hells against the gods above. But when Farideh casts the spell to enter the wizard’s remote mountaintop fortress, she picks up a stowaway—a Harper agent named Dahl who isn’t so inclined to follow devilish demands. Dahl attempts to escape but merely runs into a village of odd people, lurking behind an impenetrable wall. Forced to gaze into the villagers’ souls, Farideh points out the ones who seem different, only to watch as the wizard’s guard carts them off to fates unknown. Are these villagers or prisoners? Are they blessed or doomed by the gods? As the wizard’s guessing game proves more and more diabolical, Farideh resolves to unravel his secrets—even if it means she’ll lose her own soul to the Nine Hells. The Adversary is the third book in The Sundering and the third book in the Brimstone Angels series.

How psychology explains why a leader is willing to use military force to protect or salvage reputation In Who Fights for Reputation, Keren Yarhi-Milo provides an original framework, based on insights from psychology, to explain why some political leaders are more willing to use military force to defend their reputation than others. Rather than focusing on a leader's background, beliefs, bargaining skills, or biases, Yarhi-Milo draws a systematic link between a trait called self-monitoring and foreign policy behavior. She examines self-monitoring among national leaders and advisers and shows that while high self-monitors modify their behavior strategically to cultivate image-enhancing status, low self-monitors are less likely to change their behavior in response to reputation concerns. Exploring self-monitoring through case studies of foreign policy crises during the terms of U.S. presidents Carter, Reagan, and Clinton, Yarhi-Milo disproves the notion that hawks are always more likely than doves to fight for reputation. Instead, Yarhi-Milo demonstrates that a decision maker's propensity for impression management is directly associated with the use of force to restore a reputation for resolve on the international stage. Who Fights for Reputation offers a brand-new understanding of the pivotal influence that psychological factors have on political leadership, military engagement, and the protection of public prestige.

Spiritual warfare is real, and we are all involved whether we like it or not. The Bible plainly tells us that Satan schemes against humanity and that he wants to devour us. Daily we struggle against Satan's strategies and desire to take over God’s kingdom. This battle will not go away, and ignoring it could be disastrous. But don't be afraid. The victory is already won by Christ. No enemy is powerful enough to overcome the risen savior. In these pages, Mark Bubeck exposes the reality of the conflict and the hope believers have. He answers such questions as: What is Satan's strategy in spiritual warfare? Can a Christian be oppressed by demons? Can demonic affliction be passed down through family lines? What are the symptoms of demonic activity in a person's life? Having sold more than 350,000 copies worldwide, this bestseller will help the reader triumph in the battle against demonic activity by relying on the almighty and powerful Son of God.

The wonders and advantages of modern age electronics and the World Wide Web have also, unfortunately, ushered in a new age of terrorism. The growing connectivity among secure and insecure networks has created new opportunities for unauthorized intrusions into sensitive or proprietary computer systems. Some of these vulnerabilities are waiting to be exploited, while numerous others already have. Everyday that a vulnerability or threat goes unchecked greatly increases an attack and the damage it can cause. Who knows what the prospects for a cascade of failures across US infrastructures could lead to. What type of group or individual would exploit this vulnerability, and why would they do it? "Inside the Mind of a Criminal Hacker" sets the stage and cast of characters for examples and scenarios such as this, providing the security specialist a window into the enemy’s mind - necessary in order to develop a well configured defense. Written by leading security and counter-terrorism experts, whose experience include first-hand exposure in working with government branches & agencies (such as the FBI, US Army, Department of Homeland Security), this book sets a standard for the fight against the cyber-terrorist. Proving, that at the heart of the very best defense is knowing and understanding your enemy. * This book will demonstrate the motives and motivations of criminal hackers through profiling attackers at post attack and forensic levels. * This book is essential to those who need to truly "know thy enemy" in order to prepare the best defense. * . The breadth of material in "Inside the Criminal Mind" will surprise every security specialist and cyber-terrorist buff of how much they do and (more importantly) don't know about the types of adversaries they stand to face.