Coker (international relations, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK) puts a new spin on war by considering it as a changeable phenomenon that varies through time and place. The shift of war from an event that drew physically and emotionally on a nation's people to one that is seen with detachment as foreign policy is the book's major premise. Coker considers numerous wars, both ancient and modern (including the recent conflicts in Somalia and Afghanistan), and also considers the impact of computers and the possibility of cyber-war. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

WARS CHANGE, WARRIORS DON'T We are all warriors. Each of us struggles every day to define and defend our sense of purpose and integrity, to justify our existence on the planet and to understand, if only within our own hearts, who we are and what we believe in. Do we fight by a code? If so, what is it? What is the Warrior Ethos? Where did it come from? What form does it take today? How do we (and how can we) use it and be true to it in our internal and external lives? The Warrior Ethos is intended not only for men and women in uniform, but artists, entrepreneurs and other warriors in other walks of life. The book examines the evolution of the warrior code of honor and "mental toughness." It goes back to the ancient Spartans and Athenians, to Caesar's Romans, Alexander's Macedonians and the Persians of Cyrus the Great (not excluding the Garden of Eden and the primitive hunting band). Sources include Herodotus, Thucydides, Plutarch, Xenophon, Vegetius, Arrian and Curtius--and on down to Gen. George Patton, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, and Israeli Minister of Defense, Moshe Dayan.

Warriors Without War takes readers beneath the placid waters of the Seminole’s public image and into the fascinating depths of Seminole society and politics. For the entire last quarter of the twentieth century, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, a federally recognized American Indian Tribe, struggled as it transitioned from a tiny group of warriors into one of the best-known tribes on the world’s economic stage through their gaming enterprises. Caught between a desperate desire for continued cultural survival and the mounting pressures of the non-Indian world—especially, the increasing requirements of the United States government— the Seminoles took a warriorlike approach to financial risk management. Their leader was the sometimes charming, sometimes crass and explosive, always warriorlike James Billie, who twice led the tribe in fights with the State of Florida that led all the way to the US Supreme Court. Patricia Riles Wickman, who lived and worked for fifteen years with the Seminole people, chronicles the near-meteoric rise of the tribe and its leader to the pinnacle of international fame, and Billie’s ultimate fall after twenty-four years in power. Based partly on her own personal experiences working with the Seminole Tribe of Florida, Wickman has produced an in-depth study of the rise of one of the largest Indian gaming operations in the United States that reads almost like a Capote nonfiction novel.

Foremost military historian Richard Holmes offers us a compelling and at times terrifying account of what it means to be a contemporary soldier.

The founder of Blackwater offers the gripping true story of the world’s most controversial military contractor. In 1997, former Navy SEAL Erik Prince started a business that would recruit civilians for the riskiest security jobs in the world. As Blackwater’s reputation grew, demand for its services escalated, and its men eventually completed nearly 100,000 missions for both the Bush and Obama administrations. It was a huge success except for one problem: Blackwater was demonized around the world. Its employees were smeared as mercenaries, profiteers, or worse. And because of the secrecy requirements of its contracts with the Pentagon, the State Department, and the CIA, Prince was unable to correct false information. But now he’s finally able to tell the full story about some of the biggest controversies of the War on Terror, in a memoir that reads like a thriller.

Widely-researched and fast-paced, Private Warriors surveys the generals, gun-runners and national security staffers who were cast adrift at the end of the Cold War and who now operate in the private sector. In these pages we encounter Ernst Werner Glatt, a right-wing German who was for many years the Pentagon's preferred gun-runner; ex-Secretary of State Alexander Haig who now lobbies for China and assists in selling weapons to Turkey; and Frank Gaffney, an ex-Pentagon official who has grown rich by promoting the biggest boondoggle of them all, Star Wars. Today's private warriors have a direct financial interest in war and the connections to push for the maintenance of bloated military budgets.

The riveting story of how a young boy's upbringing with outlaw culture and charismatic role models forged him into an elite Marine and a decorated Pararescueman. "Absence of self is my sword" comprises the final line in "The Warrior's Creed," a 14th century poem written by an unknown Japanese Samurai, and this is the code Master Sergeant Roger Sparks embodied as a Recon Marine turned Alaskan Pararescueman. A living legend in the military, Sparks first made a name for himself within elite Marine Reconnaissance units. He went on to become an instructor where he trained future Reconnaissance Marines with unorthodox and ancient indigenous warrior techniques. A decade later, the same methods would keep him and others alive, when he hoisted into a maelstrom of violence to rescue an embattled platoon in the rugged mountains of eastern Afghanistan. Introduced to a tough code of honor, family, and brotherhood from birth, Roger Sparks rose to become a distinguished instructor in Marine Reconnaissance and a Silver Star recipient as an Alaska Pararescueman. A raw and exhilarating tale of guts, grit, and heart, Warrior's Creed recounts the hidden side of special operations training, heroic and heartbreaking Alaskan wilderness rescues, and the surreal and deadly rescues during Operation Bulldog Bite in Afghanistan’s Watapur Valley. This powerful and inspirational story is as much of a self-help book as it is an edge of your seat military memoir. Warrior's Creed reveals a motivating and mindful approach to overcoming the odds, facing the impossible, and finding mercy and grace in the aftermath.