Paper Tiger is a small concise picture of my thirteen years spent contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Starting with securing weapons of mass destruction in Southern Iraq to giving away billions of US tax dollars while leading teams in Hillary's army. This book was written in the most sarcastic manner; as sarcasm was my endurance formula for the incompetence of leadership provided to us in mission accomplishment. If the enemy ever knew how much we improvised and the illusions we created, then we would all be getting our heads lopped off on the Internet.
In a provocative book about American hegemony, Christopher Layne outlines his belief that U.S. foreign policy has been consistent in its aims for more than sixty years and that the current Bush administration clings to mid-twentieth-century tactics--to no good effect. What should the nation's grand strategy look like for the next several decades? The end of the cold war profoundly and permanently altered the international landscape, yet we have seen no parallel change in the aims and shape of U.S. foreign policy. The Peace of Illusions intervenes in the ongoing debate about American grand strategy and the costs and benefits of "American empire." Layne urges the desirability of a strategy he calls "offshore balancing": rather than wield power to dominate other states, the U.S. government should engage in diplomacy to balance large states against one another. The United States should intervene, Layne asserts, only when another state threatens, regionally or locally, to destroy the established balance. Drawing on extensive archival research, Layne traces the form and aims of U.S. foreign policy since 1940, examining alternatives foregone and identifying the strategic aims of different administrations. His offshore-balancing notion, if put into practice with the goal of extending the "American Century," would be a sea change in current strategy. Layne has much to say about present-day governmental decision making, which he examines from the perspectives of both international relations theory and American diplomatic history.
A veteran CIA operative scrutinizes Homeland Security--including the preparedness of military installations, rail systems, chemical plants, and dams--and finds that America is still vulnerable to its enemies.
Presenting invaluable advice from the world?s most famous computer security expert, this intensely readable collection features some of the most insightful and informative coverage of the strengths and weaknesses of computer security and the price people pay -- figuratively and literally -- when security fails. Discussing the issues surrounding things such as airplanes, passports, voting machines, ID cards, cameras, passwords, Internet banking, sporting events, computers, and castles, this book is a must-read for anyone who values security at any level -- business, technical, or personal.
A novel contribution to the age-old debate about free will versus determinism. Do we consciously cause our actions, or do they happen to us? Philosophers, psychologists, neuroscientists, theologians, and lawyers have long debated the existence of free will versus determinism. In this book Daniel Wegner offers a novel understanding of the issue. Like actions, he argues, the feeling of conscious will is created by the mind and brain. Yet if psychological and neural mechanisms are responsible for all human behavior, how could we have conscious will? The feeling of conscious will, Wegner shows, helps us to appreciate and remember our authorship of the things our minds and bodies do. Yes, we feel that we consciously will our actions, Wegner says, but at the same time, our actions happen to us. Although conscious will is an illusion, it serves as a guide to understanding ourselves and to developing a sense of responsibility and morality. Approaching conscious will as a topic of psychological study, Wegner examines the issue from a variety of angles. He looks at illusions of the will—those cases where people feel that they are willing an act that they are not doing or, conversely, are not willing an act that they in fact are doing. He explores conscious will in hypnosis, Ouija board spelling, automatic writing, and facilitated communication, as well as in such phenomena as spirit possession, dissociative identity disorder, and trance channeling. The result is a book that sidesteps endless debates to focus, more fruitfully, on the impact on our lives of the illusion of conscious will.
From a noted historian and foreign-policy analyst, a groundbreaking critique of the troubling symbiosis between Washington and the human rights movement The United States has long been hailed as a powerful force for global human rights. Now, drawing on thousands of documents from the CIA, the National Security Council, the Pentagon, and development agencies, James Peck shows in blunt detail how Washington has shaped human rights into a potent ideological weapon for purposes having little to do with rights—and everything to do with furthering America's global reach. Using the words of Washington's leaders when they are speaking among themselves, Peck tracks the rise of human rights from its dismissal in the cold war years as "fuzzy minded" to its calculated adoption, after the Vietnam War, as a rationale for American foreign engagement. He considers such milestones as the fight for Soviet dissidents, Tiananmen Square, and today's war on terror, exposing in the process how the human rights movement has too often failed to challenge Washington's strategies. A gripping and elegant work of analysis, Ideal Illusions argues that the movement must break free from Washington if it is to develop a truly uncompromising critique of power in all its forms.
Seminars by Professor Windy Dryden. See the man live and in action. To find out more and to book your place go to www.cityminds.com ________________________________________ `[This is] a book which accepts and even celebrates the diversity of ideas in the field. It stimulates interest and informs. It stirs up debates, and leaves the reader to continue to think about them... an important book, not to be missed by any serious counselling student or practitioner′ - British Journal of Guidance and Counselling Praise for the Fourth Edition: `[This] is a well-written, comprehensive core textbook that can be recommended not only to counselling psychology and psychotherapy trainees, to guide them through their training, but also to practising professionals to act as a reference textbook to draw upon when needed′ - Stefania Grbcic, Counselling Psychology Review ′Covering history, theory, primary client set and strengths and weaknesses for each of thirteen different approaches, the book makes an excellent starting point for exploring different schools of thought in more detail′ - Counsellingresource.com `This is a very well structured text with thorough coverage and interesting material. The text links theory to practice and offers invaluable knowledge to all professionals and students of various schools of psychotherapy′ - lecturer `A valuable resource for students′ - lecturer `At last! An informative text with some depth. Easily accessible. Extremely useful′ - lecturer Dryden′s Handbook of Individual Therapy is now a classic text for trainees in counselling and psychotherapy. This newly updated fifth edition presents a comprehensive overview of the key approaches to individual therapy practice, including three new chapters on narrative therapy, solution-focused therapy and integrative and eclectic approaches. Written by experts in their own therapeutic fields, the book introduces the principles and methods of individual therapy concisely and accessibly. Following a clearly defined structure, each chapter outlines one approach in detail and provides case examples to illustrate how that approach works in practice. Each form of therapy is described in terms of: - its historical context - the main theoretical assumptions - the mode of practice - which clients will benefit most - the general strengths and limitations of the approach Further chapters place counselling and psychotherapy in their social context, explore training and supervision and relate research to individual therapy practice. Dryden′s Handbook of Individual Therapy, Fifth Edition is designed for those in training in counselling, psychotherapy, counselling psychology and other helping professions such as nursing, social work and education. It will be invaluable for novice therapists looking for an overall picture of individual therapy practice, as well as for experienced therapists interested in learning about alternative approaches. Windy Dryden currently works at Goldsmiths College where he is Professor of Psychotherapeutic Studies as well as being the programme co-ordinator of the MSc in Rational-Emotive & Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and the Diploma in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
This volume contains studies of one particular category of risky situations, namely, those involving highly negative consequences with low probabilities. Situations of this type involve both natural and man-made disasters (e.g. floods, technological hazards, economic crises, epidemics, etc.). Such risks are characterized by two features: (1) they occur relatively rarely (the probability of their occurrence is very low) and (2) they have extremely negative consequences (they are catastrophic). Such events generally cannot be prevented, but one can both try to anticipate them and undertake actions aimed at ameliorating their negative consequences. Consequently, the first part of the book is devoted to risk perception issues. It includes studies devoted to the following questions which arise when people have to deal with probabilities, and small probabilities in particular: How can probabilistic information be communicated effectively? What is the impact of emotions on perceptions of, and reactions to, probabilistic information? Other relevant issues are also discussed. The second part of the book is devoted to protection and insurance against risk. Thus, it includes studies answering the following questions: What determines a person’s willingness to take preventive actions in areas susceptible to severe flooding? How do people form their own risk estimates? Research presented in the book extends our knowledge of human behavior in situations characterized by large risks and low probabilities, leading to better comprehension of the functioning of cognitive and affective processes in perception and decision making in situations where uncertainty and risk are accompanied by highly negative consequences.
"Some of the arguments published in this volume were first adumbrated at a joint British Academy/University of St Andrews Symposium ('9/11: Ten Years On') held in London on 2 September 2011."--Page ix.
