Book picks similar to
Rogue States and U.S. Foreign Policy: Containment after the Cold War by Robert S. Litwak
international-politics-intel
nuclear
terrorism
us-fp-history
4:09:43: Boston 2013 Through the Eyes of the Runners
Hal Higdon - 2013
The book's title refers to the numbers on the finish-line clock when the first bomb exploded.In "4:09:43," Higdon views Boston 2013 through the eyes of those running the race. You will meet George, a runner from Athens, birthplace of the modern marathon, who at sunrise joins the eerie march of silent runners, all aimed at their appointments in Hopkinton, where the marathon starts. You will meet Michele, who at age 2 helped her mother hand water to runners, who first ran the marathon while a student at Wellesley College, and who decided to run Boston again mainly because her daughter Shannon was now a student at Boston University. You will meet Tracy, caught on Boylston Street between the two explosions, running for her life. You will meet Heather, a Canadian, who limped into the Medical Tent with bloody socks from blisters, soon to realize that worse things exist than losing a toenail.In what may be a first, Hal Higdon used social media in writing "4:09:43." Sunday, not yet expecting what might happen the next day, Higdon posted a good-luck message on his popular Facebook page. "Perfect weather," the author predicted. "A 'no-excuses' day." Within minutes, runners in Boston responded. Neil suggested that he was "chilling before the carb-a-thon continues." Christy boasted from her hotel room: "Bring it!"Then, the explosions on Monday! Like all runners, Higdon wondered whether marathoners would ever feel safe again. Beginning Tuesday, runners told him. They began blogging on the Internet, posting to his Facebook page, offering links to their stories, so very similar, but also so very different. Over the next several hours, days, and weeks, Higdon collected the tales of nearly 75 runners who were there, whose lives forever would be shadowed by the bombs on Boylston Street.In" 4:09:43," Higdon presents these stories, condensing and integrating them into a smooth-flowing narrative that begins with runners boarding the buses at Boston Common, continues with the wait at the Athletes' Village in Hopkinton, and flows through eight separate towns. The story does not end until the 23,000 participants encounter the terror on Boylston Street. "These are not 75 separate stories," says Higdon. "This is one story told as it might have been by a single runner with 75 pairs of eyes."One warning about reading "4:09:43" You will cry. But you will laugh, too, because for most of those who covered the 26 miles 385 yards from Hopkinton to Boylston Street, this was a joyous journey, albeit one that ended in tragedy. This is a book as much about the race and the runners in the race as it is about a terrorist attack. In future years as people look back on the Boston Marathon bombings, "4:09:43" will be the book that everyone will need to have read.
Titanium Security Series Box Set: Volume II
Kaylea Cross - 2014
A mind-blowing kiss finally changed that, but then he disappeared from her life. Now he’s back, to recruit her for a job with his NSA-sanctioned Titanium Security team. They’re going after the terrorist responsible for the recent attacks on their team and Jordyn is eager to lend her skill set to the hunt. She’s determined to prove to Blake that she’s capable of holding her own—both in the bedroom and on the battlefield.He’s never walking away again…Former Marine Scout/Sniper Blake Ellis hid his true feelings for Jordyn for years out of respect for her and her family, but once he learns those feelings aren’t one-sided, he can’t keep his distance any longer. When a team tragedy thrusts Jordyn into the front line with him on a battlefield, Blake will do whatever it takes to protect her. She’s everything he ever wanted in a woman but he was too stubborn to see it. Now it might be too late for them. As they race to capture the terrorist they’re hunting, Blake and Jordyn find themselves fighting for their lives. If they want to make it out alive they must work together to defeat an unseen, powerful network that will stop at nothing until their entire team is dead.Rekindled:He left her when she needed him most…Four years ago, Dr. Grace Fallon lost everything that mattered in a terrorist attack she barely survived. Now she’s stronger than ever and in Pakistan with a UN-sanctioned team for the most important assignment of her career. She’s dedicated her life to eradicating the world of chemical weapons, and long ago accepted the inherent risks associated with her job. Until the man whose memory has haunted her for so long suddenly reappears and inadvertently makes her the target of one of the most dangerous terrorists on the planet. Forced to accept Alex’s protection, it’s impossible to deny the white-hot attraction still burning between them. And while she trusts him to guard her from this new threat, Grace must once again decide whether to risk her heart to the man who once shattered her entire world.Now he’ll risk everything to win her back…Four years ago, NSA agent Alex Rycroft left Grace because had no choice. But never again. Malik Hassani has escaped custody, he’s on the run, and has locked onto Grace as a means to target Alex. This time Alex will do whatever it takes to protect her—and convince her to give them another chance. Walking away from her nearly destroyed him and now that she’s back in his life, he can’t let her go. When the unthinkable happens and Grace’s life hangs in the balance, he’ll sacrifice everything to save her—including himself.Blindsided:It’s a Titanium Christmas reunion…Grace and Alex Rycroft have just moved into their newly renovated house in upstate New York and they’ve invited the whole Titanium Security crew to celebrate an early Christmas with them.But not all is merry and bright.Unfortunately things don’t go as planned. When the unthinkable happens at a veteran’s charity event in the middle of Manhattan, the team must pull together to take down the attacker and rally around a wounded teammate in the tragic aftermath. With one of their own left fighting for his life, it’s going to take a Christmas miracle to pull him through and make the holiday season bright.
Nuclear 2.0: Why A Green Future Needs Nuclear Power
Mark Lynas - 2013
This is just as well, according to Mark Lynas in Nuclear 2.0, because nuclear energy is essential to avoid catastrophic global warming. Using the latest world energy statistics Lynas shows that with wind and solar still at only about 1 percent of global primary energy, asking renewables to deliver all the world’s power is “dangerously delusional”. Moreover, there is no possibility of using less energy, he reminds us, when the developing world is fast extricating itself from poverty and adding the equivalent of a new Brazil to global electricity consumption each year. The anti-nuclear movement of the 1970s and 80s succeeded only in making the world more dependent on fossil fuels, he shows: its history is “not lit by sunshine, but shrouded in coal smoke”. Instead of making the same mistake again, all those who want to see a low-carbon future need to join forces, he insists, concluding the book with an ambitious proposal for an Apollo Program-style combined investment in wind, solar and nuclear power. Mark Lynas is an environmental writer and campaigner. His previous books have drawn attention to the perils of global warming, and he was Climate Advisor to the President of the Maldives from 2009-2011. He is a Visiting Research Associate at Oxford University’s School of Geography and the Environment, and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies. He recently featured in the movie documentary Pandora’s Promise, which inspired the writing of this book.
Five Myths about Nuclear Weapons
Ward Wilson - 2013
This groundbreaking study shows why five central arguments promoting nuclear weapons are, in essence, myths. It is a myth: • that nuclear weapons necessarily shock and awe opponents, including Japan at the end of World War II • that nuclear deterrence is reliable in a crisis • that destruction wins wars • that the bomb has kept the peace for sixty-five years • and that we can’t put the nuclear genie back in the bottle Drawing on new information and the latest historical research, Wilson poses a fundamental challenge to the myths on which nuclear weapons policy is currently built. Using pragmatic arguments and an unemotional, clear-eyed insistence on the truth, he arrives at a surprising conclusion: nuclear weapons are enormously dangerous, but don’t appear to be terribly useful. In that case, he asks, why would we want to keep them? This book will be widely read and discussed by everyone who cares about war, peace, foreign policy, and security in the twenty-first century.
Fukushima
Mark Willacy - 2013
The quake itself was just the start of a chain of disastrous events, creating a massive tsunami that slammed the shores of north eastern Japan. Close to 20,000 people were killed or disappeared under waves that reached more than 40 metres high as they smashed their way several kilometres inland. Yet the greatest damage was caused when the tsunami surged over the seawall of Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power station, resulting in a multiple core meltdown that released vast quantities of radioactivity into the atmosphere and ocean. At one stage it even threatened the evacuation and irradiation of Tokyo itself, which would have spelt the end of Japan as we know it. Fukushima is the incredible story behind the twin catastrophes of the tsunami and nuclear meltdown, seen through the eyes of witnesses and victims – from former prime minister Naoto Kan, the plant director and senior engineers of Fukushima Dai-Ichi, the elite firefighters who risked their lives to avert the ultimate nuclear nightmare, to the mother excavating the wreckage as she looked for her daughter's remains.
Shadow Agenda
Sam Powers - 2015
In Europe, two diplomats are slain. In America, a deadly game is unfolding that may yet engulf the world in flames... Enter Joe Brennan, a man fighting for the right reasons who may be on the wrong team. He's on the trail of a sniper, even as rumors surface of a much deadlier plot. With help from reporter Alex Malone, Brennan must stay on the run and under fire, as he tries to save countless lives and uncover the Shadow Agenda. NOTE: This novel was previously serialized in three-parts as "Betrayer of Kings", "Deadman Switch", and "Fallout Zone."
Soft Target
Iain Rob Wright - 2014
When a quaint village in the United Kingdom is stuck by a suicide bomber, the once proud nation is brought to its knees with grief. Yet that first attack was just the beginning of something much greater and much worse. Something that nobody could ever have predicted. The days that follow will determine if the UK even has a future left, or if it will be reduced to anarchy and ashes. The only person that stands between the people of the UK and its complete destruction is an angry, damaged ex-solider named Sarah Stone. Sarah despises her own country and what it did to her, which is what makes it so hard when she is forced to save it. SOFT TARGET is the first in a series of books featuring acerbic protagonist Sarah Stone. It is a non-stop action thriller in the same vein as 24.
Contact
A.F.N. Clarke - 1983
This edition has additional material previously left out of the hardbacks and paperback version first published by Martin Secker & Warburg, PAN Books and Schocken Books.
We Want to Negotiate: The Secret World of Kidnapping, Hostages and Ransom
Joel Simon - 2019
A year later the world learned they had been taken hostage by the Islamic State. Throughout 2014, all the Europeans came home, first the Spanish, then the French, then an Italian, a German, and a Dane. In August 2014, the Islamic State began executing the Americans--including journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff--followed by the British hostages.Joel Simon, who in nearly two decades at the Committee to Protect Journalists has worked on dozens of hostages cases, delves into the heated hostage policy debate. The Europeans paid millions of dollars to a terrorist group to free their hostages. The U.S. and the U.K. refused to do so, arguing that any ransom would be used to fuel terrorism and would make the crime more attractive, increasing the risk to their citizens. We Want to Negotiate is an exploration of the ethical, legal, and strategic considerations of a bedeviling question: Should governments pay ransom to terrorists?