Prosecutors in New York, Dallas and dozens of other cities unveiled indictments against some of the senior leadership of La Familia, which means "the family" in Spanish and is one of Mexico's newer cartels. The sweep and indictments culminated a 44-month operation during which the Justice Department arrested about 1,200 people and seized nearly 12 tons of drugs as well as $32.8 million in US currency, Attorney General Eric Holder said. Officials said they disrupted La Familia cells across the US, including distribution hubs in Texas, Kansas, Georgia and New York.

--Wall Street Journal

AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN

Insurgents Share a Name, but Pursue Different Goals - Scott Shane, New York Times. As it devises a new Afghanistan policy, the Obama administration confronts a complex geopolitical puzzle: two embattled governments, in Afghanistan and Pakistan; numerous militias aligned with overlapping Islamist factions; and hidden in the factions’ midst, the foe that brought the United States to the region eight years ago, Al Qaeda. But at the core of the tangle are the two Taliban movements, Afghan and Pakistani. They share an ideology and a dominant Pashtun ethnicity, but they have such different histories, structures and goals that the common name may be more misleading than illuminating, some regional specialists say. “The fact that they have the same name causes all kinds of confusion,” said Gilles Dorronsoro, a French scholar of South Asia currently at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington. This week, Mr. Dorronsoro said, as the Pakistani Army began a major offensive against the Pakistani Taliban, many Americans thought incorrectly that the assault was against the Afghan Taliban, the force that is causing Washington to consider sending more troops to Afghanistan.

Obama Team Meets on Afghanistan Runoff - Voice of America. US President Barack Obama has held consultations with the American ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry, on efforts to prevent voter fraud in the country's upcoming presidential election. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said officials from Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission (IEC) also took part in the one-hour video conference call with the president Thursday. Gibbs said Mr. Obama examined the current political situation in Afghanistan, as part of his continuing assessment of whether to send more US troops there. He said the discussions aimed "to fix what went wrong" in the country's August election, which was marred by voter fraud. The problems led election officials to call for a runoff vote between President Hamid Karzai and former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah. Gibbs said President Obama wants to ensure the November 7 vote is seen as legitimate by the Afghan people and the international community.

Afghan Ballots Go Out, by Air and Donkey - Yaroslav Trofimov and Anand Gopal, Wall Street Journal. Afghan authorities and the United Nations, supported by US-led international forces, began distributing millions of ballots, tamper-proof ink and equipment for a runoff presidential election on Nov. 7. Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission decided to cut the number of polling stations that will be open during the runoff, officials said. The closings will be in areas where the central government has no control and the security threat is high - and where, according to observers, ballot boxes were stuffed by corrupt poll supervisors in the first round of voting on Aug. 20. The IEC, whose members are appointed by President Hamid Karzai, hasn't made public how many polling stations will remain closed. An IEC official said some 2,000 of 25,000 stations won't open, most of them in restive eastern and southern Afghanistan, Mr. Karzai's main base of support. Insurgent threats prevented many residents in these areas from voting in the first round. UN representatives have been pushing for more stations to remain closed, fearing a repeat of the first-round fraud that led a UN-backed electoral watchdog to order the reversal of the IEC's initial decision to award Mr. Karzai a victory. "The IEC will have to get a balance between making sure that people who want to cast their vote can do it, and the issues relating to fraud," said Dan McNorton, a UN spokesman in Kabul.

A New Vote Poses Similar Troubles for Afghans - Alissa J. Rubin, New York Times. The serious fraud that clouded the credibility of Afghanistan’s presidential election last summer is unlikely to be repeated on the same scale in the runoff set for Nov. 7, but it cannot be altogether eliminated, said Afghan and international officials here as they scrambled to prepare for the vote. At least as worrisome is the likelihood of low turnout caused by continuing threats from insurgents, winter weather that has already brought subfreezing temperatures to some areas and a deep sense among Afghans that there is little reason to vote a second time. “None of us want to see a repeat of what happened in the first election,” said Kai Eide, the United Nations special representative here. “Can we stop fraud? No, we cannot, but we can reduce it.” It will be harder to persuade the many Afghans who live in rural areas and who have little experience with elections to vote in a second round. “Many Afghans believe the elections are over,” Mr. Eide said. The turnout in the first round, held on Aug. 20, was about 38 percent, and most analysts expect significantly fewer people to vote this time.

Gates Asks NATO for More Help in Afghanistan - Al Pessin, Voice of America. US Defense Secretary Robert Gates flew to Slovakia to ask NATO defense ministers to help the United States respond to the request for more resources made by the US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal. Secretary Gates is in the potentially awkward position of asking NATO allies to do more in Afghanistan, while the US government is still reviewing its own plans. But he told reporters on his aircraft it makes sense to have these talks now because the effort to stabilize and develop Afghanistan is a NATO mission, not just an American one. "This is an alliance issue and my view all along has been we ought to do this in a way that if General McChrystal has an additional set of needs, it should not be looked upon as exclusively the responsibility of the United States to respond," said the defense secretary. Gates says since the NATO summit last spring he has seen "more energy and more commitment" among NATO nations to doing what is necessary to succeed in Afghanistan. He described current consultations with NATO allies as "intense."

White House and Cheney in a War of Words over Afghanistan - Michael D. Shear, Washington Post. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs lashed out at former vice president Richard B. Cheney on Thursday, dismissing the Republican's criticism of delays in President Obama's decision-making on Afghanistan strategy. In a speech Wednesday night, Cheney offered the latest in a series of harsh assessments of the president's conduct of foreign policy, accusing Obama of "dithering" in his weeks-long review about whether to add 40,000 new US troops to the fight in Afghanistan. Cheney said Obama "seems afraid" to make a decision. Those comments drew a sharp rebuke from Gibbs, who asserted that the Bush administration - and Cheney himself - had sat for eight months on a request for more troops from their own military leaders. "What Vice President Cheney calls 'dithering,' President Obama calls his solemn responsibility to the men and women in uniform and to the American public," Gibbs told reporters. "I think we've all seen what happens when somebody doesn't take that responsibility seriously."

US Aiding Pakistani Military Offensive - Julian E. Barnes and Greg Miller, Los Angeles Times. The US military is providing intelligence and surveillance video from unmanned aircraft to the Pakistani army to assist in its week-old offensive in South Waziristan, marking the deepest American involvement yet in a Pakistani military campaign, officials said. The assistance includes imagery from armed Predator drones that Defense officials say are being used exclusively for intelligence gathering in the offensive. Providing such information fills gaps in the Islamabad government's spying arsenal, officials said, and helps show how the Obama administration intends to intensify pressure on insurgents in Pakistan as the administration overhauls the US military strategy in neighboring Afghanistan. The cooperation also reflects a significant shift for Pakistan, which had previously resisted US offers to deploy Predators in support of its military operations.Recent militant attacks have shaken the Pakistani government, convincing officials of the need for help in taking on militants.

Kerry Visit Underscores Power Still Wielded by Pakistani Army - Karin Brulliard, Washington Post. Sen. John F. Kerry briefly swept through the Pakistani capital this week to allay politicians' concerns about a new US aid package that has sparked public outrage. But Pakistani media reports focused on his meeting with the person who seemed to really matter - the army chief. With furor simmering over the conditions attached to the $7.5 billion in development aid, the Massachusetts Democrat's stopover underscored the power the Pakistani military, which has ruled the nation for half its existence, continues to wield in Pakistan's political theater. In this show, the army cast itself as the backroom champion of a proud public - and President Asif Ali Zardari and his civilian government as American stooges. The aid package, which calls for stronger civilian oversight of Pakistan's military, was intended as a display of the Obama administration's support for Zardari's democratically elected government, which initially embraced the funding. Instead, Pakistani politicians and analysts said, a public backlash stoked by the nation's top generals has worsened a tense relationship between the army and the president and further weakened the fragile government.

Attack in Pakistani Capital Kills Senior Military Officer - Karin Brulliard and Shaiq Hussain, Washington Post. Gunmen on a motorbike opened fire on an army jeep traveling through thick traffic in the Pakistani capital Thursday, killing a senior military officer and his driver, authorities said. The morning attack in Islamabad, which police officials said was probably carried out by Islamist militants, displayed a new tactic in insurgents' continuing assaults on Pakistan's security forces. It was the latest in a chain of attacks in recent weeks, and it came as the army entered the sixth day of a major ground offensive to purge Taliban fighters from the volatile tribal region where authorities say the violence has been plotted. It was unclear whether or why the brigadier, Moinuddin Ahmed Haider , was targeted. Haider was on his way to a military office in nearby Rawalpindi, according to Tahir Alam, a senior police official. A military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to speak publicly, said Haider was a top commander of UN peacekeeping forces in Sudan and had returned to Pakistan in recent days because his father-in-law had died.

Suicide Bomber Kills 7 in Pakistan - Jane Perlez, New York Times. A suicide bombing at Pakistan’s premier aeronautical manufacturing complex killed seven people on Friday morning, the ninth attack on major government installations this month. The bomber blew up himself up at the checkpoint at the entrance to the complex, 40 miles northwest of Islamabad, as workers arrived for the morning shift, said a district police official, Fakhur Sultan. Two men guarding the checkpoint and five civilians were killed, , Mr. Sultan said. The relentless pace of assaults against sensitive and prominent targets in Pakistan comes as the army is conducting a major offensive against Taliban and Al Qaeda militants in the remote tribal area of South Waziristan. The attacks are seen as reprisals by the militants for the campaign against them in their tribal heartland. On Thursday morning, a senior army officer, Brigadier Moinuddin Haider, was assassinated by two gunmen who attacked his jeep during rush-hour traffic in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital. The Taliban had warned before the start of the campaign in South Waziristan that they planned to unleash attacks against Pakistan’s military assets.

IRAQ

General in Iraq ‘Encouraged’ as Elections Approach - Gerry J. Gilmore, American Forces Press Service. Violence in Iraq has dropped to the lowest levels seen since 2003 as the Iraqi people prepare to vote in new legislative and general elections slated for January, a senior US military officer said here today. “I’m encouraged now that violence is at an all-time low; that the levels are down to where they were in 2003,” Army Brig. Gen. Stephen R. Lanza, Multinational Force Iraq’s deputy chief of staff for strategic effects, told reporters during a news briefing at the Washington Foreign Press Center. The reduced violence in Iraq today, Lanza said, indicates “continued improvement in Iraq's security environment, through the combined efforts of Iraq and US forces.” The 120,000 US troops now in Iraq “continue to push hard,” Lanza said, following the June 30 implementation of a US-Iraq security agreement through which Iraqi security forces took primary responsibility for security within the country’s cites. US combat forces today are conducting partnered, full-spectrum operations outside Iraqi cities and also along the borders, Lanza said, to deny extremists safe havens and reduce the foreign flow of lethal aid, and specifically foreign fighters, into Iraq. “Our combined focus today remains on securing the Iraqi population and enabling Iraq to continue to move forward,” Lanza said. The success of a two-day US-Iraq business and investment conference that drew 1,500 people and concluded here yesterday reflects the greatly improved security in Iraq, Lanza said, as well as the Iraqi people’s eagerness and desire to move forward.

Counting Backward - New York Times editorial. America’s top diplomat in Iraq, Christopher Hill, and America’s top commander there, Gen. Ray Odierno, have been wrangling for months over how much United States officials should get involved in Iraqi politics. Mr. Hill, it is said, wants to give the Iraqis more of a chance to find their own way. General Odierno - with his eye on the troop drawdown clock - has been arguing for a more hands-on approach. The stalemate over Iraq’s election law should settle that debate once and for all. Iraq’s political leaders need a strong shove ahead if there is to be any hope of withdrawing American troops on time and ensuring that the country they leave behind doesn’t once again unravel. Iraq’s Constitution says national elections must be held before Jan. 31. When President Obama pledged to pull out all combat troops by the end of August, it was with the understanding that there would be a new government solidly in place.

IRAN

Israel Signals Concern on Iran Talks - Isabel Kershner, New York Times. The Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, said on Thursday that Iran must cease all uranium enrichment, a statement that reflected Israeli concern over a draft agreement taking shape in Vienna, where earlier this week Iran took part in nuclear talks with the United States, Russia and France. Under the agreement, about three-quarters of Iran’s known stockpile of nuclear fuel would be shipped to Russia for enrichment to levels suitable for a peaceful nuclear reactor but too low for weapons. Such a deal would delay Iran’s ability to build a nuclear weapon for about a year, buying more time for President Obama to search for a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff. In the first response by a senior Israeli leader, Mr. Barak said what was necessary was “the cessation of enrichment by Iran, and not just the removal of the enriched material.” Speaking at a conference hosted by Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, in Jerusalem, Mr. Barak urged “all the players” that “under no circumstances should any option be removed from the table,” meaning that the threats of tougher sanctions and military action should remain.

Israel and Iran Hold First Talks in 30 Years - Adrian Blomfield and Samer al-Atrush, Daily Telegraph. Israel and Iran have held their first significant meeting in 30 years but the exchanges between the two adversaries quickly descended into acrimony. Officials in Tel Aviv admitted on Thursday that representatives from the two states' nuclear agencies spoke to each other during a disarmament conference in Cairo last month. The surprise encounter, the first that either side has been prepared to admit since the fall of the Shah in 1979, seemed to cause deep embarrassment for both sides. Fearing public disapproval, Iran denied an exchange had taken place at all, calling it a "lie" designed to strike a psychological blow against the Islamic state's "dynamic diplomacy". Israel begrudgingly acknowledged the exchange, which took place across the conference floor, but was quick to stress that it took place in an atmosphere bereft of conviviality.

US-Israel War Games Start as Deadline for Iran to Approve Nuke Deal Draws Near - Sheera Frenkel and Giles Whittell, The Times. The US and Israel launched a major joint military exercise yesterday as a deadline neared for Iran to approve a deal to delay its development of nuclear weapons and prevent Israel from attacking its nuclear facilities. More than 1,000 US troops and 17 US Navy ships joined Israeli forces for a week-long missile defence exercise as it emerged that until recent progress in nuclear talks Israel may have been much closer to ordering a military strike than had been thought. The deal to export much of Iran’s uranium to Russia and process it for civilian use should push back Iran’s acquisition of its first nuclear bomb by at least a year, analysts believe. Iran has until today to approve the plan, which was provisionally agreed earlier this month. Until that point Israel was “on a glide path” to ordering a pre-emptive strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, one expert has said, echoing the privately-held views of some in the Obama Administration. “The Israelis have been at pains to keep European governments and the US informed of their position, which is that if efforts to stop Iran’s enrichment are not going anywhere then this is going to force a difficult decision on the Israelis,” Patrick Clawson, of the pro-Israel Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told The Times.

A Lone Cleric Is Loudly Defying Iran’s Leaders - Michael Slackman, New York Times. A short midlevel cleric, with a neat white beard and a clergyman’s calm bearing, Mehdi Karroubi has watched from his home in Tehran in recent months as his aides have been arrested, his offices raided, his newspaper shut down. He himself has been threatened with arrest and, indirectly, the death penalty. His response: bring it on. Once a second-tier opposition figure operating in the shadow of Mir Hussein Moussavi, his fellow challenger in Iran’s discredited presidential election in June, Mr. Karroubi has emerged in recent months as the last and most defiant opponent of the country’s leadership. The authorities have dismissed as fabrications his accusations of official corruption, voting fraud and the torture and rape of detained protesters. A former confidant of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and a longtime conservative politician, he has lately been accused by the government of fomenting unrest and aiding Iran’s foreign enemies. Four months after mass protests erupted in response to the dubious victory claims of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the opposition’s efforts have largely stalled in the face of unrelenting government pressure, arrests, long detentions, harsh sentences, censorship and a strategic refusal to compromise. But for all its success at preserving authority, the government has been unable to silence or intimidate Mr. Karroubi, its most tenacious and, in many ways, most problematic critic.

Detente on Ice - Washington Post editorial. There were hints of progress in the nuclear talks with Iran on Wednesday as Iranian negotiators in Vienna accepted for consideration a plan under which Iran would ship most of its current stockpile of enriched uranium out of the country. But there also was a contrary signal from Tehran about the desire of its extremist regime for detente with the West. That was the reported sentencing of Iranian American academic Kian Tajbakhsh to 15 years in prison on a blatantly bogus charge of espionage. Mr. Tajbakhsh, a well-known expert on urban planning, had no role in the protests that erupted after Iran's fraudulent presidential election in June. He told friends that he was "keeping his head down." In fact he was preparing to begin a teaching appointment at Columbia University this fall. But Mr. Tajbakhsh, who was educated in Britain and the United States but has lived in Iran since 1999, was a convenient pawn for the regime's hard-liners.

ISLAM

The Grand Mufti's Mission - Michael Gerson, Washington Post opinion. Sheik Ali Gomaa, the Grand Mufti of Egypt, possesses a wonderfully exotic title, a scholarly manner and the unique burden of issuing about 5,000 fatwas a week - the judicial rulings that help guide the lives of the Muslim faithful. On a recent visit to the United States, he explained to me the process of "resolving issues of modern life." And modern life offers Gomaa and his team of subordinate muftis plenty of fodder for resolution, from the permissibility of organ transplants, to sports gambling, to smoking during Ramadan, to female judges, to the use of weapons of mass destruction, to mobile phone transmitters on the tops of minarets. This is perhaps the most difficult aspect of Islam for many non-Muslim Americans, who must look back to Puritan Massachusetts for a time when hermeneutics - the art of interpreting a holy text - was such a consequential public matter. In the West, theological debates have long been confined to seminaries, causing nothing more serious than denominational splits. In Egypt, Gomaa is a theological celebrity. His office, the Dar al-Iftaa, is part of the Ministry of Justice. And though his rulings are nonbinding unless adopted into Egyptian law, they are widely influential.

UNITED STATES

For Kerry, a Growing Role on Foreign Policy Stage - Karen DeYoung, Washington Post. Five years after his painful loss to George W. Bush, ending a presidential campaign in which he was accused of being an Iraq war defeatist who was too willing to talk to America's adversaries, Sen. John F. Kerry has finally found his place in the foreign policy spotlight. Not only has President Obama advanced many of the Massachusetts Democrat's ideas but Vice President Biden's election vacated for Kerry the chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the legislative branch's leading foreign policy pulpit. Kerry's role over the past week in resolving, at least temporarily, the political turmoil in Afghanistan brought him kudos from Obama, who thanked him publicly and called his successful efforts to persuade President Hamid Karzai to accept a runoff election "extraordinarily constructive." It was Kerry - pressed into action by the Obama administration while on an unrelated trip to Afghanistan - who stood by Karzai's side in Kabul on Wednesday when the announcement about the runoff was made. For the first time since 2004, Kerry's face appeared on front pages across the country.

AFRICA

African States to Sign Declaration on Forced Displacement - Peter Heinlein, Voice of America. At least 46 African nations are expected to sign a declaration Friday, obligating governments and armed rebel groups to protect and assist people uprooted from their homes by war. Details of the new law on the Rights of Internally Displaced Persons will be signed at a special African Union summit in Kampala, Uganda. Its formal name is the Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa. But it will known as simply as the Kampala Declaration. It sets out the rights of civilians in conflict zones, and makes clear the legal obligations of governments and armed rebel groups to protect and assist non-combatants. After years of negotiations, its significance is being marked by a special African Union summit. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, is here for the signing ceremony. So are UN emergency relief agency chief John Holmes and International Red Cross, or ICRC, President Jacob Kellenberger.

Somalia Peacekeepers Accused of Firing Into Civilian Areas - Alisha Ryu, Voice of America. At least 24 people were killed and as many as 60 wounded in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, during what witnesses say was one of the worst fighting in recent months. African Union peacekeepers are being increasingly blamed for causing deaths and injuries among civilians. Even the most battle-hardened residents describe the early morning fighting between African Union peacekeepers and al-Shabab militants as one of the most frightening battles they have ever seen. One eyewitness, Mohamed Ali, tells VOA he was about to open his shop inside the city's sprawling Bakara open-air market, when artillery shells began raining down all around him. Ali says storekeepers and shoppers began running in panic when the shelling began. He says some people were killed and others were wounded while trying to take cover. The latest clash began as the president of Somalia's UN-backed transitional government, Sharif Sheik Ahmed, was preparing to fly to Uganda to attend an African Union summit on refugees and internally displaced people. Local journalists say al-Shabab militants lobbed mortars at the airport, prompting peacekeepers of the African Union mission in Somalia known as AMISOM, to fire back.

Somali Insurgents Attack Airport - Mohammed Ibrahim, New York Times. The nation’s most feared Islamist insurgent group, the Shabab, attacked the nation’s main airport with mortars here on Thursday as the president prepared to board a plane to Uganda, Somali officials said. The president, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, was unharmed, the officials said, but the attack was followed by an artillery strike on the nation’s biggest market that left at least 18 people dead, according to witnesses and ambulance workers. Several members of Parliament called a news conference to denounce the artillery barrage, which they said had been fired by African Union peacekeepers, who are here to protect the weak transitional government but are finding themselves increasingly under fire from militants. The troops maintain a base at the airport. Bootaan Isse Aalin, one of the Parliament members, said the shelling was “unlawful and inhuman.” But Maj. Barigye Bahoko, a spokesman for the African Union troops in Somalia, denied that the peacekeepers had fired the artillery. “Anyone is free to comment on what is going on in Somalia and those parliamentarians never condemned the assassinations and shelling by Al Shabab,” he said. “I don’t know if they have something to do with Al Shabab.”

AMERICAS

Raid Targets Mexican Cartel; 303 Arrested - Spencer S. Hsu, Washington Post. US authorities arrested 303 people Wednesday and Thursday in a nationwide sweep targeting the distribution network of La Familia, a fast-rising Mexican drug cartel known for its violence, messianic culture and control over the methamphetamine trade, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced Thursday. More than 3,000 federal, state and local agents participated in the US law enforcement operation, the largest mounted against a Mexican cartel, Holder said. The raids "dealt a significant blow to La Familia's supply chain," Holder said, netting cash, drugs, weapons and vehicles in 19 states. But US officials did not say whether any cartel leaders were caught. "With the increases in cooperation between US and Mexican authorities in recent years, we are taking the fight to our adversaries," Holder said. Arrests took place in 38 cities, from Boston to Seattle, with 77 made in Dallas. The effort involved the Drug Enforcement Administration; the FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Charges include drug and gun trafficking and money laundering.

Sweep Strikes Blow Against Mexican Cartel - Evan Perez and David Luhnow, Wall Street Journal. Prosecutors in New York, Dallas and dozens of other cities unveiled indictments against some of the senior leadership of La Familia, which means "the family" in Spanish and is one of Mexico's newer cartels. The sweep and indictments culminated a 44-month operation during which the Justice Department arrested about 1,200 people and seized nearly 12 tons of drugs as well as $32.8 million in US currency, Attorney General Eric Holder said. Officials said they disrupted La Familia cells across the US, including distribution hubs in Texas, Kansas, Georgia and New York. "While this cartel may operate from Mexico, the toxic reach of its operations extends to nearly every state in the country," Mr. Holder said, adding that La Familia was notable for its "sheer level and depravity of violence." In July, after the arrest of several La Familia leaders, authorities in Mexico discovered the bodies of 11 slain Mexican law-enforcement officers. While both violence in Mexico and the flow of drugs into the US continue, Mr. Holder said, "I think we're having an impact." Among those indicted was Servando Gomez Martinez, accused by authorities of being the cartel's operations chief. A grand jury complaint filed by US prosecutors against Mr. Gomez Martinez said he and others attended a La Familia meeting in January in the cartel's home base of Michoacan state to discuss distribution of methamphetamine. The complaint said Mr. Gomez Martinez - who is at large - gave a recorded statement to a local TV station in July claiming responsibility for kidnapping operations and battling Mexican police and prosecutors.

Probe of Mexican Drug Cartel Leads to Nearly 1,200 Arrests in US - Josh Meyer, Los Angeles Times. In a series of recent raids throughout the United States, federal authorities have arrested nearly 1,200 people who they say are connected to one of Mexico's most aggressively expanding and deadly drug trafficking cartels, known as La Familia Michoacana, law enforcement officials told The Times' Washington bureau. At least 300 of the arrests occurred today and Wednesday in California, Texas, Georgia and numerous other US locations where the crime syndicate has set up bases to engage in drug trafficking, extortion and other crimes, authorities said. The crackdown, dubbed "Project Coronado," was described by one knowledgeable source as the largest single strike in the United States against the Mexican cartels, based on a multi-agency investigation that lasted nearly 3 1/2 years. The source said authorities seized huge amounts of drug, money and evidence that can be used to go after more senior members of La Familia. Although it is a relative newcomer to Mexico's drug underworld, La Familia has been one of the most violent and quick to attack Mexican troops and lawmakers who have tried to halt its expansion, US counter-narcotics officials say. It also has been locked in a violent struggle with a group known as the Zetas, former allies who serve as the armed wing of a Gulf cartel.

ASIA PACIFIC

Japan: No Base Decision Soon - John Pomfret and Blaine Harden, Washington Post. The Japanese government said Thursday it would take its time in deciding whether to renege on a military realignment plan involving US bases, despite warnings from the Obama administration that any reversal would spark serious consequences. Officials in Tokyo appeared unfazed by pressure from the US government, with Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano telling reporters that Japan was unlikely to make its decision before Obama's visit to the country on Nov. 12 and 13. The process could stretch into early 2010, he said. "We can't accept what America is asking for in such a short period of time and say we'll do it just because it is an agreement between Japan and the United States," Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada said during a morning talk show on commercial broadcaster TBS, the Associated Press reported. Japan's effort to redefine its alliance with the United States and its place in Asia reflects the new orientation of the government under the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), which won an overwhelming victory in August and took power after years leading the opposition.

North Korean Leader Kim Jong-il 'Slaps Down' Son Kim Jong-Un - Daily Telegraph. North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-il has halted a propaganda campaign to promote his youngest son as his successor after Kim Jong-Un began flexing his muscles prematurely, a leading South Korean researcher has claimed. Kim Jong-Un, 25, was named in reports as the ailing dictator's designated successor last June, but relations between father and son have since become strained, said Nam Sung-Wook, chief of South Korea's Institute for National Security Strategy. "Kim Jong-il knows so well that two suns should not exist in the sky," Professor Nam told a specialist forum on North Korea. In June and July Kim Jong-Un had dared to "confront" his father over military personnel management matters, he added, and as a result Kim senior had begun suppressing the influence of his son. "Talk about power succession has submerged since August," Professor Nam said, although he did not go as far as to suggest that the eventual succession plan had changed. A South Korean legislator, citing a confidential report, has said Kim Jong-Un is expected to be officially named as successor some time between 2010 and 2012.

EUROPE

Missile Defense High on Agenda as Biden Tours Central Europe - Hilary Heuler, Voice of America. As Vice President Joe Biden tours Central Europe this week, missile defense is high on the agenda. In Poland on Wednesday, Biden secured an agreement to host US antiballistic missiles after original plans for a defensive missile shield were scrapped. According to the White House, Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Poland Wednesday had nothing to do with placating America's disgruntled allies. But here in Warsaw, people were waiting for only one thing - an assurance that despite scrapping Bush-era plans for an antiballistic missile shield, the US had not turned its back on Central Europe. What Poland got instead is a new missile defense plan. "Standard Missile-3" interceptors will be placed on Polish soil, along with other interceptor missiles deployed on US Navy ships in the Mediterranean and the North Sea. Biden said Wednesday the US commitment to Poland is "unwavering" and he said the new missile plan is "a better way" to defend against missile threats.

Biden Asks Eastern Europe to Spread Democracy - Peter Baker, New York Times. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. used a visit to Romania on Thursday to hail Eastern Europe on all that has been accomplished in the 20 years since the Iron Curtain fell and to challenge the countries of the region to serve as models for other emerging democracies. In a speech at the restored Central University Library, where a raging fire set during Romania’s 1989 revolution destroyed 500,000 books, Mr. Biden paid tribute to “freedom’s young defenders” who were killed and called the liberation of the old Eastern bloc “one of the greatest achievements in modern history.” “Twenty years ago, the world watched in awe and admiration as the men and women throughout this region broke the shackles of repression and emerged a free people,” Mr. Biden said in the auditorium of the rebuilt library. Now, he said, Romania and its neighbors must help countries like Armenia and Azerbaijan develop their own democracies. “You’ve delivered on the promise of your revolution,” he said. “You are now in a position to help others do the same.” Mr. Biden’s stop here came in the middle of a three-day swing through the region aimed mainly at reassuring Eastern European allies that the Obama administration stood behind them despite efforts to “reset” relations with Russia. As he did in Warsaw, Mr. Biden denied that the decision to cancel former President George W. Bush’s missile defense system in Eastern Europe was made to appease Moscow.

Europe's Future, Tangled by its Past - Edward Cody, Washington Post. Europe's latest step toward a more united future, which seemed at hand after long delays, has become bogged down over a forgotten chapter from the continent's bloody past: the expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia after World War II. The unexpected hitch has provided a vivid reminder that the nations that gave birth to the European Union are only one generation away from the World War II and Cold War horrors during which the lives of millions were sacrificed to ideology or nationalism. The man most responsible for tripping the memory switch on those stormy days is the president of what is now the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, who is known as a Czech nationalist skeptical of giving the European Union supranational powers. Although the Czech Parliament has voted favorably, Klaus has refused to sign off on ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, a two-year-old pact that would grant greater powers to the EU leadership in Brussels and create a European president for the first time.

Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic Threatens Boycott of Genocide Trial - Matthew Day, Alex Todorovic and Neil Tweedie, Daily Telegraph. Radovan Karadzic sought to disrupt his trial for genocide and war crimes by boycotting the start of the hearing into the worst atrocity in Europe since the Second World War. The Bosnian Serb wartime leader told the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia he was not ready to defend himself when the trial opens on Monday because he needs more time to prepare his case. "I hereby inform you that my defence is not ready for my trial that is supposed to begin as scheduled, on the 26th of October, and that therefore I shall not appear before you on that date," wrote Karadzic, 64, in a letter to the court. "No lawyer in this world could prepare a defence within this period of time." The move echoed the delaying tactics deployed repeated by Slobodan Milosevic, the former president of Serbia and architect of three Balkan wars who escaped justice by dying during his interminable trial. Karadzic, who like Milosevic insists on defending himself, faces 11 charges relating to the war in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995, including the massacre of more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys in the town of Srebrenica, and the shelling of Sarajevo.

Bosnia and American Exceptionalism - Bob Dole, Wall Street Journal opinion. When it announced that it was giving the Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama last month, the Nobel Committee praised the president for his efforts on climate change. It also said in its citation that, with Mr. Obama now in office, a "multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position" and "dialogue and negotiations" are the preferred instruments for conflict resolution. This commendation raises concerns for many observers, including me, who believe in American exceptionalism, and who agree with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright that we are the "indispensable nation." Preserving and defending our values at home and promoting them abroad are essential to protecting our national interests. Others - particularly opponents of the US-led intervention in Iraq - disagree and welcome a correction to what they perceive as the zeal and excesses of the Bush administration. Regardless of where you stand, it should be clear that multilateralism isn't always the best approach and that the idea that the United States is merely one among many equal nations doesn't take into account the unique role the US can play in world affairs. Nowhere is this clearer than in Bosnia, where, in the early 1990s, a country and its people were under attack and on the brink of destruction.

MIDDLE EAST

Mideast Gain Is Modest, Clinton Tells President - Mark Landler, New York Times. On Sept. 22, President Obama summoned the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority to an urgent three-way meeting at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York and declared, “It is past time to talk about starting negotiations; it is time to move forward.” To that end, he asked both sides to send diplomats to Washington for intensive talks and directed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to report back to him in a month about where things stood. That deadline arrived Thursday, and Mrs. Clinton went to the White House with what several administration officials acknowledge was a meager report: a little progress has been made, they said, but in some respects the atmosphere for talks is actually worse now than it was a month ago. “The secretary advised the president that challenges remain as the United States continues to work with both sides to relaunch negotiations in an atmosphere in which they can succeed,” the White House said in a background report about the meeting that was provided to reporters. The report repeats, almost verbatim, the signs of progress that Mr. Obama cited in his remarks a month ago in New York.

Clinton Cites Challenges in Mideast Peace Effort - Glenn Kessler, Washington Post. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton briefed President Obama on Thursday on the status of the administration's push for new Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. The message: still a work in progress. Obama had announced Sept. 22 that he would seek a report from Clinton in mid-October after he had brought together the Palestinian and Israeli leaders for a rare three-way meeting. At the time he signaled impatience with the months of stalemate about when and how to relaunch the talks, declaring: "It is past time to talk about starting negotiations. It is time to move forward." Since then, the president's Middle East envoy, former senator George J. Mitchell, has shuttled repeatedly between the parties seeking agreement on parameters for the talks. But a senior Obama administration official, in an e-mailed statement to reporters after Clinton's briefing, made it clear that there is not yet a deal. "The Secretary advised the president that challenges remain as the United States continues to work with both sides to relaunch negotiations in an atmosphere in which they can succeed," the official said.

Gaza Report Author Asks US to Clarify Concerns - Sharon Otterman, New York Times. Richard Goldstone, the lead author of a United Nations report that found evidence of war crimes committed by Israel and Hamas during last winter’s Gaza war, challenged the Obama administration in an interview broadcast Thursday to explain what it has called serious concerns about his report. In the interview on Al Jazeera, Mr. Goldstone, a South African jurist, said that the official American response to the 575-page report had been ambivalent. The Obama administration, he said, “joined our recommendation calling for full and good-faith” domestic investigations of the alleged crimes in both Israel and Gaza, “but said that the report was flawed.” “But I have yet to hear from the Obama administration what the flaws in the report that they have identified are,” Mr. Goldstone said. “I mean, I would be happy to respond to them, if and when I know what they are.” He added, “Of course I’m concerned and would like to engage with the Obama administration, at least informally.”

SOUTH ASIA

US Urges Probe of Sri Lanka War - Colum Lynch, Washington Post. The State Department's top war crimes official called on Sri Lanka on Thursday to conduct a "genuine" investigation into allegations of war crimes by Sri Lankan troops and Tamil rebels during the bloody final months of the country's 25-year-long civil war. The appeal by Stephen Rapp, the US ambassador at large for war crimes issues, came hours after his office presented Congress with a detailed account of alleged atrocities during the conflict that suggests both sides may have violated international law and committed crimes against humanity. The 68-page document, which relies on internal reports from the US Embassy in Colombo, satellite imagery and accounts from international relief agencies and news organizations, paints a grim portrait of the conditions endured by hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians caught between two ruthless adversaries. Between 7,000 and 20,000 civilians were allegedly killed in the country's northeast from January to May, when the Tamil Tigers were defeated, according to UN and independent estimates.

Dalai Lama to Visit Indian Region Claimed by China - Edward Wong, New York Times. Despite protests by the Chinese government, the Dalai Lama is going ahead with plans to visit a heavily militarized Tibetan Buddhist area in northeast India that is the focus of an intense territorial dispute between China and India, a Tibetan official in India said Thursday. The Dalai Lama, 74, the spiritual leader of the Tibetans, is expected to visit Arunachal Pradesh from Nov. 8 to Nov. 15, the official said in an e-mail message. China considers the Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in the Indian hill town of Dharamsala, to be a separatist who advocates Tibetan independence. He insists that he wants only true autonomy for Tibet, which the Chinese Army invaded in 1951. On Tuesday, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Ma Zhaoxu, said China “firmly opposed” the Dalai Lama’s visit to the region, according to Xinhua, the state news agency. “We believe that this further exposes the Dalai Lama clique’s anti-China and separatist nature,” Mr. Ma said. Tenzin Taklha, a spokesman for the Dalai Lama, said in an e-mail message last month that the Dalai Lama would visit the region because he had received “a number of invitations” since he last visited in 2003. “There is a large Buddhist population that is keen to have his holiness give teachings,” the spokesman said.

EVENTS

The US Military Academy’s Department of History is pleased to invite you to a West Point Symposium on the History of Irregular Warfare, 18-20 November 2009. The symposium will feature the scholarship of five cadet panel presenters with commentary by distinguished guest scholars, including: Dr. Stephen Biddle as our keynote speaker, Dr. Jeremy Black, Col. Robert Cassidy, Dr. Conrad Crane, Dr. George Herring, Dr. Brian Linn, and Dr. Peter Mansoor. Additionally, Dr. James Le Sueur (Uncivil War: Intellectuals and Identity Politics, 2005) will present a special lecture on Algerian society since 1963. Col. Gian Gentile, a History faculty member, will participate as part of the “Visiting Scholars Panel” with Dr. Crane, Dr. Mansoor, and Col. Cassidy. (Invitation and POC Information) (History of IW Symposium Agenda)

BOOKS

Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan - Doug Stanton.

Horse Soldiers tells the important story of the Special Forces soldiers who first put American boots on the ground in Afghanistan in 2001. Fighting alongside the Northern Alliance, the troops, often riding on horseback, achieved several important victories against the Taliban.

War 2.0: Irregular Warfare in the Information Age - Thomas Rid and Marc Hecker.

War 2.0: Irregular Warfare in the Information Age argues that two intimately connected trends are putting modern armies under huge pressure to adapt: the rise of insurgencies and the rise of the Web. Both in cyberspace and in warfare, the grassroots public has assumed increasing importance in recent years. After the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, Web 2.0 rose from the ashes. This newly interactive and participatory form of the Web promotes and enables offline action. Similarly, after Rumsfeld's attempt to transform the US military into a lean, lethal, computerized force crashed in Iraq in 2003, counterinsurgency rose from the ashes. Counterinsurgency is a social form of war - indeed, the US Army calls it armed social work - in which the local matrix population becomes the center of strategic gravity and public opinion at home the critical vulnerability.

The New Counterinsurgency Era: Transforming the US Military for Modern Wars - David H. Ucko.

Confronting insurgent violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US military has recognized the need to "re-learn" counterinsurgency. But how has the Department of Defense with its mixed efforts responded to this new strategic environment? Has it learned anything from past failures? In The New Counterinsurgency Era, David Ucko examines DoD's institutional obstacles and initially slow response to a changing strategic reality.

Journey into Darkness: Genocide in Rwanda - Thomas P. Odom.

In July 1994, Thomas P. Odom was part of the US Embassy team that responded to the Goma refugee crisis. He witnessed the deaths of 70,000 refugees in a single week. In the previous three months of escalating violence, the Rwandan genocide had claimed 800,000 dead. Now, in this vivid and unsettling new book, Odom offers the first insider look at these devastating events before, during, and after the genocide.

Joker One: A Marine Platoon’s Story of Courage - Donovan Campbell.

Donovan Campbell, first as a Marine and then as a writer, shows us that the dominant emotion in war isn’t hatred or anger or fear. It’s love. His story stands as a poignant tribute to his men–their courage, their dedication, their skill, and their love for one another, even unto death.

The Battle for Peace: A Frontline Vision of America's Power and Purpose - Anthony Zinni and Tony Koltz

The intellectual complement to Zinni and Clancy's bestselling Battle Ready (2004), a narrative memoir salted with specific policy recommendations, this volume provides the former US Central Command chief's analysis of America's current global position. Zinni begins by asserting that America's status as "the most powerful nation in the history of the planet" has created a de facto empire. The US has no choice: if it fails to take the lead, nothing significant happens. At the same time, Americans must recognize that, in a global age, there can be no zero-sum games.

The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier's Education - Craig Mullaney

The Unforgiving Minute is the ultimate's soldier's book - universal in its raw emotion and its understanding of the larger issues of life and death. Mullaney, a master storyteller, plunges the depths of self-doubt, endurance, and courage. The result: a riveting, suspenseful human story, beautifully told. This is a book written under fire - a lyrical, spellbinding tale of war, love, and courage. The Unforgiving Minute is the Three Cups of Tea of soldiering.

Great Powers: America and the World after Bush - Thomas P.M. Barnett

In civilian and military circles alike, The Pentagon’s New Map became one of the most talked about books of 2004. “A combination of Tom Friedman on globalization and Carl von Clausewitz on war, [it is] the red-hot book among the nation’s admirals and generals,” wrote David Ignatius in The Washington Post. Barnett’s second book, Blueprint for Action, demonstrated how to put the first book’s principles to work. Now, in Great Powers, Barnett delivers his most sweeping - and important - book of all.

The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One - David Kilcullen

A remarkably fresh perspective on the War on Terror. Kilcullen takes us "on the ground" to uncover the face of modern warfare, illuminating both the big global war (the "War on Terrorism") and its relation to the associated "small wars" across the globe: Iraq, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Chechnya, Pakistan and North Africa.

The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008 - Thomas Ricks

Thomas E. Ricks uses hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews with top officers in Iraq and extraordinary on-the-ground reportage to document the inside story of the Iraq War since late 2005 as only he can, examining the events that took place as the military was forced to reckon with itself, the surge was launched, and a very different war began.

Why Vietnam Matters: An Eyewitness Account of Lessons Not Learned - Rufus Phillips

Phillips details how the legendary Edward G. Lansdale helped the South Vietnamese gain and consolidate their independence between 1954 and 1956, and how this later changed to a reliance on American conventional warfare with its highly destructive firepower. He reasons that our failure to understand the Communists, our South Vietnamese allies, or even ourselves took us down the wrong road. In summing up US errors in Vietnam, Phillips draws parallels with the American experience in Iraq and Afghanistan and suggests changes in the US approach. Known for his intellectual integrity and firsthand, long-term knowledge of what went on in Vietnam, the author offers lessons for today in this trenchant account.

Baghdad at Sunrise: A Brigade Commander's War in Iraq - Peter Mansoor

This is a unique contribution to the burgeoning literature on the Iraq war, analyzing the day-to-day performance of a US brigade in Baghdad during 2004-2005. Mansoor uses a broad spectrum of sources to address the military, political and cultural aspects of an operation undertaken with almost no relevant preparation, which tested officers and men to their limits and generated mistakes and misjudgments on a daily basis. The critique is balanced, perceptive and merciless - and Mansoor was the brigade commander. Military history is replete with command memoirs. Most are more or less self-exculpatory. Even the honest ones rarely achieve this level of analysis. The effect is like watching a surgeon perform an operation on himself. Mansoor has been simultaneously a soldier and a scholar, able to synergize directly his military and academic experiences.

The Strongest Tribe: War, Politics, and the Endgame in Iraq - Bing West

From a universally respected combat journalist, a gripping history based on five years of front-line reporting about how the war was turned around - and the choice now facing America. We interpret reality through the clouded prism of our own experience, so it is unsurprising that Bing West sees Iraq through the lens of Vietnam. He served as a Marine officer there, and he thinks politicians and the media caused the American public to turn against a war that could have been won. Now a correspondent for the Atlantic, West has made 15 reporting trips to Iraq over the last six years and is almost as personally invested in the current conflict as he was in Vietnam; this book, his third on Iraq, is his attempt to ensure that the "endgame" in Iraq turns out better than in his last war.

Tell Me How This Ends: General David Petraeus and the Search for a Way Out of Iraq - Linda Robinson

After a series of disastrous missteps in its conduct of the war, the White House in 2006 appointed General David Petraeus as the Commanding General of the coalition forces. Tell Me How This Ends is an inside account of his attempt to turn around a failing war. Linda Robinson conducted extensive interviews with Petraeus and his subordinate commanders and spent weeks with key US and Iraqi divisions. The result is the only book that ties together military operations in Iraq and the internecine political drama that is at the heart of the civil war. Replete with dramatic battles, behind-doors confrontations, and astute analysis, the book tells the full story of the Iraq War’s endgame, and lays out the options that will be facing the next president.

The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008 - Bob Woodward

Woodward interviewed key players, obtained dozens of never-before-published documents, and had nearly three hours of exclusive interviews with President Bush. The result is a stunning, firsthand history of the years from mid-2006, when the White House realizes the Iraq strategy is not working, through the decision to surge another 30,000 US troops in 2007, and into mid-2008, when the war becomes a fault line in the presidential election. As violence in Iraq reaches unnerving levels in 2006, a second front in the war rages at the highest levels of the Bush administration. In his fourth book on President George W. Bush, Bob Woodward takes readers deep inside the tensions, secret debates, unofficial backchannels, distrust and determination within the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, the intelligence agencies and the US military headquarters in Iraq. With unparalleled intimacy and detail, this gripping account of a president at war describes a period of distress and uncertainty within the US government from 2006 through mid-2008. The White House launches a secret strategy review that excludes the military. General George Casey, the commander in Iraq, believes that President Bush does not understand the war and eventually concludes he has lost the president's confidence. The Joint Chiefs of Staff also conduct a secret strategy review that goes nowhere. On the verge of revolt, they worry that the military will be blamed for a failure in Iraq.

We Are Soldiers Still: A Journey Back to the Battlefields of Vietnam - Harold Moore and Joe Galloway

In their stunning follow-up to the classic bestseller We Were Soldiers Once... and Young, Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and Joe Galloway return to Vietnam and reflect on how the war changed them, their men, their enemies, and both countries - often with surprising results. It would be a monumental task for Moore and Galloway to top their classic 1992 memoir. But they come close in this sterling sequel, which tells the backstory of two of the Vietnam War's bloodiest battles (in which Moore participated as a lieutenant colonel), their first book and a 1993 ABC-TV documentary that brought them back to the battlefield. Moore's strong first-person voice reviews the basics of the November 1965 battles, part of the 34-day Battle of the Ia Drang Valley. Among other things, Moore and Galloway (who covered the battle for UPI) offer portraits of two former enemy commanders, generals Nguyen Huu An and Chu Huy Man, whom the authors met - and bonded with - nearly three decades after the battle. This book proves again that Moore is an exceptionally thoughtful, compassionate and courageous leader (he was one of a handful of army officers who studied the history of the Vietnam wars before he arrived) and a strong voice for reconciliation and for honoring the men with whom he served.

In a Time of War: The Proud and Perilous Journey of West Point' Class of 2002 - Bill Murphy

The West Point cadets Murphy follows through their baptism by fire are an admirable sample of young American men and women: intelligent, ambitious and intensely patriotic. Most come from career military families and hold conservative opinions. Murphy describes their four years at West Point with respect even when discussing their love lives and marriages. All yearn for battle, and most get their wish. The book's best passages describe the confusion of moving to Iraq or Afghanistan and fighting insurgents, for which they lack both training and equipment. All feel something is not right but concentrate on the job at hand; some inevitably die or are grievously wounded.

Iraq and the Evolution of American Strategy - Steven Metz

Today the US military is more nimble, mobile, and focused on rapid responses against smaller powers than ever before. One could argue that the Gulf War and the postwar standoff with Saddam Hussein hastened needed military transformation and strategic reassessments in the post–Cold War era. But the preoccupation with Iraq also mired the United States in the Middle East and led to a bloody occupation. What will American strategy look like after US troops leave Iraq? Metz concludes that the United States has a long-standing, continuing problem “developing sound assumptions when the opponent operates within a different psychological and cultural framework.” He sees a pattern of misjudgments about Saddam and Iraq based on Western cultural and historical bias and a pervasive faith in the superiority of America’s worldview and institutions. This myopia contributed to America being caught off guard by Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, then underestimating his longevity, and finally miscalculating the likelihood of a stable and democratic Iraq after he was toppled. With lessons for all readers concerned about America’s role in the world, Dr. Metz’s important new work will especially appeal to scholars and students of strategy and international security studies, as well as to military professionals and DOD civilians. With a foreword by Colin S. Gray.