British forces should buy off potential Taleban recruits with “bags of gold”, according to a new army field manual published yesterday. Army commanders should also talk to insurgent leaders with “blood on their hands” in order to hasten the end of the conflict in Afghanistan. The edicts, which are contained in rewritten counter-insurgency guidelines, will be taught to all new army officers. They mark a strategic rethink after three years in which British and NATO forces have failed to defeat the Taleban. The manual is also a recognition that the Army’s previous doctrine for success against insurgents, which was based on the experience in Northern Ireland, is now out of date.

-- The Times

AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN

Pakistan Strongly Reacts to Reported Obama Letter - Sean Maroney, Voice of America. Pakistan has strongly reacted to a reported letter from the US president to his Pakistani counterpart that is said to urge Pakistan to do more in the fight against extremists. The response was made as four people were killed and 25 injured by a bomb in northwestern Pakistan, the seventh such attack in as many days. Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi says his country will decide on its own, according to its priorities and resources, on how to fight militants. He says the international community recognizes Pakistan's sacrifices and unity in the face of Islamist extremists. He says his country does not need to do more or less because someone is saying so. Qureshi was responding to a US media report that quoted unnamed American officials as saying US National Security Advisor Jim Jones delivered a letter from US President Barack Obama to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari. Jones arrived Friday in Pakistan, the same day two suicide bombers struck in and around Peshawar. One blast targeted the regional office of Pakistan's spy agency, destroying much of the building. According to a New York Times article, Mr. Obama encouraged his Pakistani counterpart to rally the nation's political and national security institutions in the fight against extremists.

Army Tells its Soldiers to 'Bribe' the Taleban - Michael Evans, The Times. British forces should buy off potential Taleban recruits with “bags of gold”, according to a new army field manual published yesterday. Army commanders should also talk to insurgent leaders with “blood on their hands” in order to hasten the end of the conflict in Afghanistan. The edicts, which are contained in rewritten counter-insurgency guidelines, will be taught to all new army officers. They mark a strategic rethink after three years in which British and NATO forces have failed to defeat the Taleban. The manual is also a recognition that the Army’s previous doctrine for success against insurgents, which was based on the experience in Northern Ireland, is now out of date. The new instructions came on the day that Gordon Brown went farther than before in setting out Britain’s exit strategy from Afghanistan. The Prime Minister stated explicitly last night that he wanted troops to begin handing over districts to Afghan authorities during next year - a general election year in Britain.

Afghanistan to Form Major Anti-Corruption Unit - Voice of America. The Afghan government says it will form a major anti-corruption unit to investigate graft among senior officials. Afghan Interior Minister Hanif Atmar told reporters in Kabul Monday that security officials from the US (FBI), Britain (Scotland Yard) and the European Union (ELOPE) will train prosecutors in the unit. The head of Afghanistan's anti-corruption office, Mohammad Yasin Osmani, recently told VOA that the government should address the task of reducing corruption within the next six months. Osmani said Afghan ministers must examine all of their employees during the period to determine whether they were hired based on merit or cronyism. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has come under increasing international pressure to fight corruption in his government since his disputed victory in a fraud-tainted election in August.

Afghan Leaders Unveil Anti-corruption Measures - Laura King, Los Angeles Times. Seeking to smooth over a key point of contention in advance of President Hamid Karzai's inauguration this week, senior Afghan officials Monday unveiled what they described as tough new anti-corruption measures. With the Afghan leader poised to be sworn in Thursday for a second five-year term, the West has been putting pressure on Karzai to institute swift reforms or face a loss of international support. Recent days have seen criticism from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, both of whom suggested that future aid to Karzai's government could be tied to his efforts against corruption. In apparent response to the growing international pressure, Afghanistan's chief justice, interior minister, justice minister, security chief and attorney general appeared at an unusual joint news conference to announce the launch of a major-crime task force and a new anti-corruption unit. The ambassadors to Britain and the United States also attended the briefing, in what appeared to be a gesture aimed at demonstrating solidarity in the anti-corruption fight but also providing an implicit warning to the Karzai camp of the consequences of a failure to act.

Rockets Kill 10 Civilians in Afghanistan - Voice of America. Insurgents in eastern Afghanistan have fired rockets into a marketplace, killing 10 civilians in an area where French forces were meeting with tribal elders. French and Afghan officials say Monday's attack in the town of Tagab in Kapisa province wounded at least 28 people. Two rockets hit the market as the commander of French troops in eastern Afghanistan, General Marcel Druart, was meeting tribal chiefs nearby. French and US medical teams evacuated the wounded by helicopter to hospitals for treatment. No French personnel were reported hurt. The French commander attended the gathering of tribal elders, known as a "shura," as part of NATO efforts to win the trust of Afghan civilians in a region with a strong Taliban presence. French troops have been fighting the Taliban northeast of the capital, Kabul, to try to secure towns and roads threatened by the militants. In other violence, Afghan police say militants attacked a police checkpoint in the southern province of Kandahar early Monday, killing at least three officers and wounding several others. Authorities say they are searching for the attackers.

Taliban Militants Fire Rockets on Crowded Bazaar Northeast of Kabul - Alissa J. Rubin, New York Times. Taliban militants fired rockets on a bazaar northeast of Kabul on Monday, near the site of a meeting between French soldiers and local tribal leaders, and police officials said 10 Afghan civilians were killed and 28 wounded. NATO troops reported that 4 civilians had been killed and 40 wounded. No troops were reported wounded or killed in the attack. Soldiers helped to ferry the wounded to local hospitals and to a nearby NATO base for medical care, a spokesman said. The attack took place in the Tagab District, about 35 miles from Kabul in a mountainous area of Kapisa Province, a little after noon, when merchants and customers thronged the bazaar, exchanging goods for the week. The area, which is mixed Pashtun and Tajik, has been under pressure from local Taliban forces, who are in nearby valleys. “The Taliban fired the rockets from Badrab, where they have a base,” said the deputy police chief, Haji Mohammed Akbar. “They are strong there,” he said. Christophe Prazuck, a spokesman for the French military, said the attack came as a French general and other French officers met with tribal leaders in a building a few hundred yards from the market. He said it was unclear whether militants had singled out that gathering, or whether they had aimed at the market.

Exit Plan Critical to Afghan Buildup - Gerald F. Seib, Wall Street Journal opinion. Policy arguments in Washington sometimes take on an otherworldly feel -- and so it is with the public wrangling over Afghanistan policy. Outside the walls of the Obama administration, the argument has been almost entirely about numbers: How many additional troops should be sent to Afghanistan? Should it be 10,000, 20,000 or 40,000? But inside the Obama administration, say those who actually have been involved, the debate has been much less about troop levels than commonly imagined. Instead, it has much more to do with ensuring that the American troop buildup, whatever its size, isn't open-ended. The key for President Barack Obama, these people say, is having a plan that ensures the American presence is a prelude to, rather than a substitute for, Afghanistan taking over the security job itself. The goal is for American troops to reverse the rise of Taliban strength in the short term, buying time for Afghan President Hamid Karzai to build up security and police forces that can take over while American forces phase out. The internal discussion, in short, is less about the size of the entrance ramp than the location of the exit ramp.

IRAQ

Attacks Threaten Fragile Security Gains in Cradle of Iraq Insurgency - Marc Santora, New York Times. Maj. Gen. Tariq al-Youssef caught a fleeting glimpse of the man who wanted him dead. As his armored sport utility vehicle pulled past the battered yellow taxi, General Youssef, the commander of the police in Anbar Province, recalled thinking that the driver looked like so many men in this impoverished territory - another poor peasant trying to eke out a living. Then the taxi driver crashed his car into the general’s, detonating his explosives. “I was not sure if I was alive or dead,” General Youssef recalled. “Parts of the suicide bomber were scattered all around me.” The attack in June, from which General Youssef walked away unscathed, marked the beginning of what Iraqi and American officials say has been a concerted effort by Sunni insurgents to reassert themselves in a part of the country that was once their stronghold. Early Monday morning, men dressed in Iraqi Army uniforms killed at least 13 people, including a local cleric. The victims were rousted from their homes in a village west of Baghdad. A doctor at Abu Ghraib Hospital, where the bodies were brought, said they all had gunshot wounds in the head.

13 Found Slain West of Baghdad - Ernesto Londoño, Washington Post. A Sunni politician and 12 other men, including some of the politician's relatives, were killed execution-style over the weekend just west of Baghdad. The slayings in an area formerly controlled by insurgents - and one of the key gateways to the capital - ignited fears that extremists could be making inroads in Sunni Muslim enclaves, as US troops withdraw and the ranks of local paramilitary forces established by Americans thin out. Iraqi officials did not blame a specific group for the slayings, but area residents said they bore the signature of al-Qaeda in Iraq. The dogmatic Sunni group lost the ability to operate freely in Baghdad and its suburbs after the 2007 surge of US troops and the formation of the paramilitary groups, known as the Sons of Iraq. Iraqi authorities said a band of assailants wearing Iraqi army uniforms kidnapped the men Sunday around midnight from their homes in the villages of Abid and Khodeir Zaidan in the Abu Ghraib district. Hamid Salam Thamir, the head of the Iraqi Islamic Party in the area, was among those killed, officials said.

Iraqi Police Make Strides Toward Independence - Judith Snyderman, American Forces Press Service. As the drawdown of US forces in Iraq advances, efforts to build the nation’s police force have made great strides, the team leader of the police training and advisory mission said last week. “The traction that we’re getting is really impressive. It truly is a partnership,” Army Brig. Gen. Michael Smith said during a Nov. 13 “DoDLive” bloggers roundtable. Smith said Iraqi police agencies have impressed him with their growing abilities to recruit and train their own forces and run their own operations. He’s also noted a dissipation of ethnic tension at top levels. “The national police have gone to really extensive measures to balance their force so that it’s not Shiia [and] it’s not Sunni,” he said. “What they’re after is the quality of the force, and they’ve really installed a number of quality leaders at all levels that really take that seriously. And there’s much more of an ethic and an ethos towards ‘protect and serve.’” The Iraqi police force structure differs from that in the United States, Smith said. Local precincts report to provincial police, and both provincial and federal police fall under Iraq’s interior ministry. Thanks to growing stability, he said, federal police now are able to concentrate on counterinsurgency operations while leaving community policing in local hands. Smith also told bloggers that a distinction exists in Iraq between regular policemen, who are called “shurta,” and police officers. Officers undergo a rigorous three-year, post-high school training program that leads to a college degree and a commission as lieutenant. At the local level, Smith said, better vetting of the shurta is paying off. “The system is pretty good now in terms of anybody that’s coming in that has a troubled past,” he said. “They really have improved the quality of their screening, and that’s a good-news story.” For now, Smith said, the United States continues to provide support with transition teams composed of military police and some civilian police experts. The teams focus on teaching the latest forensic and analytic techniques, including collecting and using DNA evidence, and they work to improve acceptance of this type of evidence within the Iraqi justice system.

US Says Kuwait Company Overbilled It by Millions for Troops’ Food - Robbie Brown, New York Times. A Kuwaiti company defrauded the United States government of tens of millions of dollars by exaggerating the cost of providing food to troops in Iraq, Kuwait and Jordan, federal prosecutors here said Monday. The prosecutors charged the business, the Public Warehousing Company, with six counts of fraud, saying it had “grossly overcharged” the military. The prosecutors would not provide an exact dollar amount for what they thought was the total extent of the fraud, saying the investigation was continuing. The company, which changed its name to Agility in 2006, has received $8.5 billion in contracts from the Department of Defense since 2003, and is one of the largest service providers to American troops in the Middle East. F. Gentry Shelnutt, the acting United States attorney, said the charges were the result of an investigation over several years into contract abuses in the Middle East. In a statement on Monday, the company said it was “confident that once these allegations are examined in court, they will be found to be without merit.” The prices charged by the company “have been negotiated with, agreed to, and continually approved by the US government,” the statement said.

IRAN

UN Nuclear Chief in Secret Talks with Iran over Deal to End Sanctions - Richard Beeston and Catherine Philp, The Times. United Nations and Iranian officials have been secretly negotiating a deal to persuade world powers to lift sanctions and allow Tehran to retain the bulk of its nuclear programme in return for co-operation with UN inspectors. According to a draft document seen by The Times, the 13-point agreement was drawn up in September by Mohamed ElBaradei, the directorgeneral of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in an effort to break the stalemate over Iran’s nuclear programme before he stands down at the end of this month. The IAEA denied the existence of the document, which was leaked to The Times by one of the parties alarmed at the contents. Its disclosure was made as the agency warned that Iran could be hiding multiple secret nuclear sites. Despite the assessment, diplomats believed that Mr ElBaradei was hoping to agree the outline of a deal with Tehran that he could present to the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany as a solution to the impasse.

Russia Announces Delay of Controversial Iranian Nuclear Plant - Peter Fedynsky, Voice of America. Russia says the controversial Bushehr nuclear power plant it is helping build in Iran will not go into service by the end of the year as planned. The announcement comes a day after President Dmitri Medvedev said his country is not completely satisfied with the pace of Iran's international dialogue about its nuclear program. Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko told reporters in Moscow his country expects serious results at Bushehr by the end of 2009, but the launch itself will not take place. He said the decision is driven by technical considerations, not politics. Shmatko had just returned from Singapore, where he accompanied President Medvedev on this weekend's Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit. Mr. Medvedev discussed the Iranian nuclear program there in a separate meeting Sunday with US President Barack Obama. Mr. Obama urged Tehran to agree to a UN proposal to ship its uranium abroad for processing, adding that time for diplomacy on the issue is running out. The Russian leader said the purpose of the negotiating process with Iran is to obtain clear guarantees about the transparency of its nuclear program.

Inspectors Fear Iran Is Hiding Nuclear Plants - David E. Sanger and William J. Broad, New York Times. International inspectors who gained access to Iran’s newly revealed underground nuclear enrichment plant voiced strong suspicions in a report on Monday that the country was concealing other atomic facilities. The report was the first independent account of what was contained in the once secret plant, tunneled into the side of a mountain, and came as the Obama administration was expressing growing impatience with Iran’s slow response in nuclear negotiations. In unusually tough language, the International Atomic Energy Agency appeared highly skeptical that Iran would have built the enrichment plant without also constructing a variety of other facilities that would give it an alternative way to produce nuclear fuel if its main centers were bombed. So far, Iran has denied that it built other hidden sites in addition to the one deep underground on a military base about 12 miles north of the holy city of Qum. The inspectors were given access to the plant late last month and reported that they had found it in “an advanced state” of construction, but that no centrifuges - the fast-spinning machines needed to make nuclear fuel - had yet been installed.

US Questions if Iran Has Other Nuclear Sites - Joby Warrick and Thomas Erdbrink, Washington Post. UN nuclear experts who last month were granted a first look at Iran's newly disclosed uranium processing site have acknowledged in a confidential report that the visit raised questions about whether other secret installations exist in the country. After its three-day inspection of the underground site, the International Atomic Energy Agency has pressed Iran to declare in writing that it has no other hidden nuclear facilities, according to a copy of the report made public Monday by a nonprofit group. The .. nuclear watchdog also asked Iranian officials for original blueprints for the processing facility, as well as access to engineers to verify claims that it was intended to be part of a peaceful nuclear energy program. The demand for details stems in part from questions about the possible existence of support facilities that would have supplied uranium feedstock to the almost completed plant, which is near Qom, a Shiite Muslim holy city south of Tehran. Western intelligence analysts have been searching for other sites while also trying to divine the Iranian government's motives for constructing the heavily fortified facility, which experts say is far too small to supply fuel for a nuclear power reactor.

Nuclear Agency Warns of More Iran Plants - Jay Solomon and David Crawford, Wall Street Journal. The United Nations atomic watchdog said Iran could be constructing a number of covert nuclear installations in addition to a secret uranium-enrichment facility the Obama administration disclosed in late September. The International Atomic Energy Agency also said in a quarterly report released Monday that Iranian officials have told the UN that Tehran plans to begin operating the previously unknown nuclear-fuel facility outside the holy city of Qom by 2011. The IAEA report is the last to be released under departing Director General Mohamed ElBaradei. US officials have long criticized the Egyptian for deflecting Washington's criticism of Iran in official reports. Diplomats said Monday that the latest report was notable for its sharp tone. US and European officials believe the Qom site is designed to process Iran's low-enriched uranium into weapons-grade material. The IAEA said in its new report that Tehran has produced 1.76 tons of low-enriched uranium, enough to produce one or two atomic devices if enriched further.

Iran Trying to Wage Media Battle Against US - Edward Yeranian, Voice of America. The Iranian parliament is considering a new media outlet in response to US efforts toward Iran. Iran's new media apparatus may be placed in the hands of the hardline Revolutionary Guard, strengthening that already powerful body. According to state-run Press TV, a three-member parliamentary committee has been set up to work out the details. The original bill allocated $20 million for that purpose, but legislators decided to raise the amount to $50 million after hearing the US Congress voted to set aside $50 million for broadcasting to Iran. Many Western media analysts complain Iran's overseas broadcasting operations are biased. The British government media watchdog OFCOM is currently investigating Press TV, which is based in London, over complaints of "breaching accuracy and impartiality guidelines." Press TV frequently criticizes the US and British governments in its new bulletins and its criticism of Israel is invariably scathing. It also often totally ignores student protests and opposition demonstrations in Iran. Topics of discussion on Press TV are also frequently absurd. A Press TV announcer recently suggested the United States could be in the throes of a secessionist movement, claiming that Texas and Vermont want to secede from the Union. Iran's Arabic-language network, which is aimed at a mostly Middle Eastern audience, also ignores internal dissent and criticizes Arab governments along with the United States and Britain.

UNITED STATES

Pentagon Reviews Security After Ft. Hood Shootings - Al Pessin, Voice of America. The Pentagon says Defense Secretary Robert Gates has ordered top officials to review security measures following the shootings earlier this month at Ft. Hood in Texas, in which a US Army officer killed 12 fellow-soldiers and one civilian. Pentagon Spokesman Bryan Whitman says Secretary Gates has met with top officials and told them to ensure the investigation into the Ft. Hood massacre is comprehensive, and also to look at whether there was anything the department could have done to prevent it. "An incident like this obviously gives you the opportunity to pause and ask yourself, 'Are we doing everything we can and should be doing to address the range of issues that come out of an event like this," he said. The Defense Department effort is part of a broad review President Obama has ordered. In his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday, he called the Ft. Hood incident "unthinkable." "Given the potential warning signs that may have been known prior these shootings, we must uncover what steps - if any - could have been taken to avert this tragedy," said Mr. Obama. The president said he met twice with senior officials in the hours after the shootings, and ordered them to conduct "a full review of the sequence of events that led up to the shootings."

Officials: Major Hasan Sought 'War Crimes' Prosecution of US Soldiers - Joseph Rhee, Mary-Rose Abraham, Anna Schecter and Brian Ross, ABC News. Major Nidal Malik Hasan's military superiors repeatedly ignored or rebuffed his efforts to open criminal prosecutions of soldiers he claimed had confessed to "war crimes" during psychiatric counseling, according to investigative reports circulated among federal law enforcement officials. On Nov. 4, the day after his last attempt to raise the issue, he took extra target practice at Stan's shooting range in nearby Florence, Texas and then closed a safe deposit box he had at a Bank of America branch in Killeen, according to the reports. A bank employee told investigators Hasan appeared nervous and said, "You'll never see me again." Diane Wagner, Bank of America's senior vice president of media relations, said that her company does not "comment or discuss customer relationships" but is "cooperating fully with law enforcement officials." Investigators believe Hasan's frustration over the failure of the Army to pursue what he regarded as criminal acts by US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan may have helped to trigger the shootings. "The Army may not want to admit it, and you may not hear much about it, but it was very big for him," said one of the federal investigators on the task force collecting evidence of the crime. His last effort to get the attention of military investigators came on Nov. 2, three days before his alleged shooting spree, according to the reports.

Army Looks Inward in Hasan Probe - CBS News. A panel of civilians and military personnel will review whether the Army properly managed Maj. Nadil Malik Hasan, the alleged gunman responsible for killing 13 and wounding 29 at Fort Hood earlier this month, defense officials told CBS News. The panel's investigation will include how staff at Walter Reed Medical Center handled Hasan's employment reviews, one official told CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier. The commission is separate from the criminal investigation into the shooting. A formal announcement of the panel is expected in the next several days. The commission's charter - for instance, whether it has subpoena power - is still being worked out, reports Dozier. Army Chief-of-Staff Gen. George Casey had said previously that the military would have to "look hard internally, hard at ourselves" in assessing how the shooting came to happen. The White House has taken heat from Congress the shooting, with Rep. Pete Hoekstra chiding officials for being "too slow" in providing lawmakers information on the investigation. "There hasn't been enough transparency for members of Congress, for the press, or for the American people. You know, I think that we need to move very, very aggressively and do a full-scale investigation as to who knew what and where," Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, told "Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer Sunday. The White House said Monday that on Tuesday morning an inter-agency briefing team will go to Capitol Hill to brief House and Senate leaders and committee chairs, as well as ranking Republicans.

US INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY

National Intelligence Director to Evaluate CIA Missions - Greg Miller, Los Angeles Times. Sensitive CIA operations overseas will face new scrutiny from the nation's intelligence director under a plan approved by the White House and outlined in a memo to the espionage workforce last week. The move marks an attempt by Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair to assert greater authority over clandestine operations at a time of mounting bureaucratic frictions between the CIA and Blair's office. Among the activities that could be evaluated are the CIA's campaign of Predator missile strikes against militant targets in Pakistan, as well as secret paramilitary and spying operations in other countries. In a memo to subordinates Friday, Blair cited new guidance from the White House that his responsibilities "include assessment and evaluation of the effectiveness of sensitive operations." The majority of those, he said, "are conducted by the CIA." But in a sign of ongoing skirmishing in the intelligence community, other officials dismissed Blair's memo and said the CIA's covert-action authorities remain intact. "Covert action is ordered by the president and carried out by the CIA," said a US intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "That relationship, which involves a single, direct line of command and communication between the White House and the agency, isn't changing." Indeed, officials said Blair had sought to change the chain of command, putting his office more directly in charge of clandestine operations, but the White House rejected the proposal. As a fallback, officials said, Blair was asserting the right to review CIA missions.

UNITED NATIONS

Disagreement Over Goals at UN Meeting on Hunger - Neil MacFarquhar, New York Times. A United Nations summit meeting on combating hunger that opened in Rome on Monday underscored the split between rich and poor countries on the issue, with the industrialized nations balking at concrete targets. Sixty leaders attended the meeting, but apart from Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy there were no leaders from the wealthiest nations. Some of those who attended, including Pope Benedict XVI, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya, lashed out at what they called unfair agricultural policies by more developed nations. In the hard-fought negotiations over a draft declaration from the three-day talks, richer nations succeeded in removing a goal to end world hunger by 2025 and declined to commit to increasing agricultural aid to nearly 20 percent of all international development aid, where it peaked in 1980 before gradually falling. Instead, the draft declaration restated the United Nations target of halving world hunger by 2015 and said that eradicating hunger should come “at the earliest possible date.” Diplomats from wealthier countries argued that creating a deadline for eradicating hunger was unrealistic, according to officials involved in the negotiations. The United Nations estimates that the number of people facing hunger around the world rose to more than one billion this year.

INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT

US to Attend Conference Held by War Crimes Court - Colum Lynch, Washington Post. For the first time in nearly eight years, the United States will participate in a conference with members of the International Criminal Court, a decision that signals growing US support for a war crimes tribunal the Bush administration once shunned. Stephen J. Rapp, the US ambassador at large for war crimes, told reporters in Nairobi on Monday that the "United States will return to engagement with the ICC." But he said that the United States has no intention of joining the court in the forseeable future and that it will not allow an international prosecutor to try American personnel. Still, the decision marked a significant step by the Obama administration in showing its willingness to engage with the rest of the world on difficult negotiations, according to court supporters. Rapp and the State Department's top legal adviser, Harold Koh, will lead a US delegation of observers to the Assembly of States Parties meeting in The Hague starting Wednesday and running through Nov. 26. The United States will also attend a major treaty review conference in Kampala, Uganda, in late May and early June. The world's first international criminal court was established in 2001 to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Its chief prosecutor is pursuing war crimes cases in Congo, Uganda, the Central African Republic and the Darfur region of Sudan.

AMERICAS

Fixing Mexico Police Becomes a Priority - Ken Ellingwood, Los Angeles Times. The lie-detector team brought in by Mexico's top cop was supposed to help clean up the country's long-troubled police. There was just one problem: Most of its members themselves didn't pass, and a supervisor was rigging results to make sure others did. When public safety chief Genaro Garcia Luna found out, he canned the team, all 50 to 60 members. "He fired everybody," a senior US law enforcement official said. But the episode shows how difficult it will be for Mexico to reverse a legacy of police corruption that has tainted whole departments, shattered people's faith in law enforcement and compromised one of society's most basic institutions. President Felipe Calderon's 3-year-old drug offensive has laid bare the extent to which crime syndicates have infiltrated police agencies at virtually every level. By blurring the line between crime fighters and gangsters, the rampant graft stands as one of the biggest impediments to the Calderon campaign. Amid the raging drug war, Mexican officials are trying to fix the police through a hurried nationwide effort that includes better screening and training for candidates on a scale never tried here before.

ASIA PACIFIC

In Beijing, Obama Calls for ‘Strong Dialogue’ - Edward Wong and Helene Cooper, New York Times. President Obama and President Hu Jintao of China met in private off Tiananmen Square here on a frigid Tuesday morning to discuss issues like trade, climate change and the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea, in a session that signaled the central role of China on the world stage. The leaders told reporters afterward that the United States and China were in agreement on a range of issues, but they spoke only in general terms. At a news conference where both presidents appeared, neither took questions from reporters, staying in line with the minutely stage-managed atmosphere of Mr. Obama’s first visit to China. They said in separate speeches that the two nations would work together to stabilize the teetering world economy, contain the dangers of climate change and prevent nuclear proliferation. The public pronouncements were full of familiar rhetoric. At the start of their first meeting, Mr. Obama told Mr. Hu: “We believe strong dialogue is important not only for the US and China, but for the rest of the world.”

Obama, Hu Vow to Continue to Strengthen Partnership - Keith B. Richburg, Washington Post. President Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, emerged from two hours of talks Tuesday morning pledging to continue efforts to strengthen the growing partnership between the two countries, and to work together to address global challenges such as climate change, nuclear proliferation and sustaining the world's nascent economic recovery. Hu, speaking first, called the talks "candid, constructive and very fruitful," and said the two leaders agreed "to stay in close touch, through visits, telephone conversations, correspondence, and meetings at international forums." He also said that as the world economy "has shown some positive signs of stabilizing and recovering," it is important for both countries to "oppose and reject protectionism in all its forms." Obama also called climate change and nuclear proliferation "challenges that neither of our nations can solve by acting alone." He said the two will continue to "build a positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship." Confronting the sensitive issue of human rights, Obama said American values of freedom of speech and assembly are "universal rights, and they should be made available to all people."

Obama and China's Hu Jintao Pledge Stronger Ties - Peter Nicholas, Los Angeles Times. President Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, agreed to build a stronger relationship and work jointly to combat the spread of nuclear weapons, though differences over trade policies and human rights surfaced during a private summit meeting. Speaking to the media after their meeting at the Great Hall of the People, Obama said the US welcomed China's rise as a world power, and President Hu said the two nations would step up visits, correspondence and phone calls "essential" to a closer partnership. On an issue of major importance to the US, Obama said China is cooperating in efforts to get North Korea to forswear nuclear weapons. Both leaders also said they were committed to curbing global warming. Yet tensions between the two countries were evident. Obama said he raised the issue of human rights, reiterating that America holds "bedrock beliefs that all men and women possess fundamental human rights." Such rights should be "available to all peoples, to all ethnic and religious minorities," he said. As Obama spoke, Hu, standing near him on a stage, stared straight ahead, impassively. Obama added that the two nations would "continue to move this discussion forward in a human rights dialogue that is scheduled for early next year.

Welcome, China? - Washington Post editorial. President Obama's central message to the Chinese government and people during his first visit there as president has been a remarkably positive one. Acknowledging and occasionally marveling at the country's rapid ascent toward superpower status, Mr. Obama has been saying that not only does the United States "not seek to contain China's rise," but "we welcome China as a strong and prosperous and successful member of the community of nations." This rhetoric in part reflects simple realism on the president's part. China's growing strength means, as Mr. Obama put it in his meeting with students in Shanghai Monday, that "there are very few global challenges that can be solved unless the United States and China agree." If his administration is to make progress on a new model for global growth, or limiting emissions of greenhouse gases, or halting the nuclear programs of North Korea and Iran, Mr. Obama will need to find common ground with Beijing's Communist rulers.

Obama, Japanese Premier at Odds over Air Station Negotiations - Blaine Harden, Washington Post. The wrestling match between the United States and Japan over the location of the US Marine air station in Okinawa is far from over - despite President Obama's chummy visit here with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama. The two leaders now warmly address each other as Barack and Yukio. But they sharply disagree over the purpose of a "high-level working group" that they announced Friday to sort out an increasingly heated dispute over the future of the Marine air station, which has become a focus of anger on Okinawa. That southern island accommodates most of the 36,000 US military personnel based in Japan. Many Okinawans, after decades of living with noisy American aircraft and rambunctious American troops, have come to associate the US military presence with noise, pollution and periodic crime. Obama explained during his quick visit here that the working group, which includes US Ambassador John V. Roos and the foreign and defense ministers of Japan, would focus only on implementing a 2006 agreement in which Tokyo agreed to allow the Futenma Marine Corps air station to be relocated on Okinawa.

Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi Requests Meeting With Military Head - Voice of America. Detained Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has requested a meeting with the chief of the country's ruling military. The Nobel peace laureate wrote a letter to the military government on November 11 asking to meet reclusive Senior General Than Shwe. On Sunday, US President Barack Obama offered Burma the prospect of better ties with Washington if it pursues democratic reform and frees political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi. Last month the opposition leader met with a minister from the ruling regime, and in September she made a formal offer to the government to help negotiate with Western countries to lift sanctions. Aung San Suu Kyi has been under some sort of detention for 14 of the last 20 years.

Thai-Cambodia Dispute Raises Nationalist Sentiment in Bangkok - Ron Corben, Voice of America. The dispute between Thailand and Cambodia over a visit to Phnom Penh by Thailand's former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, is drawing Thais to the streets. The visit has prompted an anti-Thaksin rally in Bangkok, and there are expectations of more protests. A crowd of around 15,000 people listens to nationalist songs and speeches attacking former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. They gathered in a Bangkok park Sunday to protest Mr. Thaksin's arrival in Cambodia last week, and Phnom Penh's rejection of Bangkok's request to extradite him. Mr. Thaksin fled Thailand last year to avoid a two-year prison sentence on corruption charges. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has appointed Mr. Thaksin as his economic adviser, calls the charges politically motivated. The issue has worsened a dispute over an ancient temple just on the Cambodian side of the border, and is raising nationalist feeling in Bangkok. Sondhi Limthongkul, leader of the anti-Thaksin People's Alliance for Democracy, says Sunday's rally supported the Thai government's diplomatic efforts to ease the tensions.

MIDDLE EAST

Palestinians, Israelis Threaten Each Other Over Unilateral Plans for Statehood - Luis Ramirez, Voice of America. Palestinian leaders say they are pushing efforts to have the UN Security Council endorse the creation of a Palestinian state out of frustration over the stalled peace process. Israel has threatened to take its own unilateral steps if the Palestinians move ahead with plans for statehood on their own. It was a swift and angry reaction from Israel when the Palestinians said this week they would push unilaterally for the UN Security Council to endorse an independent state for them. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the Palestinians not to do anything on their own. Mr. Netanyahu said there is no replacement for negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. He said any one-sided step will unravel the framework of agreements that exist and cause unilateral steps from the Israeli side. Mr. Netanyahu's warnings drew an angry response from the Palestinians under the leadership of President Mahmoud Abbas and his moderate Fatah faction. Speaking to VOA, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat accused the Israeli leader of undermining the peace process.

To Two Faiths, a Holy Patch of Land; to the World, a Powder Keg - Howard Schneider, Washington Post. It is one of the most watched pieces of real estate in the world, 35 acres where an under-the-breath prayer or a whiff of a rumor can rouse warnings of war. In both Judaism and Islam, the area known respectively as the Temple Mount and the Noble Sanctuary is considered a formative location. Jews believe it to be the site of Solomon's Temple and key biblical events. Muslims regard it as the spot where Muhammad was brought by the angel Gabriel before embarking on a trip to heaven to visit the other prophets. It also remains a flash point, and a series of disturbances there this fall showed just how difficult it will be for Israelis and Palestinians to reach agreement on an area over which they negotiate not just as political entities but also as representatives of two faiths with an often-troubled relationship. The recent round of clashes may have ebbed, but on any given day the depth of the standoff is apparent: Last week, Jordan's ambassador to the United States warned of the implications if, as Muslims often worry, Jewish extremists were to bomb one of the Muslim sites. Israeli Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom, meanwhile, reminded an audience in Jerusalem that his government would never share control of a city that is the object of daily Jewish prayer and the hoped-for site of a third temple.

A Mideast Truce - Roger Cohen, New York Times opinion. I’ve grown so pessimistic about Israel-Palestine that I find myself agreeing with Israel’s hard-line foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman: “Anyone who says that within the next few years an agreement can be reached ending the conflict simply doesn’t understand the situation and spreads delusions.” That’s the lesson of early Obama. The president tried to rekindle peace talks by confronting Israel on settlements, coaxing Palestinians to resume negotiations, and reaching out to the Muslim world. The effort has failed. It has alienated Israel, where Obama is unpopular, and brought the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, close to resignation. It’s time to think again. What’s gone wrong? There have been tactical mistakes, including a clumsy US wobble toward accepting Israeli “restraint” on settlements rather than cessation. But the deeper error was strategic: Obama’s assumption that he could resume where Clinton left off in 2000 and pursue the land-for-peace idea at the heart of the two-state solution.

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)

An Evening of Counterinsurgency at the Pritzker Military Library. Hearts and minds? Overrated. If you want to run a successful counterinsurgency, it all starts with the person at the top. On Thursday, December 3rd, Mark Moyar will appear at the Pritzker Military Library to discuss his new book, A Question of Command: Counterinsurgency from the Civil War to Iraq. This event is free and open to the public. The presentation will begin at 6 p.m., preceded by a reception for Library members at 5 p.m. It will be webcast live on pritzkermilitarylibrary.org and recorded for later broadcast on WYCC-TV/Channel 20. Moyar takes issue with much of the current U.S. Army / Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual, which guided the “surge” in Iraq. Though its creation was overseen by Gen. David Petraeus, whose leadership he considers a near-perfect model for counterinsurgency, Moyar finds the general’s most important qualities de-valued in the manual, which suffers from what he calls a “population-centric” emphasis toward defeating an insurgency by depriving it of public support. Using case studies from the Philippines, Vietnam, and other conflicts over the last 150 years, Moyar argues instead that counterinsurgencies succeed or fail based on the leaders involved: their ability to inspire subordinates, adapt to complex situations, unify civilian and military efforts, and identify capable sub-commanders, both from their own ranks and the target population. Though A Question of Command describes historical insurgencies around the world, Moyar posits that the American South, after the Civil War, may have been the best model for the situation in Iraq. Whereas Grant and Sherman had led major victories on the battlefield, it was lesser-known leaders like Brig. Gen. Robert F. Catterson and Maj. Lewis Merrill who had the most success against insurgent forces such as the Ku Klux Klan. A Question of Command attempts to capture the qualities and decisions that set those leaders apart, making their successors easier to find. Mark Moyar is Professor of National Security Affairs at the Marine Corps University. He is also the author of Triumph Forsaken: the Vietnam War, 1954-1965 and Phoenix and the Birds of Prey: Counterinsurgency and Counterterrorism in Vietnam. Moyar’s writings have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and other publications. He received a B.A. summa cum laude from Harvard and a Ph.D. from Cambridge. Seating for this event is limited, so reservations are recommended. Call 312.587.0234 or email events@pritzkermilitarylibrary.net.

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.