A breathtaking work of political reportage steeped in a deep understanding of the roots of Islamist terrorism. Western tourists are not always aware that the Maldives, a tiny island nation in the Indian Ocean, is a Muslim country, or that the Republic of Maldives is the non-Arab country with the world's highest number of foreign fighters per capita. Despite being considered a luxury tourist destination, the Maldives is in fact one of the most over-populated countries, devastated by poverty, social segregation, heroin, and criminality. Tourists living in one tiny bright enclave, the people in the vast darkness. All the wealth coming from tourism is concentrated in the hands of a few businessmen who collude with the despotic government. The Maldives is a fertile breeding ground for ISIS, which enlists more of its foreign fighters per capita from there than anywhere else. Francesca Borri spent time with them, and with their families and friends, all of whom are drivers, waiters, cleaners in tourist resorts. And she let them speak. As she writes, "While the rest of the world watched the Olympics, everyone here was watching the battle of Aleppo. And rooting for al-Qaeda."

Hit the beach ,take a trip and set sail with USA Today Bestselling Author, Elena Aitken and the sexy, sun soaked Destination Paradise series, set on the white sand beaches, and crystal blue waters of Panama. This complete trilogy includes three full length novels Shelter by the Sea But a guarded heart and an inability to trust may be too much to overcome, even in paradise. Escape to the Sun Paradise is the perfect place to hide, but can a troubled past ever be left behind? Hidden in the Sand A small-town girl with trust issues. A Hollywood super star with one hell of a reputation. A picture perfect ending? Or will it be nothing but trouble in Paradise?

Residential Tourism: (De)Constructing Paradise offers the first in-depth, critical exploration of the foreign retirement/expatriate communities proliferating in both size and number throughout Latin America. Amidst the widespread development and promotion of international destinations of residential “paradise” intended for retirement, leisure, and experiences of exotica, this book draws on a diversity of perspectives in order to analyze the social and spatial impacts that dynamic phenomenon has on the people and places it directly affects at the local level. Utilizing the community of Boquete, Panama as a case study, this book examines how two diverse residential groups – the native community who have lived in the area for generations and the foreign residential tourists who have just recently relocated abroad – coexist in a shared place of home, define their experiences of place and community, and confront the mass development of residential tourism in Boquete.

He’s determined to leave his past behind. She’s committed to a new and better future. But a guarded heart and an inability to trust may be too much to overcome, even in paradise.  Cass Cutler's life is full—of nothing. So when she gets the news that she's inherited her father's yacht, there's no reason not to head to paradise for a new start on the picture perfect beaches and the crystal clear waters of Panama for a fresh start. Learning how to sail and operate a boat is just the challenge she needs. When Archer Wolfe arrived in Panama he was looking for a change of scenery and maybe a bit of adventure, he was definitely not looking for a relationship. But a feisty little blond in a tight tank top fiercely determined to prove she can handle the big boat she somehow inherited, could change all of that. If only he can convince her to give in to their desire. Despite their attraction, the last thing Cass wants or needs, is another man in her life who’s just going to leave. Archer is nothing more than fantasy, and he needs to stay that way if she hopes to save her inheritance—and her heart—before she loses everything.

August 21, 2013: a chemical weapons attack on the suburbs of Damascus reminds the world of the existence of the Syrian war. Hundreds of journalists from every corner of the world rush to the frontier only to leave disappointed when Obama decides not to bomb. They leave behind 200,000 estimated victims, and more than half of a population of 22 million people dispersed or refugeed in nearby countries: the worst humanitarian crisis since WWII according to the UN. Francesca Borri is one of them. But she does not leave. She is thirty years old. For months she covers the battle of Aleppo as a freelance reporter. And she quickly realizes that to report a war is to hide with dozens of women and children, even a baby, born there, in a grave, 'a piece of soil under the ground that is as expensive as three houses' or to scavenge for anything to burn for some warmth, 'a broken slipper, the plastic hand of a toy' or to mistake bloody figments of skull for rubble. To report a war is also to meet with officials more worried about the stain of snow on their Clarks than the people they are supposed to help. It is to explain what is happening in Aleppo to journalists who have only been there once, on vacation, and bought a carpet. It is risking one's life because of the jealousy of a fellow reporter. And it is also about dreaming of driving at night with the windows open, about remembering impossible little things, the particular light on that day in that café at the beach when you were a kid, the eyes of people you love, all the minuscule simple joys that can be lost in a moment. Syrian Dust is a raw and powerful account of the Syrian war that throws the reader right in the middle of it, without any shelter.

In Securing Paradise, Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez shows how tourism and militarism have functioned together in Hawai`i and the Philippines, jointly empowering the United States to assert its geostrategic and economic interests in the Pacific. She does so by interpreting fiction, closely examining colonial and military construction projects, and delving into present-day tourist practices, spaces, and narratives. For instance, in both Hawai`i and the Philippines, U.S. military modes of mobility, control, and surveillance enable scenic tourist byways. Past and present U.S. military posts, such as the Clark and Subic Bases and the Pearl Harbor complex, have been reincarnated as destinations for tourists interested in World War II. The history of the U.S. military is foundational to tourist itineraries and imaginations in such sites. At the same time, U.S. military dominance is reinforced by the logics and practices of mobility and consumption underlying modern tourism. Working in tandem, militarism and tourism produce gendered structures of feeling and formations of knowledge. These become routinized into everyday life in Hawai`i and the Philippines, inculcating U.S. imperialism in the Pacific.

The links between islands and tourism, as sights of pleasure is embodied in the touristification of sun, sand and sea. Islandscapes are central to the tourist imaginaries that shape islands as touristified places - curated, designed and commodified for both mass tourism and more niche inclined versions. Yet while islands are parlayed for touristic pleasure seekers, islands are also home to longstanding communities that have variously battled with the tyranny of distance from metropolitan centres, as well as the everyday challenges of climate change effects, and benefitted from their isolation from modern-day pressures. This anthology of articles previously published in the journal Shima explores emergent themes that describe how island peoples adapt and respond in localised cultural islandscapes as a consequence of tourism expansion. It is aimed at researchers in island studies, tourism, sustainability, human geography, cultural studies, sociology and anthropology. The anthology will also be of interest to those with an abiding interest in the trajectories of islands and their peoples, particularly where tourism has come to shape islandscapes.