My Pursuit of the Axis of Evil is about meetings and adventures with interesting people in Asia and Alaska. I followed the advice of a long-ago traveler named Pythagoras, who admonished us to check your prejudices at every port of entry." As a result, I mostly traveled solo, merged with the locals, and got to see, experience, and understand things that would not have been otherwise possible. Plus, the locals can keep you out of trouble and get you out of trouble if you get into it! In Alaska, I sought out native elders and others in the far corners of this enormous state, street people, and the many interesting and famous people visiting or passing through. And high-level politicians—often at the opposite end of the political and social issues spectrum than me. I learned a lot, made new friends, and often got to see things from a different perspective. Encounters were overwhelmingly positive, and it is these people to whom I dedicate My Pursuit of the Axis of Evil. I commend you for your natural curiosity and desire to go out into the world and see for yourself. Pursuit of the Axis of Evil is a great primer on how to engage and interact with the incredible variety of people we meet on international travel - people that appear on the surface to be very different from you and me. Robert DeLaurentis, Polar and Equitorial Circumnavigator/Citizen of the World. "

A collection of stories and poems by contemporary writers from Iran, Iraq, North Korea, and other countries the United States considers enemies that have been translated into English.

With the removal of not only Saddam Hussein but also Jean-Betrand Aristide, as well as the ongoing civil war in against Charles Taylor in Liberia, much has changed in the world of dictators since the first publication of this work less than a year ago. With his colleagues in diplomacy and politics shying away from bold solutions to this ever-present problem, Ambassador Mark Palmer has once again set out to persuade everyone that the only way to achieve global peace is through the removal of dictators with democracy as their replacements. Drawing on his 25 years of extensive diplomatic experience, Ambassador Palmer asks us to embrace a bold vision of a world made safe by democracy. This is the story of the remaining dictators, the strategy and tactics to oust them, and the need to empower the people of every nation to control their own destinies. We know that these dictators are at the root of terrorism and war. Under their leadership and instruction, millions have gone to their deaths, a great many more have been forced to become refugees across the planet, and nations have been driven into poverty, famine, and despair. With all of this, Ambassador Palmer has led a passionate fight to end this Axis of Evil in the not too distant future. For if dictatorships are allowed to continue, the world will never be safe for democracy.

“A remarkable book, from its title and subtitle to its last words . . . A stirring indictment of American sentimentality about war.” —Robert G. Kaiser, The Washington Post In Looking for the Good War, Elizabeth D. Samet reexamines the literature, art, and culture that emerged after World War II, bringing her expertise as a professor of English at West Point to bear on the complexity of the postwar period in national life. She exposes the confusion about American identity that was expressed during and immediately after the war, and the deep national ambivalence toward war, violence, and veterans—all of which were suppressed in subsequent decades by a dangerously sentimental attitude toward the United States’ “exceptional” history and destiny. Samet finds the war's ambivalent legacy in some of its most heavily mythologized figures: the war correspondent epitomized by Ernie Pyle, the character of the erstwhile G.I. turned either cop or criminal in the pulp fiction and feature films of the late 1940s, the disaffected Civil War veteran who looms so large on the screen in the Cold War Western, and the resurgent military hero of the post-Vietnam period. Taken together, these figures reveal key elements of postwar attitudes toward violence, liberty, and nation—attitudes that have shaped domestic and foreign policy and that respond in various ways to various assumptions about national identity and purpose established or affirmed by World War II. As the United States reassesses its roles in Afghanistan and the Middle East, the time has come to rethink our national mythology: the way that World War II shaped our sense of national destiny, our beliefs about the use of American military force throughout the world, and our inability to accept the realities of the twenty-first century’s decades of devastating conflict.

Distant and Mysterious India is made less so, as Bill Fitzpatrick and Roopal Jain explain what is "Beyond the Taj and Behind the Symbols," in their thoughtful, humorous, and often touching three-week journey. While historical figures such as Akbar, Shah Jahan, and Saint Francis Xavier are described, and the vexing symbols of India explained, the strength of Destination: India, Destiny: Unknown is in the graceful manner the authors encounter, and the describe, the surprising heart of India.