"Speak softly and carry a big stick" Theodore Roosevelt famously said in 1901, when the United States was emerging as a great power. It was the right sentiment, perhaps, in an age of imperial rivalry but today many Americans doubt the utility of their global military presence, thinking it outdated, unnecessary or even dangerous. In The Big Stick, Eliot A. Cohen-a scholar and practitioner of international relations-disagrees. He argues that hard power remains essential for American foreign policy. While acknowledging that the US must be careful about why, when, and how it uses force, he insists that its international role is as critical as ever, and armed force is vital to that role. Cohen explains that American leaders must learn to use hard power in new ways and for new circumstances. The rise of a well-armed China, Russia's conquest of Crimea and eastern Ukraine, nuclear threats from North Korea and Iran, and the spread of radical Islamist movements like ISIS are some of the key threats to global peace. If the United States relinquishes its position as a strong but prudent military power, and fails to accept its role as the guardian of a stable world order we run the risk of unleashing disorder, violence and tyranny on a scale not seen since the 1930s. The US is still, as Madeleine Albright once dubbed it, "the indispensable nation."

A riveting and frequently hilarious insider account of one of the twentieth century’s most outrageous capers. On the evening of January 17, 1950, armed robbers wearing Captain Marvel masks entered the Brink’s Armored Car building in Boston, Massachusetts. They walked out less than an hour later with more than $2.7 million in cash and securities. It was a brazen and expertly executed theft that captured the imaginations of millions of Americans and baffled the FBI and local law enforcement officials. But what appeared on the surface to be the perfect crime was, in fact, the end result of a mind-boggling series of mistakes, miscalculations, and missteps. The men behind the masks were not expert bank robbers but a motley crew of small-time crooks who bumbled their way into a record-breaking payday and managed to elude the long arm of the law for six years. New York Times–bestselling author Noel Behn tape-recorded nearly one thousand hours of interviews with the surviving robbers, including motormouthed mastermind Tony Pino, a character so colorful he might have been dreamed up by a Hollywood screenwriter, to tell the uncensored story of the heist forever known as “the Great Brink’s Robbery.” Fun and suspenseful from first page to last, Behn’s true-crime classic was the basis for The Brink’s Job (1978), the Academy Award–nominated film directed by William Friedkin and starring Peter Falk and Peter Boyle.

"A sexy NHL player, a sassy heroine, and a heartfelt romance that kept me engaged from beginning to end!" — NYT bestseller Mia Sheridan Hockey is my life. And it's a great one. There's an endless line of women, and I get to hang with my best friend Oli. Everything is perfect until she shows up. Oli's twin sister, Flynn—who hates my guts. I don't blame her. I'm part of one of the worst nights of her life. Now she's next door and seeing her every day is slowly killing me. I wonder if we can ever get back to being the friends we used to be. The way she looks at me sometimes...well, let's just say my hockey stick isn't the only thing that's feeling hard these days. But if she finds out the secrets I'm keeping, forgiveness will be the last thing on her mind.

This encyclopedia offers authoritative coverage of the concepts, traditions, events, and individuals that shaped United States' foreign relations from the American Revolution to the present. Belligerents, Brinkmanship, and the Big Stick: A Historical Encyclopedia of American Diplomatic Concepts is the first comprehensive encyclopedic work to focus specifically on America's extraordinary history of political engagement with the world. With hundreds of alphabetically organized entries and a rich collection of primary sources, it offers a unique way of understanding the centrality of diplomacy and the role of foreign relations throughout U.S. history. The encyclopedia is divided into five chronological sections, each containing a brief introduction, topical entries, biographical portraits, and representative documents. It is designed to help readers gain a deeper understanding of both general ideas as well as specific policies like the Monroe Doctrine, the Open Door Policy, and Shuttle Diplomacy. By examining seminal events, important ideas, and individual contributions in the context of U.S. history, the encyclopedia reveals the underlying traditions and motivations of American foreign policy as it has evolved over time.

The USS Iowa (BB-61) was the lead ship in the United States Navy's last, and most battle-worthy, battleship class, which also included the New Jersey, Wisconsin, and Missouri. This volume explores Iowa's design, construction, launching, and commissioning, as well as its extensive wartime activities in both World War II and Korea. Also covered are its post-Korea years in the reserve "mothball fleet," recommissioning in 1984, and coverage of the tragic 1989 turret explosion that killed forty-seven sailors. The carefully researched photos, many of which have never before been published, are reproduced in remarkable clarity, and coupled with descriptive and informative captions, this book puts the reader on the deck of this historic warship throughout her history.