Highlights of the book include: - "Fighting Infectious Diseases: One Mission, Many Agents," by Dr Shiping Tang, Deputy Director, Center for Regional Security Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences - "SARS, Anti-Populism, and Elite Lies: Diseases from Which China Can Recover," by Professor Lynn T White, Professor of Politics & International Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University - "SARS and Hong Kong Culture," by Professor Leo Ou-fan Lee, Professor of Chinese Literature, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University - "Facing the Unknowns of SARS in Hong Kong," by Prof KY Yuen, Head, Department of Microbiology, The Hong Kong University - "Cracking the Genome of the SARS Virus," by Dr Lawrence W Stanton, Senior Group Leader, SARS Project Coordinator, Genome Institute of Singapore - "Infection Control and Social Responsibility," by Dr Pheng Soon Lee, President, Singapore Medical Association - "SARS and Control Measures in Taiwan," by Prof CJ Chen, Professor of Epidemiology, National Taiwan University

A work of political economy from the perspective of an anthropologist who has made a career of studying poverty and displaced people, Global Threats, Global Futures will prove rewarding reading for anyone concerned with issues of economic development, environmental and cultural degradation, and the causes and solutions of poverty. Most of all, Thayer Scudder illuminates a path, not only possible but plausible, through a destructive maze of humankind s own making if only the political will can be found to tread it. Engineering & Science Thayer Scudder is one of those gifted authors who have the experience and the vision to span multiple sectors and far flung sites in assessing where humankind and its habitat are heading. His restless curiosity in everything around him has led him to become not simply the world s leading authority on the impacts on the lives of people resettled by dam-building projects but an innovative thinker about development anthropology and the threats to the globe from poverty, fundamentalism in all its pernicious forms and environmental degradation. This iconoclastic book assails sacred cows ranging from the World Bank to the malign role of Buddhist priests in the late civil war in Sri Lanka. The work is not reassuring. But its conclusion that humans can learn to live with declining living standards is more uplifting than doom-laden. David McDowell, Former Director General of the IUCN and New Zealand Ambassador to the United Nations Neither Pollyanna nor Prophet of Doom, Professor Scudder has drawn on his 55 years of international experience and presented a clear, hard hitting, extraordinarily well documented analysis of the critical and urgent global challenges that face humankind and of the transformations that will be required to meet those challenges. This is a very important book. It should be read by an informed public, but most particularly by leaders and policy makers of the world s governments, international organizations, educational and religious institutions. Lee Talbot, George Mason University, US This is an extraordinary, bold, and exceptionally well thought out prospectus on the next century of the human condition. Declining living standards, consequential to the pervasive pursuit of growth in terms of Gross Domestic Product, is a central theme that is thoroughly documented and engagingly articulated. The decisive role in the decline of living standards played by global threats including poverty, fundamentalism, environmental degradation, wars, and excess consumption, is compellingly presented from the perspective of the author s unique career. Burton Singer, Princeton University, US This impressive study of the progressive impoverishment of the world s resources speaks with the authority of Thayer Scudder s fifty years of experience with international programs for technological development, especially those that involve river basin development and resulting population displacement and resettlement. Case studies from different continents provide the evidence for the likelihood that the majority in future generations will lead more meager lives than their twentieth century ancestors. He points to what has gone wrong in our approach to the world and its resources and to the measures necessary to offset the damage already caused. If only citizens have the political will to adopt them. Elizabeth Colson, University of California, Berkeley, US This is an important book. It has to be listened to, and for two reasons. The first is the expertise of the author: the guy has been there: this is an anthropologist who is constantly in the field. And he possesses a wide range of skills: part ethnographer, part biologist, as much a humanist as a scientist. The combination of experience and expertise is as powerful as it is unusual. Sadly, a second force in favor of this book is the temper of the times. The giddiness of the last century has been driven underground by the perils of this. Ro

A practical guide written from front-line experience that explains the evolution of spying and why today it's much easier to find much more strategic information. This book can be of significant benefit to business, government, the legal community, and law enforcement by showing how to protect against criminals, terrorists, and intelligence agencies who exploit the new "cyber world".

"This book provides a fresh perspective on causes, consequences, and cures surrounding today's most pressing global security challenges. Mandel begins by analyzing the distinctiveness of the post-Cold War threat and of the nature of enemies prevalent in today's world. He then considers prevailing threat analysis deficiencies and develops an alternative - a novel, target-centered conceptual approach for recognizing, assessing, prioritizing, and managing threats that is more useful than current best practices for coping with current foreign dangers."--BOOK JACKET.

What is terrorism and where does it come from? Who are the people who perpetrate terror? What are their motives? Terrorism is now everybody's major and constant fear. This easy-to-read, concise account of terrorism provides the essential global guide to understanding what the threat is and exactly where it comes from. Without this knowledge, argues David Whittaker, there can be no way forward in prevention and control. The book looks in particular at how terrorism has shaped and been shaped by the past half century, the driving forces behind it, the methods, the psychology and the money. Originally written in the aftermath of September 11, the book has now been updated to reflect how our understanding of and reaction to terrorism has moved on in the past few years. The Where to Find Out More section at the end will also be thoroughly updated to include recent websites and publications on the subject.

This book provides a fresh perspective on causes, consequences, and cures surrounding today's most pressing global security challenges. After explaining the changes in post-Cold War threat, it develops a novel target-centered approach to assessment and management that is more useful in coping with current foreign dangers than current best practices. After explaining the challenge in coping with current global threat, this book begins by analyzing the distinctiveness of post-Cold War threat and of the nature of enemies prevalent in today's world. Then it considers prevailing threat analysis deficiencies and develops an alternative target-centered conceptual approach for recognizing and prioritizing threat. Illustrating the value of this approach are four post-9/11 case studies: the weapons of mass destruction and terrorism threat linked to the 2003 Iraq War, the natural calamity threat linked to the 2004 tsunami disaster, the terrorist threat linked to the 2005 London Transport bombings, and the undesired mass population threat linked to the 2006 American illegal immigration tensions. The study concludes by presenting some target-centered ideas about how to cope better with incoming threat, calling in the end for strategic transformation.

Examining major terrorist acts and campaigns undertaken in the decade following September 11, 2001, internationally recognized scholars study the involvement of global terrorist leaders and organizations in these incidents and the planning, organization, execution, recruitment, and training that went into them. Their work captures the changing character of al-Qaeda and its affiliates since the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and the sophisticated elements that, despite the West's best counterterrorism efforts, continue to exert substantial direction over jihadist terrorist operations. Through case studies of terrorist acts and offensives occurring both in and outside the West, the volume's contributors investigate al-Qaeda and other related entities as they adapted to the strategies of Operation Enduring Freedom and subsequent U.S.-led global counterterrorism programs. They explore whether Osama bin Laden was indeed reduced to a mere figurehead before his death or continued to influence al-Qaeda's global activities. Did al-Qaeda become a loose collection of individuals and ideas following its expulsion from Afghanistan, or was it reborn as a transnational terrorist structure powered by a well-articulated ideology? What is the preeminent terrorist threat we face today, and what will it look like in the future? This anthology pinpoints the critical patterns and strategies that will inform counterterrorism in the coming decades.