(21) Getting Ready for a Nuclear-Ready Iran
Not Avail | ISBN 158487211X | 2005-01 | PDF | 314 pages | 1.2 MB
As Iran edges closer to acquiring a nuclear bomb and its missiles extend an ever darker diplomatic shadow over the Middle East and Europe, Iran is likely to pose three threats. First, Iran could dramatically up the price of oil by interfering with the free passage of vessels in and through the Persian Gulf as it did during the l980s or by threatening to use terrorist proxies to target other states oil facilities. Second, it could diminish American influence in the Gulf and Middle East by increasing the pace and scope of terrorist activities against Iraq, Saudi Arabia, other Gulf states, Israel, and other perceived supporters of the United States. Finally, it could become a nuclear proliferation model for the world and its neighbors (including many states that otherwise would be more dependent on the United States for their security) by continuing to insist that it has a right to make nuclear fuel under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and then withdrawing once it decides to get a bomb. To contain and deter Iran from posing such threats, the United States and its friends could take a number of steps: increasing military cooperation (particularly in the naval sphere) to deter Iranian naval interference; reducing the vulnerability of oil facilities in the Gulf outside of Iran to terrorist attacks, building and completing pipelines in the lower Gulf region that would allow most of the non-Iranian oil and gas in the Gulf to be exported without having to transit the Straits of Hormuz; diplomatically isolating Iran by calling for the demilitarization of the Straits and adjacent islands, creating country-neutral rules against Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty state members who are suspected of violating the treaty.
(22) Guardians of the Revolution: Iran and the World in the Age of the Ayatollahs By Ray Takeyh
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA | ISBN: 0195327845 | edition 2009 | PDF | 328 pages | 1,08 mb
For over a quarter century, Iran has been one of America's chief nemeses. Ever since Ayatollah Khomeini overthrew the Shah in 1979, the relationship between the two nations has been antagonistic: revolutionary guards chanting against the Great Satan, Bush fulminating against the Axis of Evil, Iranian support for Hezbollah, and President Ahmadinejad blaming the U.S. for the world's ills.
The unending war of words suggests an intractable divide between Iran and the West, one that may very well lead to a shooting war in the near future. But as Ray Takeyh shows in this accessible and authoritative history of Iran's relations with the world since the revolution, behind the famous personalities and extremist slogans is a nation that is far more pragmatic--and complex--than many in the West have been led to believe. Takeyh explodes many of our simplistic myths of Iran as an intransigently Islamist foe of the West. Tracing the course of Iranian policy since the 1979 revolution, Takeyh identifies four distinct periods: the revolutionary era of the 1980s, the tempered gradualism following the death of Khomeini and the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1989, the "reformist" period from 1997-2005 under President Khatami, and the shift toward confrontation and radicalism since the election of President Ahmadinejad in 2005.
(23) Roger Howard "Iran Oil: The New Middle East Challenge to America"
I. B. Tauris | 2007-01-09 | ISBN: 1845112490 | 272 pages | PDF | 4,3 MB
The US sees itself as being locked into a confrontation with Iran, its number one enemy since the invasion of Saddam Hussein's Iraq. But, as Roger Howard argues in this compelling and provocative new book, by attempting to isolate Iran, the US may in fact be undermining its own power. Furthermore, because of US trade embargoes on Iran, it is only the US's rivals, such as China, who are able to fully exploit Iran's natural resources, thus powering a new alliance of countries which will act as a counterweight to US global power. By pursuing such a hostile agenda to a country with so much petro-clout, America is, according to Howard, writing its obituary as the world's only superpower.
(24) The Armed Forces of Pakistan (Armed Forces of Asia) By Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema
Publisher Roundhouse Publishing | ISBN: 1865081191 | edition 2003 | PDF | 240 pages | 1,66 Mb
To the north a seemingly endless civil war in Afghanistan fuelled by arms from Russia and the USA. To the west, a fundamentalist Islamic region in Iran, with links to international terrorism. To the north-east, a secessionist guerilla war in Kashmir. To the east, India, with which Pakistan has fought two wars in 40 years. In these volatile circumstances, Pakistan's armed forces continue to play an important role both internally and externally. Since their creation out of the communal violence of partition at the end of World War II, the armed forces of Pakistan have played a central role in the Pakistani state, periodically usurping the civil authority and ruling in its own right. This book describes the nature of Pakistan's defence capabilities and the forces which will shape them in the 21st century. It surveys the forces locked in conflict over the nuclear option and examines the three internal pressures Pakistan continues to face: militarization, secularization and Islamic fundamentalism. The book assesses the role of the armed forces in the context of defence policy and strategy, and its social and political role. It also provides a comprehensive description of the nature of the air, naval and ground forces, as well as an account of each of their capabilities and ambitions. An appendix provides a precise order of battle.
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(25) Pakistan: At the Crosscurrent of History (One World) By Lawrence Ziring
Publisher: Oneworld Publications 2004 | 288 Pages | ISBN: 1851683275 | PDF | 2.3 MB
In this probing book, a leading defense expert gives the inside story of Pakistan, telling of a country torn apart by catastrophic civil wars, dominated by the bullish military dictatorship of General Musarraf and struggling against the growth of extremist Islam.
Born from a vision of political idealism, caught up in turmoil from its first day of independence, this is the tale of one nation's journey from the margins of history to the center of the world stage. Forced into the spotlight by the international fight against terror, Pakistan has become a global player and an acknowledged nuclear power; today, struggling to balance Western influences with internal demands, it stands poised at the very crosscurrent of history.
Lawrence Ziring, political scientist and long-time observer of the Pakistan scene, combines all the salient facts with astute analysis to track Pakistan's history from the pre-Partition era, through Independence in 1947, to its changing role in the post-9/11 world. Guiding us through three wars, and numerous periods of political instability and martial law, he offers a penetrating analysis of the conflicts between tradition and modernity, religion and secularity, which continue both to burden this Muslim country and to shape its destiny.
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(26) J. N. Dixit, India-Pakistan in War and Peace
Routledge | Pages: 501 | 2002 | ISBN: 0415304725 | PDF | 2.45 Mb
As the Kashmir dispute brings India and Pakistan ominously close to nuclear war this book provides a compelling account of the history and politics of these two great South Asian rivals. Like the Israel-Palestine struggle, the Indian-Pakistan rivalry is a legacy of history. The two countries went to war within months of becoming independent and, over the following half-century, they have fought three other wars and clashed at the United Nations and every other global forum. It is a complex conflict, over religion and territory with two diametrically opposed views of nationhood and national imagination. J.N. Dixit, former foreign secretary of India, and one of the world's leading authorities on the region, has written a balanced and very readable account of the most tempestuous and potentially dangerous flashpoint in international politics.
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(27) Pakistan - Eye of the Storm
Publisher: Yale University Press | ISBN: 0300101473 | edition 2003 | PDF | 365 pages | 1,89 mb
Pakistan-with its political instability, vociferous Islamic community, pressing economic and social problems, access to nuclear weapons, and proximity to Afghanistan-stands at the very center of global attention. Can General Musharraf, Pakistan's military ruler, control the forces that helped create the Taliban in Afghanistan? In this fascinating book, journalist Owen Bennett Jones looks at Pakistan's turbulent past, recounts its recent history, and assesses its future options. A new introduction brings the account fully up to date.
(28)
Zahid Hussain, “Frontline Pakistan”
I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd | 2007 | ISBN: 1845112660 | 272 pages | PDF | 1,1 MB
As Pakistan teeters on the brink of the abyss, Zahid Hussain draws on his unparallelled access and sources amongst the intelligence services, the jiahdi networks, and those surrounding President Musharraf to find out what's going on behind the scenes in this turbulent country, on whose fate the security of the whole world hangs. Does the country's fearsome intelligence agency, the ISI know where Bin Laden is? Are they helping the Taliban? Why didn't Musharraf stamp out radicalism as he promised? Did he mean it, when he pledged his support to America? Does he have the strength to hang on to power? What is his real relationship with Benazir Bhutto? Hussain takes us on a journey from the mountain passes of Waziristan to the officers mess tables in Rawalpindi to the sectarian madrassas of the Punjab to paint an unforgettable portrait of a country in crisis.
(29) John J. Mearsheimer & Stephen M. Walt, "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy"
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | ISBN: 0374177724 | 2007 | 496 pages | PDF | 13.1 MB
The Israel Lobby,” by John J. Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen M. Walt of Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, was one of the most controversial articles in recent memory. Originally published in the London Review of Books in March 2006, it provoked both howls of outrage and cheers of gratitude for challenging what had been a taboo issue in America: the impact of the Israel lobby on U.S. foreign policy.
Now in a work of major importance, Mearsheimer and Walt deepen and expand their argument and confront recent developments in Lebanon and Iran. They describe the remarkable level of material and diplomatic support that the United States provides to Israel and argues that this support cannot be fully explained on either strategic or moral grounds. This exceptional relationship is due largely to the political influence of a loose coalition of individuals and organizations that actively work to shape U.S. foreign policy in a pro-Israel direction. Mearsheimer and Walt provocatively contend that the lobby has a far-reaching impact on America’s posture throughout the Middle East—in Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, and toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—and the policies it has encouraged are in neither America’s national interest nor Israel’s long-term interest. The lobby’s influence also affects America’s relationship with important allies and increases dangers that all states face from global jihadist terror.
Writing in The New York Review of Books, Michael Massing declared, “Not since Foreign Affairs magazine published Samuel Huntington’s ‘The Clash of Civilizations?’ in 1993 has an academic essay detonated with such force.” The publication of The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy is certain to widen the debate and to be one of the most talked-about books of the year.
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Expanding on their notorious 2006 article in the London Review of Books, the authors increase the megatonnage of their explosive claims about the malign influence of the pro-Israel lobby on the U.S. government. Mearsheimer and Walt, political scientists at the University of Chicago and Harvard, respectively, survey a wide coalition of pro-Israel groups and individuals, including American Jewish organizations and political donors, Christian fundamentalists, neo-con officials in the executive branch, media pundits who smear critics of Israel as anti-Semites and the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, which they characterize as having an almost unchallenged hold on Congress.
This lobby, they contend, has pressured the U.S. government into Middle East policies that are strategically and morally unjustifiable: lavish financial subsidies for Israel despite its occupation of Palestinian territories; needless American confrontations with Israel's foes Syria and Iran; uncritical support of Israel's 2006 bombing of Lebanon, which violated the laws of war; and the Iraq war, which almost certainly would not have occurred had [the Israel lobby] been absent. The authors disavow conspiracy mongering, noting that the lobby's activities constitute legitimate, if misguided, interest-group politics, as American as apple pie. Considering the authors' academic credentials and the careful reasoning and meticulous documentation with which they support their claims, the book is bound to rekindle the controversy.
Contents
Part I: The United States, Israel, and the Lobby
1 The Great Benefactor
2 Israel: Strategic Asset or Liability?
3 A Dwindling Moral Case
4 What Is the "Israel Lobby"?
5 Guiding the Policy Process
6 Dominating Public Discourse
Part II: The Lobby in Action
Introduction to Part II
7 The Lobby Versus the Palestinians
8 Iraq and Dreams of Transforming the Middle East
9 Taking Aim at Syria
10 Iran in the Crosshairs
11 The Lobby and the Second Lebanon War
Conclusion: What Is to Be Done?
(30) Mario Liverani, "Israel's History and the History of Israel" (BibleWorld)
Equinox Publishing Ltd (2007) | English | ISBN: 1845533410 | 450 pages | PDF | 11.6 MB
One of Italy's foremost experts on antiquity addresses a new issue surrounding the birth of Israel and its historic reality. Many a tale has been told of ancient Israel, but all tales are alike in their quotation of the biblical story in its narrative scheme, despite its historic unreliability. This book completely rewrites the history of Israel through the evaluation of textual and literary critiques as well as archaeological and epigraphic findings. Conceived along the lines of modern historical methodology, it traces the textual material to the times of its creation, reconstructs the temporal evolution of political and religious ideologies, and firmly inserts the history of Israel into its ancient-oriental context.