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Mali's Next Battle
Improving Counterterrorism Capabilities
Michael Shurkin
RAND Corporation, 2017
This report examines Mali’s counterterrorism requirements in light of recent evolutions in the country’s security environment: The terrorist threat in Mali is growing, but Mali’s military remains largely ineffective. It is not possible to strengthen Mali’s counterterrorism capabilities in isolation from its general military capabilities, which are in need of fundamental reform.
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Managing National Security Policy
The President and the Process
William W. Newmann
University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003
William Newmann examines the ways in which presidents make national security decisions, and explores how those processes evolve over time. He creates a complex portrait of policy making, which may help future presidents design national security decision structures that fit the realities of the office in today's world.
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Mediterranean Security at the Crossroads
A Reader
Nikolaos A. Stavrou, ed.
Duke University Press, 1999
The Mediterranean is a diverse and volatile region, especially in its post—Cold War state, and it is entering a new phase of uncertainty. Twenty-two sovereign states surround this body of water: six are part of the Western alliance system, three have engaged in or supported terrorism, and others face serious internal tensions arising from territorial claims and ethnic strife. An expansion of a previous issue of Mediterranean Quarterly, this book brings together a distinguished array of diplomats, politicians, scholars, and policymakers representing twelve countries and a variety of interests and ideas to discuss this unique region and to explore its prospects for peace and stability.
New essays in this expanded volume include a reflection by former President Jimmy Carter on the causes of war and their links to human suffering, a prophetic analysis of the post-Cold War environment in the Mediterranean by former U.N. Secretary General Boutros-Boutros Ghali, an essay on the strategic significance of Turkey in the eastern Mediterranean by the former Turkish ambassador to the United States, and, in light of recent events in Kosovo and elsewhere in the former Yugoslavia, a piece on the issue of Balkan security by the editor. Introducing the volume is a foreword by former U.S. Secretary of State George P. Schultz and an essay focusing on NATO in the Mediterranean by Javier Solana, the Secretary General of NATO. Central to the Mediterranean debate is the question of NATO’s role in its future. Some contributors suggest that the southward expansion of NATO could be an important first step toward stability, while others argue that the Mediterranean should be treated as an integrated geostrategic region, with a central place in Western security considerations. Other essays discuss the comparative experience of UNPROFOR and IFOR in the former Yugoslavia; the role of Italy in the future of the Mediterranean; the economic challenges facing the Middle East; and the role of Israel and its relationship to its neighbors.
Mediterranean Security at the Crossroads is one of the first in-depth looks at this region from a strictly post-Cold War perspective.

Contributors. Hanan Bar-On, Ted Galen Carpenter, Jimmy Carter, Charles G. Cogan, Gregorios Demestichas, Boutros-Boutros Ghali, Carlo Jean, Nuzhet Kandemir, Nicolai A. Kovalsky, William H. Lewis, Peter H. Liotta, John A. MacInnis, Phebe Marr, Matthew Nimetz, George P. Schultz, Javier Solana, Richard F. Staar, Nikolaos A. Stavrou, George Vella, W. Bruce Weinrod

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Mind Wars
Brain Research and National Defense
Jonathan D. Moreno
Dana Press, 2006
In his fascinating new book, Jonathan D. Moreno investigates the deeply intertwined worlds of cutting-edge brain science, U.S. defense agencies, and a volatile geopolitical landscape where a nation's weaponry must go far beyond bombs and men. The first-ever exploration of the connections between national security and brain research, Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense reveals how many questions crowd this gray intersection of science and government and urges us to begin to answer them.

From neuropharmacology to neural imaging to brain-machine interface devices that relay images and sounds between human brains and machines, Moreno shows how national security entities seek to harness the human nervous system in a multitude of ways as a potent weapon against the enemy soldier. Moreno charts such projects as monkeys moving robotic arms with their minds, technology to read the brain’s thought patterns at a distance, the development of "anti-sleep" drugs to enhance soldiers’ battle performance and others to dampen their emotional reactions to the violence, and advances that could open the door to "neuroweapons"—virus-transported molecules to addle the brain.

"As new kinds of weapons are added to the arsenal already at the disposal of fallible human leaders," Moreno writes, "we need to find new ways to address the problem"--of the ethical military application of so powerful and intimate a science. This book is the first step in confronting the quandaries inherent in this partnership of government and neuroscience, serves as a compelling wake-up call for scientists and citizens, and suggests that, with imagination, we might meet the needs of both security and civil liberty.
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The Missing Link
West European Neutrals and Regional Security
Richard E. Bissell and Curt Gasteyger, eds.
Duke University Press, 1990
The Missing Link brings together the views on the defense of the continent of the five principal neutral nations in Europe—Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Yugoslavia, and Austria—and examines the evolution and current status of the security threats faced by them. The analyses presented here were commissioned by the Programme for Strategic and International Security Studies at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva.
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More or Less Afraid of Nearly Everything
Homeland Security, Borders, and Disasters in the Twenty-First Century
Benjamin Rohrbaugh
University of Michigan Press, 2020
Migration, borders, cybersecurity, natural disasters, and terrorism: Homeland security is constantly in the news. Despite ongoing attention, these problems seem to be getting bigger even as the political discussion grows more overheated and misleading. Ben Rohrbaugh, a former border security director at the White House’s National Security Council, cuts through the noise to provide an accessible and novel framework to understand both homeland security and the thinking around how to keep civilians safe.

Throughout the twentieth century, the United States did not experience national security domestically; it defended its borders by conducting military, foreign policy, and intelligence operations internationally, and then separated these activities from domestic law enforcement with bright legal lines. In the twenty-first century, U.S. national security no longer occurs exclusively outside of the nation. The U.S. government is beginning to respond to this change, and the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security is merely the first step in an organizational and strategic realignment that will be a long, difficult, and mistake-filled process. More or Less Afraid of Nearly Everything is an accessible and engaging guide to homeland security, particularly migration and border security, that makes innovative arguments about the American government and keeping citizens safe, and provides practical solutions to real-world problems.
 
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More Than Science and Sputnik
The National Defense Education Act of 1958
Wayne J. Urban
University of Alabama Press, 2010
A behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the National Defense Education Act.

Sparked by dramatic Soviet achievements, particularly in nuclear technology and the development of the Sputnik space orbiter, the United States responded in the late 1950s with an extraordinary federal investment in education. Designed to overcome a perceived national failure to produce enough qualified scientists, engineers, and mathematicians to compete with the Communist bloc, the effort resulted in the National Defense Education Act of 1958 (NDEA). Representative Carl Elliott and Senator Lister Hill both from Alabama, and then Assistant Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, Elliot Richardson were the prime movers in shaping of this landmark legislation.

More than Science and Sputnik analyzes primary documents of the three leaders to describe the political process that established the NDEA. The book illustrates what the assumptions of the key players were, and why they believed the act was needed.
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