Great Decisions »

Great Decisions Briefing Book 2010

Receive a 10% discount on orders of ten or more briefing books!

Featured topics: Special envoys, Kenya and R2P, Global crime, U.S.-China security relations, Global financial crisis, Russia and its neighbors, Persian Gulf, Peace building and conflict resolution ($18, plus S&H)

Great Decisions 2010 Television Series on DVD

Ten half hour programs designed to support Great Decisions discussions.

• United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
• EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana
• Actress and Goodwill Ambassador Mira Sorvino
• U.S. Senator Carl Levin
• New York Times Columnist Nicolas Kristof

Teacher's Guide 2010

Intended to help instructors better prepare students for their role as citizens of a globally interdependent world. Now available exclusively in PDF format. ($16.50, electronic delivery)

Great Decisions 2009

Order your copy of the Great Decisions 2009 briefing book today! Great Decisions 2009 features impartial, thought-provoking analyses on eight issues of concern to U.S. policymakers today and that represent our foreign policy challenges of tomorrow.

Featured topics: U.S. & rising global powers, Afghanistan/Pakistan, energy & the global economy, the Arctic, U.S. & Egypt, global food supply, Cuba after Castro, and universal human rights. ($18, plus S&H)

Great Decisions 2009 Television Series

Order your copy of Great Decisions 2009 TV Series on DVD. Now in its 24th season, the Great Decisions Television Series, hosted by Ralph Begleiter, devotes one half-hour episode to each of the eight Great Decisions 2009 topics, exploring them in detail with experts in the field. ($40, plus S&H)

Teacher's Guide 2009

Order your copy of Great Decisions 2009 Teacher's Guide intended to help instructors better prepare students for their role as citizens of a globally interdependent world. ($27.50, plus S&H)

Special Publications »

Israel and Palestine - Two States for Two Peoples: If Not Now, When?

The Boston Study Group on Middle East Peace is comprised of professional and academic members with strong interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Some have been intensely engaged with this subject for decades. Others have closely followed the conflict within the context of their professional work in conflict resolution, international law and international relations, religion, and U.S. foreign policy.

Editor's Picks »

Great Decisions 2009 French Language Edition [Download or Print]

In partnership with Alliance Francaise USA, FPA presents the French language edition of the Great Decisions 2009 briefing book which features impartial, thought-provoking analyses on four issues of concern to U.S. policymakers today and that represent our foreign policy challenges of tomorrow.

Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War

With conflicts again dividing Russia and the United States, the need for balanced, accessible scholarship that benefits from new materials and critical perspectives is imperative. In seven lucid, groundbreaking essays, Stephen F. Cohen's Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War questions many conventional assumptions about the course of Soviet history, the fall of communism, and the effect of Russia's policies at home and abroad.

China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know

China is constantly in the news, yet conflicting impressions abound. Within one generation, China has transformed from an impoverished, repressive state into an economic and political powerhouse. In his new book, Jeffrey Wasserstrom provides cogent answers to the most urgent questions regarding the newest superpower and offers a framework for understanding its meteoric rise.

Wasserstrom reveals that China today shares many traits with other industrialized nations during their periods of development, in particular the United States during its rapid industrialization in the 19th century. Finally, he provides guidance on the ways we can expect China to act in the future vis-à-vis the United States, Russia, India, and its East Asian neighbors.

The Politics of Security in Modern Russia (Post-Soviet Politics)

Fully up-to-date to reflect the evolving Medvedev presidency, the 2008 Georgian war and the impact of the economic downturn, Mark Galeotti's The Politics of Security in Modern Russia is a much needed objective and balanced examination of the ways in which security has played and continues to play a central role in contemporary Russian politics.

Crisis Economics: A Crash Course in the Future of Finance

Drawing on the parallels from many countries and centuries, Nouriel Roubini and Stephen Mihm offer lessons of earlier financial crises to bear on our present predicament, showing how we can recognize and grapple with the inherent instability of the global financial system, understand its pressure points, learn from previous episodes of "irrational exuberance," pinpoint the course of global contagion, and plan for our immediate future. Perhaps most important, the authors explain how the world's economy can get out of the mess we're in, and stay out.

Why We Hate the Oil Companies: Straight Talk from an Energy Insider

A former oil company executive, John Hofmeister offers an insider's view of what's behind the energy companies' posturing, and how politicians use energy misinformation, disinformation, and lack of information to get and stay elected. He tackles the energy controversy head-on, without regard for political correctness. He also provides a new framework for solving difficult problems, identifying solutions that will lead to a future of comfortable lifestyles, affordable and clean energy, environmental protection, and sustained economic competitiveness.

The Rise and Fall of Bear Stearns

The Rise and Fall of Bear Stearns is Alan Greenberg's remarkable story of ascending to the top of one of Wall Street's venerable powerhouse financial institutions. After joining Bear Stearns in 1949, Greenberg rose to become formally head of the firm in 1978. No one knows the history of Bear Stearns as he does; no one participated in more key decisions, right into the company's final days. Greenberg offers an honest, clear-eyed assessment of how the collapse of the company surprised him and other top executives, and he explains who he thinks was responsible. This is a candid, fascinating account of a storied career and its stunning conclusion.

Behind the Killing Fields: A Khmer Rouge Leader and One of His Victims

In recent history, atrocities have often been committed in the name of lofty ideals. One of the most disturbing examples took place in Cambodia's Killing Fields, where tens of thousands of victims were executed and hastily disposed of by Khmer Rouge cadres. Nearly thirty years after these bloody purges, two journalists entered the jungles of Cambodia to uncover secrets still buried there.

In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan

A definitive account of the American experience in Afghanistan from the rise of the Taliban to the depths of the insurgency. After the swift defeat of the Taliban in 2001, American optimism has steadily evaporated in the face of mounting violence; a new “war of a thousand cuts” has now brought the country to its knees. In the Graveyard of Empires is a political history of Afghanistan in the “Age of Terror” from 2001 to 2009, exploring the fundamental tragedy of America's longest war since Vietnam.

Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History

Afghanistan traces the historic struggles and the changing nature of political authority in this volatile region of the world, from the Mughal Empire in the sixteenth century to the Taliban resurgence today. Afghanistan is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how a land conquered and ruled by foreign dynasties for more than a thousand years became the "graveyard of empires" for the British and Soviets, and what the United States must do to avoid a similar fate.

Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan

From the author of the #1 bestseller Three Cups of Tea, the continuing story of this determined humanitarian's efforts to promote peace through education. In this dramatic first-person narrative, Greg Mortenson picks up where Three Cups of Tea left off in 2003, recounting his relentless, ongoing efforts to establish schools for girls in Afghanistan; his extensive work in Azad Kashmir and Pakistan after a massive earthquake hit the region in 2005; and the unique ways he has built relationships with Islamic clerics, militia commanders, and tribal leaders even as he was dodging shootouts with feuding Afghan warlords and surviving an eight-day armed abduction by the Taliban.

Youth and Post-Conflict Reconstruction: Agents of Change

Although much has been written about cases of children as soldiers and slaves in recent conflicts, these cases are but one example of the impact of conflict on a subset of the youth population. In Youth in Post-Conflict Reconstruction: Agents of Change, Stephanie Schwartz goes beyond these highly publicized cases and examines the roles of the broader youth population in post-conflict scenarios, taking on the complex task of distinguishing between the legal and societal labels of child, youth, and adult.

Let Our Fame Be Great: Journeys Among the Defiant People of the Caucasus

In Let Our Fame Be Great, journalist and Russian expert Oliver Bullough explores the fascinating cultural crossroads of the Caucasus, where Europe, Asia, and the Middle East intersect. Filled with a compelling mix of archival research and oral history, the book recounts the tenacious survival of peoples who have been relentlessly invaded and persecuted and yet woefully overlooked.

Cocaine Nation: How the White Trade Took Over the World

Cocaine Nation is an in-depth, narrative study of the cocaine industry—from the fields of Colombia to the streets of New York—as it has never been told before. Cocaine is big business and getting bigger. Governments spend millions on a losing war against it, yet it's still the drug of choice in the West. How did the cocaine economy become so massive? Who keeps it running behind the scenes?

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