The Syria Dilemma ( Boston Review Books )

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"The United States is on the brink of intervention in Syria, but the effect of any eventual American action is impossible to predict. The Syrian conflict has killed more than 100,000 people and displaced millions, yet most observers warn that the worst is still to come. And the international community cannot agree how respond to this humanitarian catastrophe. World leaders have repeatedly resolved not to let atrocities happen in plain view, but the legacy of the bloody and costly intervention in Iraq has left policymakers with little appetite for more military operations. So we find ourselves in the grip of a double burden: the urge to stop the bleeding in Syria, and the fear that attempting to do so would be Iraq redux.
What should be done about the apparently intractable Syrian conflict? This book focuses on the ethical and political dilemmas at the heart of the debate about Syria and the possibility of humanitarian intervention in today's world. The contributors--Syria experts, international relations theorists, human rights activists, and scholars of humanitarian intervention--don't always agree, but together they represent the best political thinking on the issue. "The Syria Dilemma" includes original pieces from Michael Ignatieff, Mary Kaldor, Radwan Ziadeh, Thomas Pierret, Afra Jalabi, and others. Contributors: Asli B?li, Richard Falk, Tom Farer, Charles Glass, Shadi Hamid, Nader Hashemi, Christopher Hill, Michael Ignatieff, Afra Jalabi, Rafif Jouejati, Mary Kaldor, Marc Lynch, Vali Nasr, Thomas Pierret, Danny Postel, Aziz Rana, Christoph Reuter, Kenneth Roth, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Fareed Zakaria, Radwan Ziadeh, Stephen Zunes."  (Publisher Description)

The New Middle East: The World After the Arab Spring

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"For decades, America's foreign policy in the Arab world ostensibly dedicated to preserving regional stability and ensuring a constant flow of oil "dealt on very personal terms with the ruling family elite." Yet "some of those key relationships have gone, " leaving the U.S. at a loss as to how to approach the region at the very moment when engagement is most critical. In his first book, the BBC's new U.S. bureau chief (previously, bureau chief of the Middle East) explores how revolutionary fervor and growing Islamism are forcing the U.S., Israel, Iraq, and Iran to reassess their priorities and restructure their alliances. Like reactions to the Arab Spring, the book begins optimistically but grows progressively darker. Speaking of post Arab Spring difficulties, Danahar cogently notes that building a representative democracy is "not a learning curve, a sheer cliff" made all the more precipitous by mixed messages from the international community. (To illustrate this, Danahar juxtaposes Hillary Clinton's condemnation of "the use of violence by Egyptian police... against protestors" with the fact that the tear gas canisters used by those police sported labels declaring "Made in the U.S.A.") Danahar's analysis and projections are incisive and will appeal to policy wonks, while his conversational tone and ability to engage with a wide range of subjects will benefit a general readership."  (Publishers Weekly)

Reign of Error : the hoax of the privatization movement and the danger to America's public schools /

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"A former assistant secretary of education, Ravitch has been at the forefront of educational debate for more than 40 years. Her 2010 book, "The Death and Life of the Great American School System", sums up her loud-spoken opposition to test-based measurements of teacher success and the entire charter movement. Here she counters doomsday claims regarding test scores and dropout rates and highlights class as the cause of inequality today"  (Library Journal)

The Idealist: Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty

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"Vanity Fair contributing editor Munk (Fools Rush In: Jerry Levin, Steve Case, and the Unmaking of AOL Time Warner) spent six years chronicling the Millennium Villages Project, the pet project that lauded economist Sachs (The End of Poverty) launched in 2006. The project's goal was an audacious attempt to prove Sachs's well-intentioned, but ultimately naive theories about ending extreme poverty in Africa by focusing on a handful of carefully selected villages with the expectation that their halo effect would spread throughout the country. Munk artfully observes how Sachs's infectious enthusiasm and optimism bring attention (and funding, including million from George Soros) to the fledgling organization at home and abroad. Sachs ably illustrates how tactics like lacing mosquito nets with insecticides to fight malaria can make significant headway in achieving a larger goal of helping communities improve their circumstances and chances for development." It's a noble effort, but Sachs and his compatriots soon find that they wildly underestimated the difficulty of distributing those crucial nets, the impact of drought, as well as the learned helplessness of the recipients. All of these factors contribute to a less-than-ideal outcome. Students of economic policy and altruistic do-gooders alike will find Munk's work to be a measured, immersive study of a remarkable but all-too-human man who let his vision get the best of him."  (Publishers Weekly)

A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America

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"In "A Country of Cities," author Vishaan Chakrabarti argues that well-designed cities are the key to solving America's great national challenges: environmental degradation, unsustainable consumption, economic stagnation, rising public health costs and decreased social mobility. If we develop them wisely in the future, our cities can be the force leading us into a new era of progressive and prosperous stewardship of our nation. In compelling chapters, Chakrabarti brings us a wealth of information about cities, suburbs and exurbs, looking at how they developed across the 50 states and their roles in prosperity and globalization, sustainability and resilience, and heath and joy. Counter to what you might think, American cities today are growing faster than their suburban counterparts for the first time since the 1920s. If we can intelligently increase the density of our cities as they grow and build the transit systems, schools, parks and other infrastructure to support them, Chakrabarti shows us how both job opportunities and an improved, sustainable environment are truly within our means. In this call for an urban America, he illustrates his argument with numerous infographics illustrating provocative statistics on issues as disparate as rising childhood obesity rates, ever-lengthening automobile commutes and government subsidies that favor highways over mass transit. The book closes with an eloquent manifesto that rallies us to build "a Country of Cities," to turn a country of highways, houses and hedges into a country of trains, towers and trees.  (Publisher Description)

Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country ( American Empire Project )

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"Despite our ostensible admiration of our men and women in arms, Americans have "offloaded" the full burden of war onto their shoulders with dismal results, argues Boston University history professor and Army vet Bacevich (Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War) in this impassioned and painfully convincing polemic. Our Founding Fathers proclaimed that all free people must make sacrifices when the nation goes to war. As late as WWII, the draft affected nearly everyone, with most people having a family member, friend, or colleague in the service. F.D.R.'s government raised taxes and instituted price controls and rationing, yet few complained. Bacevich emphasizes that eliminating the draft in 1973 sowed the seeds of disaster. When Bush announced the war on terror in 2001, the president mobilized volunteer troops, but not the nation; he urged Americans to "enjoy life, " and he cut taxes. Since borrowing paid the bill, and there was no draft, few complained. When the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan turned sour, protests were mild compared to the upheavals over Vietnam. Bacevich asserts bluntly that a disengaged and compliant citizenry has reduced military service from a universal duty to a matter of individual choice, allowing our leaders to wage war whenever (and for however long) they choose with little to fear from an electorate who are neither paying nor perishing."  (Publishers Weekly)

Circle of Friends: The Massive Federal Crackdown on Insider Trading - And Why the Markets Always Work Against the Little Guy

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"The bestselling author of "The Sellout" tells the explosive story of the government's crackdown on massive insider trading networks, exposing the myth promulgated by Wall Street that the stock markets are democratized and every investor has the same chance to make money."  (Publisher Description)

Under Fire: The Untold Story of the Attack in Benghazi

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" On the night of September 11, 2012, the American diplomatic mission at Benghazi, Libya, came under ferocious attack by a heavily armed group of Islamic terrorists. The prolonged firefight, and the attack hours later on a nearby CIA outpost, resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including the American ambassador to Libya. Based on the cooperation of eyewitnesses and confidential sources, the authors explore the terrifying twelve-hour ordeal confronted by the Ambassador, his security contingent, and the CIA specialists who raced to rescue them."(Publisher Description)

Enemies Within: Inside the NYPD's Secret Spying Unit and Bin Laden's Final Plot Against America

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"Enemies Within is a revelatory look at America's counterterrorism measures. The authors' real-life domestic spy story indicates that many of our strategies aren't even close to being successful. Six months after 9/11, the New York police commissioner initiated an audacious antiterrorist plan: the NYPD dispatched a vast network of undercover officers and informants into Muslim neighborhoods to eavesdrop on conversations in mosques and community centers. These shady tactics proved fruitless. Through the harrowing tick-tock narrative of forty-eight hours in 2009, the NYPD and the FBI track suspected terrorist Najibullah Zazi as he makes his way to New York to launch an attack."  (Publisher's Description)