Beyond The Last War

The Earth has been ravaged by nuclear war, and the few humans left are forced to scratch across the barren deserts in search of survival. It is a land where law has no meaning and mutated animals scavenge for flesh. It is the post-apocalyptic world Beyond the Last War.While the rich flourish in neo-cities high above the nuclear soot, the poor are forced to eke out an existence in a landscape rocked by centuries of conflict and environmental degradation. With the impoverished banished to these decrepit soot cities, street gangs thrive, and rivalries often end in deadly violence.Amidst the chaos of a gang war gone wrong, Drake Kicklighter-leader of the infamous Cheaters-has lost his daughter to the most dreaded mutant of all: the Demon Queen. Desperate to hold onto one of the few things left in his life with any meaning, he seeks the help of a wayward mercenary named Johnnie Bernstein.Together they set out to find the monster's lair and slay anyone who stands in their path. But things are not always as straightforward as they seem, and they soon find themselves drawn into a grander conflict than they could have ever imagined.

There are currently real pressures on U.S. ground forces to define their contingency future. For example, there is a perceived decline in plausible conventional warfighting scenarios, and many see maintaining large standing ground capabilities solely as a hedge against uncertainty as cost-prohibitive in an era of declining resources. As U.S. officials will undoubtedly want to consider the widest possible range of military options in the event of future crises, this study endeavors to identify ground force options that are most important to the security of core U.S. interests in two key regions of the world: the Middle East and South Asia; and the Asia Pacific. It is meant to help the Department of Defense define future challenges risk as it relates to ground forces and identify and classify specific qualitative risks that could undermine future operational success. While the study focuses on U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) and U.S. Pacific Command (USPACOM), its findings are likely relevant worldwide.

A profoundly heartening view of human nature, Beyond War offers a hopeful prognosis for a future without war. Douglas P. Fry convincingly argues that our ancient ancestors were not innately warlike--and neither are we. He points out that, for perhaps ninety-nine percent of our history, for well over a million years, humans lived in nomadic hunter-and-gatherer groups, egalitarian bands where warfare was a rarity. Drawing on archaeology and fascinating recent fieldwork on hunter-gatherer bands from around the world, Fry debunks the idea that war is ancient and inevitable. For instance, among Aboriginal Australians, warfare was an extreme anomaly. Fry also points out that even today, when war seems ever present, the vast majority of us live peaceful, nonviolent lives. We are not as warlike as we think, and if we can learn from our ancestors, we may be able to move beyond war to provide real justice and security for the world.

This book argues that the political and security threats posed by the domestic radical right in Western countries have been consistently exaggerated since 1945. This has allowed governments to justify censoring and repressing their political opponents, including many who cannot be fairly described as being affiliated with the radical right.

From the acclaimed author of Secrets of a Charmed Life and As Bright as Heaven comes a novel about a German American teenager whose life changes forever when her immigrant family is sent to an internment camp during World War II. In 1943, Elise Sontag is a typical American teenager from Iowa—aware of the war but distanced from its reach. Then her father, a legal U.S. resident for nearly two decades, is suddenly arrested on suspicion of being a Nazi sympathizer. The family is sent to an internment camp in Texas, where, behind the armed guards and barbed wire, Elise feels stripped of everything beloved and familiar, including her own identity. The only thing that makes the camp bearable is meeting fellow internee Mariko Inoue, a Japanese-American teen from Los Angeles, whose friendship empowers Elise to believe the life she knew before the war will again be hers. Together in the desert wilderness, Elise and Mariko hold tight the dream of being young American women with a future beyond the fences. But when the Sontag family is exchanged for American prisoners behind enemy lines in Germany, Elise will face head-on the person the war desires to make of her. In that devastating crucible she must discover if she has the will to rise above prejudice and hatred and re-claim her own destiny, or disappear into the image others have cast upon her. The Last Year of the War tells a little-known story of World War II with great resonance for our own times and challenges the very notion of who we are when who we’ve always been is called into question.

The City of Towers launches a brand new novel line set in the world of Eberron, Wizards of the Coast’s newest D&D® campaign setting. Author Keith Baker’s proposal for the exciting world of Eberron was chosen from 11,000 submissions, and he is the co-author of the Eberron Campaign Setting, the RPG product that launched the setting. The Eberron world will continue to grow through new roleplaying game products, novels, miniatures, and electronic games. AUTHOR BIO: Keith Baker is a freelance writer and game designer. In 2003 his proposal for the world of Eberron was selected as the winner in the Wizards of the Coast fantasy setting search. From the Paperback edition.

The school year is almost at an end, and the chocolate sale is ancient history. But no one at Trinity School can forget the Chocolate War. Devious Archie Costello, commander of the secret school organization called the Vigils, still has some torturous assignments to hand out before he graduates. In spite of this pleasure, Archie is troubled that his right-hand man, Obie, has started to move away from the Vigils. Luckily Archie knows his stooges will fix that. But Obie has some plans of his own.

Exclusive interview with Ariel Sharon! A probing look at the war on terrorism. Conflict in the Middle East has simmered and boiled for decades. Now, war and terrorism are global in scope. The Last War contains supremely relevant information for all concerned: Why do Islamic radicals hate the West? What is the radical Moslem’s world view? Who are Osama bin Laden’s allies? Who are the “Little Satan” and the “Great Satan”? Are we being told the whole truth about our enemies? Tragically, a decade of intense diplomacy and negotiation has given way to widespread violence: some analysts, aware of the real potential for catastrophic war in the region, openly wonder if this will all lead to a “last war” of sorts. After seven years of "confidence-building" measures that are the framework of the Oslo Accords - an ambitious attempt to bring Israelis and Palestinians to a final peace agreement - the whole affair is unraveling. Violence in the West Bank has accelerated dramatically since Yitzak Rabin and Yasser Afarat signed the Declaration of Principles on the White House lawn in 1993. In this indepth study of the peace process, the reader will learn little-reported facts about the peace process and the people involved, and will be able to see clearly that the latest confrontations are a prelude to a devastating conclusion.