Missions Impossible

A rigorous examination of higher education policymaking in the Arab world None of the momentous challenges Arab universities face is unique either in kind or degree. Other societies exhibit some of the same pathologies—insufficient resources, high drop-out rates, feeble contributions to research and development, inappropriate skill formation for existing job markets, weak research incentive structures, weak institutional autonomy, and co-optation into the political order. But, it may be that the concentration of these pathologies and their depth is what sets the Arab world apart. Missions Impossible seeks to explain the process of policymaking in higher education in the Arab world, a process that is shaped by the region’s politics of autocratic rule. Higher education in the Arab world is directly linked to crises in economic growth, social inequality and, as a result, regime survival. If unsuccessful, higher education could be the catalyst to regime collapse. If successful, it could be the catalyst to sustained growth and innovation—but that, too, could unleash forces that the region’s autocrats are unable to control. Leaders are risk-averse and therefore implement policies that tame the universities politically but in the process sap their capabilities for innovation and knowledge creation. The result is sub-optimal and, argues John Waterbury in this thought-provoking study, unsustainable. Skillfully integrating international debates on higher education with rich and empirically informed analysis of the governance and finance of higher education in the Arab world today, Missions Impossible explores and dissects the manifold dilemmas that lie at the heart of educational reform and examines possible paths forward.

Thisøstudy of the German presence in Africa in the modern period exposes forms of cultural domination that derive from a philosophy of progress and ?good intentions.? The humanitarian belief in development, however, can ultimately lead to the same structural imbalances that an overtly racist model of intervention produces. Berman examines five case studies involving German individuals and their respective ?missions? in Africa: Max Eyth in Egypt, Albert Schweitzer in Gabon, Ernst Udet in East Africa, Bodo Kirchoff in Somalia, and modern-day tourists in Kenya. These engineers, doctors, pilots, soldiers, and tourists believed that their presence and actions would benefit the respective countries and their inhabitants. Nevertheless, their interventions created profound problems for Africans. ø Nina Berman describes the structures of domination that date back to colonialism but did not disappear with decolonization and are, in fact, integral to today?s global economy. She also critiques the avoidance of African material reality in most of the analyses of European images of Africa, which has led to a perpetuation of the old model of Africanism. By highlighting patterns of domination that did not disappear with decolonization, Impossible Missions? disputes previous assumptions about why global inequality has not only persisted but increased.

A riveting follow-up to Michael Bar-Zohar and Nissim Mishal’s account of the most memorable missions of the Mossad, No Mission Is Impossible sheds light on some of the most harrowing, nail-biting operations of the Israeli Special Forces. In No Mission Is Impossible, Michael Bar-Zohar and Nissim Mishal depict in electrifying detail major battles, raids in enemy territory, and the death- defying commando missions of the Israeli Special Forces. The stories are often of victories, but sometimes also of immense failures, and they run side by side with the accounts of the lives and accomplishments of some of Israel’s most prominent figures. Captivating and eye-opening, No Mission Is Impossible is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding how these crucial missions shaped Israel, and the world at large.

It is of strategic importance for international students and scholars to come under the umbrella of global missions. The author is convinced there is need for a paradigm shift in global missions. With over one million international students from practically every country on the face of the earth, many being Christian, having come to the U.S. for their higher education, we cannot afford to waste this golden opportunity. Reasons will be provided why this is our divine “moment” in history for Christian leadership to rise up and take action. The potential is there for us to create a tremendous impact for Christ on nations which in the past have been difficult to reach. God works in mysterious ways and this has to be one of them. It is imperative that we get with God’s program and focus on: • identifying Christian international students soon after their arrival on campus. • training them Biblically and theologically. • equipping them for their return home. • following them up after their return with support. Documentation is provided, some from missionaries themselves, showing that properly trained Christian international students after returning home are much more effective than traditional foreign missionaries. Reasons why are clearly and with great conviction provided. However, we still need traditional foreign missionaries because of the fields being white unto harvest but the laborers are few. The reader will be fascinated by the illustrations of those Christian international students who returned home to accomplish feats for God on a scale that never before had been thought possible.

The church/missions community must move beyond superficial fellowship and simple networking to true partnerships, cooperative ventures, and the sharing of resources. This will result in synergy - a phenomenon where the output is greater than the sum of its parts. Twenty-two missions leaders from around the world speak candidly to these issues and call us to reflection, relationship and engagement without which the nations of this world will not be discipled for Christ.

The New York Times bestselling, “meticulously researched and absorbingly written” (The Washington Post) story of the trailblazers and the ordinary Americans on the front lines of the epic Apollo 11 moon mission. President John F. Kennedy astonished the world on May 25, 1961, when he announced to Congress that the United States should land a man on the Moon by 1970. No group was more surprised than the scientists and engineers at NASA, who suddenly had less than a decade to invent space travel. When Kennedy announced that goal, no one knew how to navigate to the Moon. No one knew how to build a rocket big enough to reach the Moon, or how to build a computer small enough (and powerful enough) to fly a spaceship there. No one knew what the surface of the Moon was like, or what astronauts could eat as they flew there. On the day of Kennedy’s historic speech, America had a total of fifteen minutes of spaceflight experience—with just five of those minutes outside the atmosphere. Russian dogs had more time in space than US astronauts. Over the next decade, more than 400,000 scientists, engineers, and factory workers would send twenty-four astronauts to the Moon. Each hour of space flight would require one million hours of work back on Earth to get America to the Moon on July 20, 1969. “A veteran space reporter with a vibrant touch—nearly every sentence has a fact, an insight, a colorful quote or part of a piquant anecdote” (The Wall Street Journal) and in One Giant Leap, Fishman has written the sweeping, definitive behind-the-scenes account of the furious race to complete one of mankind’s greatest achievements. It’s a story filled with surprises—from the item the astronauts almost forgot to take with them (the American flag), to the extraordinary impact Apollo would have back on Earth, and on the way we live today. From the research labs of MIT, where the eccentric and legendary pioneer Charles Draper created the tools to fly the Apollo spaceships, to the factories where dozens of women sewed spacesuits, parachutes, and even computer hardware by hand, Fishman captures the exceptional feats of these ordinary Americans. “It’s been 50 years since Neil Armstrong took that one small step. Fishman explains in dazzling form just how unbelievable it actually was” (Newsweek).