Best-selling author STEPHEN is about to take you on the ride of your life. Meet Jonathan David, ordinary citizen, who is suddenly helicoptered away from the safety of his Indiana home by the President of the United States and hidden away in the back bedroom of the world's most famous cabin at Camp David. Because of an ultimatum issued by the first lady in the midst of an international crisis, the narcissistic leader's presidency is at stake. He thinks Jonathan can fix it. Jonathan knows he can't. But what Jonathan doesn't know is that one of the president's closest advisors is a murderer - who has decided to kill again. Jonathan will need all his Krav Maga fighting skills to save his own life.

Each phase of Arab-Israeli peacemaking has been inordinately difficult in its own right, and every critical juncture and decision point in the long process has been shaped by U.S. politics and the U.S. leaders of the moment. The Peace Puzzle tracks the American determination to articulate policy, develop strategy and tactics, and see through negotiations to agreements on an issue that has been of singular importance to U.S. interests for more than forty years. In 2006, the authors of The Peace Puzzle formed the Study Group on Arab-Israeli Peacemaking, a project supported by the United States Institute of Peace, to develop a set of "best practices" for American diplomacy. The Study Group conducted in-depth interviews with more than 120 policymakers, diplomats, academics, and civil society figures and developed performance assessments of the various U.S. administrations of the post–Cold War period. This book, an objective account of the role of the United States in attempting to achieve a lasting Arab–Israeli peace, is informed by the authors’ access to key individuals and official archives.

How important is presidential personality and leadership style in foreign policy decisions? To answer this question, Thomas Preston takes readers inside the Bush administration's decision-making process and use of intelligence to better understand how administration officials justified the Iraq War—and how they sought to avoid blame for the consequences of their actions. Based on extensive interviews with key Bush administration officials, Preston offers students of American foreign policy, presidential decision making, the dynamics of blame avoidance, and future practitioners with an in depth examination of how presidential personality and leadership style impacted Bush's central foreign policy failure. In addition, Preston looks critically at the oft-cited comparisons of Iraq to Lyndon Johnson's leadership during the Vietnam War, exploring where the analogy fits and a number of important differences. He shows how both presidents' styles exacerbated their managerial weaknesses in these cases and the limits of blame avoidance strategies. Importantly, the book provides a cautionary tale for future leaders to consider more carefully the long-term consequences of satisfying their short term policy desires by lifting the lid to any new Pandora's trap.

This title was first published in 2000: A history of the ideas behind public policy studies, which can be defined as the study of the nature, causes and effects of government decisions for dealing with social problems.

This title was first published in 2000. Super-optimizing analysis deals with public policy problems by finding an alternative that enables conservatives, liberals and other viewpoints to come out ahead of their expectations simultaneously. This text explores the ideas and seeks to make super-optimum solutions a matter of routine.

Nuclear proliferation in the Middle East remains an issue of concern. Saudi Arabia’s actions will largely rest on Iran’s decisions, and discussions and preparations within Saudi Arabia would suggest that it is ready to react to potential shifts in the region’s nuclear powers. Saudi Arabia and Nuclear Weapons uses an "inside out" approach that emphasises the Saudis’ own national interests in relation to the nuclear threat, and their understanding of the role of nuclear weapons in defense, foreign policy and the concept of deterrence. It is the first study with comprehensive use of the local Arabic language military and civilian media to provide this understanding of official thinking and policy. The Saudi case study is contextualised against the prevailing proliferation models, to conclude that the Saudi case shares both commonalities and elements of uniqueness with other proliferation cases, implying the need for a ‘multi-causal’ approach. Its comparative analysis also suggests potential implications applicable more broadly to the issue of nuclear proliferation. A comprehensive study of Saudi Arabia’s attitude to nuclear weapons, this book offers an exploration of nuclear proliferation that would interest students, scholars and policymakers working in Middle East studies, as well as Military and nuclear proliferation studies.

This book explains why the Israeli–Palestinian dispute is so difficult to resolve by showing that it consists of multiple distinct conflicts. Because these tend to be conflated into a single conflict, attempts at peace have not worked. Underpinned by conflict theory, observations of those involved and analyses of polling data, the book argues that peace will not be possible until each of the dispute’s distinct conflicts are managed. Early chapters establish a theoretical framework to explain and define the different conflicts. This framework is then applied to the history of the dispute. The actions and perceptions of Israelis and Palestinians make sense when viewed through this framework. The Oslo peace process is examined in detail to explain how and why each side’s expectations were not met. Ultimately, lessons in ways to build a future viable peace are drawn from the failures of the past.

This book concerns resolving conflicts on an international level. The author states that for the purposes of this book, the dispute would have to be at the level of a war, revolution, or other dispute that involves substantial bloodshed on one or more sides, rather than a dispute that merely involves words, economic competition, or non-violent conflict. The SOS Resolution is a special kind of Win-Win dispute resolution where one where both or all sides come out ahead of even their best initial expectations simultaneously. The steps and strategies of this resolution are fully explained.

With contributions from nearly 80 international experts, this comprehensive resource covers diverse issues, aspects, and features of public administration and policy around the world. It focuses on bureaucracy and bureaucratic politics in developing and industrialized countries and emphasizing administrative performance and policy implementation, as well as political system maintenance and regime enhancement. The book covers the history of public administration and bureaucracy in Persia, Greece, Rome, and Byzantium and among the Aztecs, Incas, and Mayas, public administration in small island states, Eastern Europe, and ethics and other contemporary issues in public administration.