From Publishers Weekly
As founder and chairman of Stratfor Forecasting ("predictive, insightful global intelligence," its Web site states), Friedman is in the business of gathering information and predicting outcomes of global conflicts for businesses and governments. Following up on The Future of War, he assesses the causes, players and parameters of what he calls "the fourth global war"—September 11th and its aftermath—from the perspective of the company. Much of what’s here will be familiar to readers of the 9/11 report or the reams of news coverage over the last three years. Yet Friedman’s stock-taking exercise is compelling as a distillation of corporate intelligence, where the spin is less about maintaining the image of particular politicians or governments, and more about being right so that money can be made.Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.


From Booklist
Friedman is right when he says that his book may be "vigorously attacked." His (quite reasonable) portrayal of George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden as "skilled and dedicated men" is sure to anger readers looking for easy characterizations. But there is nothing easy about the post-September 11, 2001, world. Any study of the period immediately following the terrorist attacks inevitably raises more questions than it answers. What did the U.S. intelligence community know, and when did they know it? Was there sufficient advance knowledge to permit the U.S. government to defend itself against the attacks? Was President Bush misleading the world when he launched his search for weapons of mass destruction? And how, exactly, has Osama bin Laden managed to escape? Friedman answers what he can, suggests explanations for things that are murky, and gives us fistfuls of new ideas to consider. This isn't the definitive book on the subject, but it delivers a clearer, deeper, and subtler understanding of the post-9/11 world than we will ever get from listening to the cacophony of talking heads on television. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

FROM OUR EDITORS

In George Friedman's America's Secret War, revelation follows revelation: "Al Qaeda had by 2001 completely mapped out U.S. intelligence processes. Their previous attacks and feints had been designed to elicit U.S. responses." "Al Qaeda attacked the United States hoping that the American response would be a massive invasion of the Islamic world." "The United States cut a deal with Iran in September 2003. Iran would support U.S. efforts to crush the Sunnis. The U.S. would accept an Iranian-dominated Iraq in the future." A fresh perspective on the war on terrorism.

FROM THE PUBLISHER