Beyond Terror: Strategy in a Changing World [Anglais] [Relié]

Novelist and retired army officer Peters gathers his recent short nonfiction in a useful and occasionally abrasive book focusing on the international climate for terrorism--where it comes from, where it may go besides the U.S., why Americans are a prime target (he doesn't believe much in American guilt), and what should be done to reduce American vulnerability. Some op-ed-style pieces take up such collateral subjects as American willingness to accept casualties in low-intensity combat and the absence of sinister fascist tendencies among army officers. Peters rises to conservative patriotic peroration in the pieces written during the three months after 9-11, and he exhibits distastes for the Clinton administration and for intellectuals, foreign and domestic, that will make parts of the book unreadable for some. Basically this is good, intelligent stuff, though Peters' predilections sometimes obscure its merits. Roland Green
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"brilliantly written"

Acclaimed military strategist and author Ralph Peters assembles 18 essays, some written before and others after the September 11 attacks, which show his writing at its best. Always one step ahead of other military strategists, Peters evaluates the status quo of world affairs and brings his years of experience as an Army-insider to bear on the state of terrorism in the world today, and his vision for how the United States should be fighting the war against terrorists and terrorism. Peters proposes an unorthodox view of intelligence analysis, attacks the lie that the American people will not accept casualties, and, in a tour de force, reveals the human side of Clausewitz. Drawing on the experiences of an unusual military career and travel to more than fifty countries, Peters portrays a world undergoing the most dramatic changes in history. “Beyond Terror” takes us far beyond the intellectual prison of traditional wisdom to offer the most original thinking available on the strategic challenges confronting the United States in the 21st century.

Ralph Peters retired from the U.S. Army in 1998, shortly after his promotion to Lieutenant Colonel, in order to write and speak freely. His service took him from the enlisted ranks to the Executive Office of the President, from the former Soviet Union to the Pentagon, and from the Andean Ridge to Southeast Asia. Post-military travels have taken him to India, Indonesia, Egypt, and various other troubled regions. He believes that only firsthand observation allows a practical understanding of the world's problems. In addition to his influential book on strategy, “Fighting for the Future”, Ralph Peters is the author of twelve novels, including a series of critically acclaimed historical novels published under a pen name.