Through a Mirror Darkly

Trying to predict the nature of future wars is nothing new. Given the stakes, it is not surprising that efforts to pierce the barrier of warfare’s event horizon have long occupied security professionals. Accordingly, attempts to identify future enemies, theaters, tactics, and technologies have collectively represented an im- portant component in strategic planning. Intelligence estimates, personality profiles of potential enemy leaders, and war plans of every hue and dimension provide tangible evidence of these efforts

TORCH: North Africa and the Allied Path to Victory, by Vincent P. O\u27 Hara

In the literary mountain of scholarship, research, and writing devoted to World War II, the story of Operation TORCH, the Allied landings in North Africa in November of 1942, is presented often as something of an overture to the massive amphibious symphonies that followed

Deng Xiaoping\u27s Long War

This book will be welcomed equally by historians, political scientists, and international relations specialists. It isa worthy addition to existing literature and belongs on any bookshelf dedicated to understanding modern China and Southeast Asia. Xiaoming Zhang, an associate professor in the Department of Strategy at the Air War College, has provided valuable additional information and analysis concerning the People’s Republic of China’s invasion of Vietnam in 1979

The Pacific War and Contingent Victory: Why Japanese Defeat Was Not Inevitable, by MichaelW. Myers

The Pacific War and Contingent Victory is “an exercise in the elucidation of terms”—an exercise necessary to determine whether the Empire of Japan could have avoided defeat at the hands of the United States and its allies

The Face of Naval Battle: The Human Experience ofModern War at Sea,

An author who uses the words “the face of battle” in the title of any book per- taining to military matters is throwing down a pretty hefty literary gauntlet. For “face of battle” guarantees that the work in question will be compared to Keegan’s 1976 landmark volume of the same name. Keegan asked the basic question, “What is it like to be in a bat- tle?” He sought the answer in a compar- ative study of the battles of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme

Feral Cities

The feral city—savage, toxic, ungovernable—may be a phenomenon that never takes place, yet indications are that its emergence may be imminent in various parts of the world that are already latent threats to the United States. The phrase itself suggests the nature of what may become one of the more difficult security challenges of the new century

Space and biotechnology: An industry profile

The results of a study conducted by the Center for Space and Advanced Technology (CSAT) for NASA-JSC are presented. The objectives were to determine the interests and attitudes of the U.S. biotechnology industry toward space biotechnology and to prepare a concise review of the current activities of the biotechnology industry. In order to accomplish these objectives, two primary actions were taken. First, a questionnaire was designed, reviewed, and distributed to U.S. biotechnology companies. Second, reviews of the various biotechnology fields were prepared in several aspects of the industry. For each review, leading figures in the field were asked to prepare a brief review pointing out key trends and current industry technical problems. The result is a readable narrative of the biotechnology industry which will provide space scientists and engineers valuable clues as to where the space environment can be explored to advance the U.S. biotechnology industry