Recommended Books on National Security Issues
The Center for Security Policy maintains a collection of books and reference material on national security and foreign policy issues at its Washington, DC office. The books listed below are part of the Center’s library and are recommended essential reading for policy makers or members of the general public who wish to further their understanding of national secuity issues.
| Economic Security |
| Funding Evil, Updated: How Terrorism is Financed and How to Stop It by Rachel Ehrenfeld |
| China, The Balance Sheet: What the World Needs to Know About the Emerging Superpower by C. Fred Bergsten et al |
| Hide and Seek: Intelligence, Law Enforcement, and the Stalled War on Terrorist Finance by John A. Cassara |
| Energy Security: Toward a New Foreign Policy Strategy by Jan H. Kalicki and David L. Goldwyn |
| The Political Economy of International Relations by Robert Gilpin |
| Foreign Policy |
| American Foreign Policy Since WWII by Stephen W. Hook and John W. Spainer |
| The Powers of War and Peace: The Constitution and Foreign Affairs Since 9/11 by John Yoo |
| Power, Terror, Peace, and War: America’s Grand Strategy in a World at Risk by Walter Russell Mead |
| The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization by Thomas Friedman |
| The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror by Natan Sharansky and Ron Derner |
| Strategic Communications |
| Losing Hearts and Minds: Public Diplomacy and Strategic Influence in an Age of Terror by Carnes Lord |
| Twice Armed: An American Soldier’s Battle for Hearts and Minds in Iraq by Lt. Col. R. Alan Kin |
| Terror on the Internet: The New Arena, the New Challenges by Gabriel Weimann |
| The Secret History of PWE: The Political Warfare Executive, 1939-1945 by David Garnett |
| Information Operations: Warfare and the Hard Reality of Soft Power by Edwin L. Armistead |
| Intelligence |
| Silent Warfare: Understanding the World of Intelligence, 3rd ed. by Abram N. Shulsky |
| Intelligence in War: Knowledge of the Enemy from Napoleon to Al-Qaeda by John Keegan |
| Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 by Steve Coll |
| Executive Secrets: Covert Action and the Presidency by William J. Daugherty and Mark Bowden |
| From the Shadows: The Ultimate Insider’s Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War by Robert M. Gates |
| Political History |
| The Cold War: A New History by John Lewis Gaddis |
| A History of the American People by Paul M. Johnson |
| Europe: A History by Norman Davies |
| Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation by Joseph J. Ellies |
| The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister: Three Who Changed the World by John O’Sullivan |
| 1776 by David McCullough |
| Military History |
| The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power by Max Boot |
| The Dynamics of Military Revolution, 1300-2050 by MacGregor Knox and Williamson Murray |
| Learning to Eat Soup with A Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam by John A. Nagl |
|
The General’s War: The Inside Story of Conflict in the Gulf by Michael R. Gordon and Bernard E. Trainor |
| Victory on the Potomac by James R. Locher |
| The Homefront and Defense Industry |
| Arming the Future: A Defense Industry for the 21st Century by Ann R. Markusen and Scott S. Costigan, eds. |
| Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed by Ben R. Rich and Leo James |
| Military Transformation and the Defense Industry After Next by by Peter Dombrowski, Eugene Gholz, and Andrew L. Ross |
| Supplying War: Logistics from Wallenstein to Patton, 2nd ed. |
| Holy War on the Home Front: The Secret Islamis Terror Network in the United States by Harvery Kushner and Bart Davis. |
| Policymaking and Strategy |
| War Footing: Ten Steps American Must Take to Prevail in the War for the Free World by Frank Gaffney, Jr. |
| The Making of Strategy: Rulers, States, and War by Alvin Bernstein, MacGregor Knox and Williamson Murray |
| The Makers of Modern Strategy: From Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age by Peter Paret, Gordon A. Craig, and Felix Gil |
| Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architect’s of America’s Power David J. Rothkopf |
|
Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision Makers by Richard E. Neustadt and Ernest May |
| Threats- Past, Present, and Future |
| Inside Al-Qaeda: Global Network of Terror by Rohan Gunaratna |
| China: The Gathering Threat by Constantine Menges |
| Separated at Birth: How North Korea Became the Evil Twin by Gordon Cucullu |
| Countdown to Crisis: The Coming Nuclear Showdown with Iran by Kenneth R. Timmerman |
| The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB by Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin |
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