Portside

The rise of ISIS and the U.S. war against ISIS across the Middle East and beyond — which has quickly become a new phase in the George Bush-initiated Global War on Terror (despite the Obama administration's effort to avoid that name...) — has become Washington's new military normal. My new book — the latest in my Middle East primer series — is on both ISIS and the new global war on terror. Like the earlier primers on Palestine and Afghanistan, the new book is written in a Frequently Asked Questions format and addresses topics like "What does ISIS believe?", "Don't we need military force when ISIS is so violent?", "What should the U.S. policy be?", "What should we be doing to get us there?", and more. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the book will be out of date any time soon – with the Turkish escalation, the rising violence, the U.S. insisting on only military action despite admitting "there is no military solution." This war continues.

We launched the book at a great event at Busboys and Poets last week, framed as a conversation with Busboys’ founder and IPS board member Andy Shallal. I also talked about the book, about ISIS, and more with Peter B. Collins on his radio show, and on The Mark Steiner Show we talked about the regional context of ISIS and the on-going war.

Hope you'll find it useful. The best way to get it is to urge your local independent bookstore to order a bunch of copies! If you don't have such a thing in your community (they've become an endangered species...) you can order directly from Interlink Books. And if you think you might be interested in having me come to your community to do a book talk, hopefully linked with the key peace and justice and Palestinian rights groups you're already working with, do get in touch.