Riviere, More Magazines

I read Dogme de la redemption, by Jean Riviere since my last post. I also read an issue of Eclectic Reading, The National Examiner, Mother Jones, The Economist, The New Scientist, Men's Journal, and The New Yorker. I'm getting used to bifocals, so I'm a little slower than usual.

Mags, professional readings, Brottman, Mallarme, Cocteau, Nerval, Rashid, Leon, Whale.

I have read two issues of The New Yorker, two issues of OK Magazine, two issues of The New Scientist, an issue of Vanity Fair, an issue of Eclectic Reading, and an issue of The Utne Reader since my last post. I also read the complete works of the French poet, Stephane Mallarme -- I should have spared myself the trouble, he is known for the earliest modern poem extant, and not much else, I would say -- Jean Cocteau --wonderfully lyrical in places, and capable of being completely outside the box-- and Gerard de Nerval, famous for his mental illness and suicide more than anything. I read his works with ease, but I was not transfixed by his significance. I also read Descent into Chaos, by Ahmed Rashid about Pakistan post-9/11, The Atonement by Morris Leon, Victor and Victim by John Whale, all works of soteriology, and The Solitary Vice, a diatribe by Mikita Brottman against reading which I thought was pretty much sophistry.

For professional reasons, and after a trip to a fabulous library, I read the following:

Altman, Israel Elad. Strategies of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement 1928-2007. New York: Hudson Institute, 2009.

Art, Robert J. and Louise Richardson, ed. Democracy and Counterterrorism/Lessons from the Past. Washington: United States Institute for Peace, 2007.

Averett, Christian M., Louis A. Cervantes, and Patrick M. O’Hara. An Analysis Of Special Operations Command – South’s Distributive Command And Control Concept. Monterey: Naval Postgraduate School, 2007.

Benjamin, Daniel and Steven Simon. The Next Attack/ The Failure of the War on Terror and a Strategy for Getting It Right. New York: Holt, 2005.

Benner, Steven M. Evolution Of Maritime Strategy…Is Sea Power 21 The Answer? Carlisle Barracks: US Army War College, 3 May 2004.

Cabanas, Kevin A. Organizing SOCOM for Cross Functional and Geographic Area Operations in the Global War on Terrorism. Newport: Naval War College, 2005.

Canonico. Peter. An Alternate Military Strategy For The War On Terrorism. Monterey: Naval Postgraduate School, December 2004.

Casebeer, William D. Military Force And Culture Change: Systems, Narratives, And The Social Transmission Of Behavior In Counter-Terrorism Strategy. Monterey: Naval Postgraduate School, 2006.

Casebeer, William D. and James A. Russell. “Storytelling and Terrorism: Towards a Comprehensive 'Counter-Narrative Strategy,'” Strategic Insights IV:3 (March 2005), 1-16.

Chambliss, John G. An Assessment Of The United States National

Security Strategy For Combating Terrorism. Carlisle Barracks: US Army War College, 3 May 2004.

Chicky, Jon E. A Military Strategy For Central Asia. Carlisle Barracks: US Army war College, 3 May 2004.

Courtney, Hugh, Jane Kirkland and Patrick Viguerie. “Strategy Under Uncertainty,” in Strategy and Force Planning (Newport: Naval War College, 2000), 37-40.

Dennison, Thomas. Making Innovation Work/From Strategy to Practice. Conference Board Research Report R-1348-04-RR, 2004.

Ellis, James O. Terrorism: What’s Coming/The Mutating Threat. Washington: Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, 2007.

Etzioni, Amitai. “A National Security Strategy for the Next Administration,” Military Review (Sep 2008) 99-105.

Fish, Joanne M., Samuel J. McCraw and Christopher J. Reddish. Fighting In The Gray Zone: A Strategy To Close The Preemption Gap. Washington: Strategic Studies Institute, 2004, 39 p.

Gonnella, Joseph. Terrorism Prevention: How Does Special Operations Fit In? Fort Leavenworth: U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, 2005.

Habeck, Mary. “Jihadist Strategies in the War on Terrorism,” Heritage Foundation: Heritage Lectures no. 855, November 2004, 5 pages.

Hanley, Brian. Planning for Conflict in the Twenty-First Century. Westport: Praeger, 2008.

Hastings, Michael D. The Integration Of Conventional Forces And Special Operations Forces. Fort Leavenworth: U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, 2005

Heymann, Philip B. and Juliette N. Kayyem. Protecting Liberty in an Age of Terror. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2005.

Hoge, James F. and Gideon Rose, eds. Understanding the War on Terror. Washington: Foreign Affairs, 2005.

Homeland Security Institute. National Cargo Security Strategy White Paper. http://www.homelandsecurity.org/bulletin/White_Paper_12-09-04_ver__1_8.pdf, 2004.

James, Michael E. Special Operations: Achieving Unified Direction in the Global War on Terrorism. Fort Leavenworth: United States Army Command and General Staff College, 2006.

Kunreuther, Howard, Robert Meyer and Erwann Michel-Kerjan. “ Strategies for Better Protection against Catastrophic Risks.” Risk Management and Decision Processes Center, The Wharton Working Paper # 2007-09-14, September 2007.

Liotta, P.H. “A Strategy of Chaos,” in Strategy and Force Planning (Newport: Naval War College, 2000), 598-611.

Liller, Otto K. Special Operations Forces and Foreign Internal Defense:

An Effective Counterterrorism Method. Newport: Naval War College, 2005.

Lum, Cynthia, Leslie W. Kennedy and Alison J. Sherley. The Effectiveness Of Counter-Terrorism Strategies/ A Campbell Systematic Review. Newark: Rutgers University, 2006.

Maine Emergency Management Agency. State Of Maine Statewide Homeland Security Strategy Goals and Objectives Matrix. http://www.maine.gov/tools/whatsnew/attach.php?id=23095&an=1 January 2006.

Malik, Irfan Ahmed. Islam, Terrorism, And The Strategy Of Enlightened Moderation. Fort Leavenworth: U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, 2005

Malloy, Martin L. The U.S. Coast Guard’s Ports, Waterways And Coastal Security Strategy Deployment Plan: An Operational Design For Maritime Homeland Security. Newport: Naval War College, 09 February 2004

McDonough, William. “Time for a New Strategy.” Parameters (Autumn 2008), 109-119.McFadyen, Thomas. An Effects-based Approach to Global Special Operations. Newport: Naval War College, 2006,

Mead, Water Russell. Power, Terror, Peace and War / America’s Grand Strategy in a World at Risk. New York: Knopf, 2005.

Millar, Alistair and Eric Rosand. Allied Against Terrorism: What/s Needed to Stregthen Worldwide Commitment. Washington: Century Foundation, 2006.

Mintzberg, Henry, Bruce Alhstrand and Joseph Lampel, ed. Strategy Bites Back. New York: Prentice Hall, 2005.

Nawaz, Raja Rab. Maritime Strategy in Pakistan. Monterey: Naval Postgraduate School, December 2004.

Newell, Thomas Jr. The Use Of Special Operations Forces In Combating Terrorist Financing. Monterey: Naval Postgraduate School, 2006.

Newman, Robert B. Applying The ‘Forward Strategy Of Freedom’ To Tunisia: A Case Study In The Global War On Terrorism. Carlisle Barracks: US War College, 3 May 2004.

Norwitz, Jeffrey H. ed. Armed Groups/Studies in Naitonal Security, Counterterrorism and Counterinsurgency. Newport: Naval War College, 2008.

O’Quinn, Charles R.V. An Invisible Scalpel: Low-Visibility Operations In The War On Terror. Fort Leavenworth: US Army Command and General Staff College, 2006.

Owens, Mackubin Thomas. “Thinking About Strategy,” in Strategy and Force Planning (Newport: Naval War College, 2000), 426-434.

Reed, Donald J. “Why Strategy Matters in the War on Terror,” Homeland Security Affairs II:3 (October 2006), 1-24.

Rogers, Larry B. On The U.S. National Security Strategy. Washington: Strategic Studies Institute, 2004, 20 p.

Rosenthal, Uriel and Ermwin R. Muller. The Evil of Terrorism/ Diagnosis and Countermeasures. Springfield: Thomas, 2007.

Salmoni, Barak A. and Paula Holmes-Eber. Operational Culture for the Warfighter. Quantico: Marine Corps University Press, 2008.

Schliep, Randy. A Time To Kill: When Is Leadership Targeting

An Effective Counterterrorism Strategy. Monterey: Naval Postgraduate School, 2007.

Shaffer, Donald L. Unraveling Al Qaeda’s Strategy. Norfolk: Joint Forces Staff College, Joint Advanced Warfighting School, 2005.

Slater, Michael D. An Analysis Of Australia’s National Strategy In The War Against Terror. Carlisle Barracks: US Army War College, 3 May 2004.

Smith, Jerry D. The Effectiveness Of Israel’s Counterterrorism Strategy. Monterey: Naval Postgraduate School, 2005.

Sorensen, Ian. Using The National Strategy For Combating Terrorism To Determine Objectives And End States For Operation Iraqi Freedom. Carlisle Barracks: US Army War College, 3 May 2004.

Sullivan, Michael K. How To Win And Know It: An Effects-Based Approach To Irregular Warfare. Monterey: Naval Postgraduate School, 2007.

Tucker, David and Christopher J. Lamb. “Restructuring Special Operations

Forces for Emerging Threats,” Strategic Forum 219 (Jan 2006), 1-6.

UK Government. The United Kingdom’s Strategy for Countering International Terrorism. London: Houses of Parliament, 2009.

UK Government. Countering International Terrorism: The United Kingdom’s

Strategy. London: Houses of Parliament, 2006.

US Government. The National Counterintelligence Strategy of the United States of America. Washington: Directorate of National Intelligence, 2006, 13 p.

US Government. National Strategy for Combating Terrorism. Washington: Office of the President of the United States, September 2006, 29 pages.

United States Government Accountability Office. Special Operations Forces Several Human Capital Challenges Must Be Addressed To Meet Expanded Role. Washington: Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, Committee on Government Reform, House of Representatives, 2006.

United States Government Department of Defense. Strategy for Homeland Defense and Civil Support. Washington, 2005.

United States Government Federal Emergency Management Agency. Continuity of Operations (COOP) Multi-Year Strategy and Program Management Plan Template Guide s.d.

Vickers, Michael. Socom’s Missions And Roles. Washington: United States House Of Representatives, Committee On Armed Services Subcommittee On Terrorism, Unconventional Threats And Capabilities, 2006.

Wahlert, Thomas D. U.S. National Security Strategy - The Magnitude Of Second And Third-Order Effects On Smaller Nations: The Cases Of Lebanon During The Cold War And Pakistan During The Global War On Terrorism. Carlisle Barracks: US Army War College, 3 May 2004.

Paul, Fuss, Birnbaum, Shinsu Seiten

So I've read Women and Buddhism by Diana Paul, Michael Fuss's Buddhacavana and Dei Verbum, the Shinsu Seiten, the sacred texts of a sect of Buddhism, and Birnbaum's Healing Buddha. I was most interested by Fuss, and I learned a good deal about the authorship and interpolations of the Lotus sutra. Otherwise, I was not absorbed, although I found the foray into sexism by Paul to be interesting. I have an Esquire issue to read, along with some long neglected books on special forces and the conflicts in the Middle East.

Farmelo, Roberts, Lamotte, Howard, Hughes, France, Ahamed

I read a biography of an important physicist, Farmelo's The Strangest Man, i.e. Paul Dignac. What I noticed the most was how people snickered behind his back when, as an old man, he was passed by by developments, even though to his face, he was still the guy who won a Nobel Prize in his early 30s. Then I read Roberts' Masters and Commanders, about the quartet of PM, President and respective generals, and all the turmoil of their various decisions during World War II. They did some great things and did it the hard way. It also sounds like war was run by committee, always a problem. Then I read Lamotte's translation of L'enseignement de Vilamakirti, a Buddhist text. There were some interesting thoughts about human nature, I think. I also read Angela Howard's Imagery of the Cosmological Buddha, a detailed deciphering of the etchings on an ancient, damaged statue of Buddha in Washington's Freer Gallery. She refers repeated to a number of other representations of Buddha which astoundingly, I had seen. Wow. I read Atonement by Hughes, a disappointment since it only covers theologians from the UK over a couple of decades. I finished reading Lords of Finance by Ahamed this morning. I also really did read the 10th volume of the complete works of Anatole France. I was charmed by the nostalgic novel Pierre Nozieres, which gave me an idea what it was like to grow up in France's Second Empire. I am now reading Perrottet's Napoleon's Privates, about the quirky and the obscene in historical figures.

Colette 1st 5, Beam, Kloetzli, Best

I read the first five volumes of Colette yesterday. I also read another volume of Anatole France -- the 9th. Then I went to collect my numerous interlibrary loans, and I read three of them before an evening meeting with a director. I read A Good Idea at the Time, by Alex Beam, a book about the Great Books clubs and publications in the US in the 40s and 50s; The Temptation and The Passion, by Ernest Best; and Kloetzli's Buddhist Cosmology.

Colette, France, Moyd, Paffenroth, Sgam, Kaiser, Waugh, Rahimi

I read a lot of books today. First, I finished two novels by Anatole France, the 10th volume of 25 I'm reading. Then I read a book about a very rich lobbyist in Washington, called So Damn Much Money. This was an easy read. Then I read an interesting book on Black theology, called Redemption in Black Theology, by Olin Moyd. This book struck me primarily by the rhythm of its writing, which I can only call preacherly. The author is both a theologian and a pastor. I hadn't thought before that prose could be so markedly influenced by oral characteristics. I then read a jewel of a book by Kim Paffenroth, The Heart Set Free. This book was the one where I read about the parallel between the mystical impulse, mysterious, instinctive, innate, and the sexual one, also mysterious, instinctive, innate. I was very glad to have read it. I then read a classic of Tibetan Buddhism, The Jewel Ornament of Liberation by Sgam.po.pa. This taught me primarily that a translator can consider such a work accessible, whereas it is quite obscure to the uninitiated, like me. I also was put in mind of Catholic systematic theology, reading the nomenclatures, etc.I also read Neyrey's Passion According to Luke, where the main thing I learned was that there was a parallel in structure between Luke and Acts.

After watching a new version of Brideshead Revisited, I read the novel, because I didn't find that the characters behaved in a way I understood. The novel is a little different, of course, from the film, but I think it's message is much plainer, about sin and redemption. Waugh, of course, famously converted to Catholicism. I also read last night Synge Sabour, a novel about a Muslim woman waiting for help from heaven, and not getting it, by Itaq Rahimi.

Now I'm reading the complete works of Colette.

I also read an issue of The New Yorker yesterday, as well as an issue of The New Scientist.

Anatole France, Larose, Saint-Denys Garneau, Oueffelec, Aventin

Since my last post, I've read an issue of The Economist and an issue of OK Magazine. I think I forgot to mention that last week end, I also read Hello Canada and The National Examiner. Wonder why reporting the trash I read slipped my mind.

Being the start of the month, I got my usual eclectic set of of gift books in French from my non-French-speaking partner. I read the four in one shot. The first was the poetry of Saint-Denys Garneau, whose life I knew nothing about. It was very side and a bit oblique --- possibly Saint-Denys Garneau had mental illness, or was gay and it was treated as mental illness. Can't tell from the introductory essay. Then I read La menace, about racism in France, by an author I had read before, Oueffelec, but of whose novel I remembered nothing. This was a novella, and I didn't think it was earthshaking either. Then I read a collection of pieces by Jean Larose, a professor of literature at Montreal. There are short plays, essays, dialogues, etc. This was clearly intended as a textbook, but without an introduction, I couldn't tell why he chose the pieces or the forms he did. Finally, there was a novel purportedly written by s 15-year-old, Le coeur en poche, about, you guessed it, a fifteen-year-old who knows all about prostitution. I think some publisher got taken for a ride on this one, well ahead of the spate of discovered authorial identity frauds of the last few years.

I also read the first volume of the complete works of Anatole France.

Boileau

So I spent yesterday reading his complete works, and, as with LaRochefoucauld, I was a little disappointed. The truism about Boileau is that he was a second-rank writer, but I don't think it's about quality, I think it's about the type of output. He didn't write any real books -- he wrote poetry, he wrote short plays, he wrote reviews, he wrote letters, but even his books are collections of short pieces.

Well, chalk it up to experience. For now, I must content myself with Anatole France. In 25 volumes.

LaRochefoucauld, Sutras

Since my last post, I've read the complete works of La Rochefoucauld. What an unusual pastime, to write aphorisms, and I suppose his are among the greatest in French. But it's still quite an unusual read. I guess I should read Schopenhauer next. I also read two books of Buddhist sutras in translation -- the Lotus Sutra, and the short and long Land of Bliss sutras. This last translation is remarkable because the sutras are translated from both the Chinese and the Sanskrit by the same translator, Luis Gomes. How learned can you get...I found I didn't have the right background to really appreciate them, as I do, say, the Bible. Now I'm reading a book on Early Chinese Mysticism, by Livia Kohn. It's much more easy for me to follow. And on my nighttable? The first two of 25 volumes of the complete works of Anatole France.