In June 1994 the United States went to the brink of war with North Korea. With economic sanctions impending; President Bill Clinton approved the dispatch of substantial reinforcements to Korea; and plans were prepared for attacking the North's nuclear weapons complex. The turning point came in an extraordinary private diplomatic initiative by former President Jimmy Carter and others to reverse the dangerous American course and open the way to a diplomatic settlement of the nuclear crisis. Few Americans know the full details behind this story or perhaps realize the devastating impact it could have had on the nation's post-Cold War foreign policy. In this lively and authoritative book; Leon Sigal offers an inside look at how the Korean nuclear crisis originated; escalated; and was ultimately defused. He begins by exploring a web of intelligence failures by the United States and intransigence within South Korea and the International Atomic Energy Agency. Sigal pays particular attention to an American mindset that prefers coercion to cooperation in dealing with aggressive nations. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with policymakers from the countries involved; he discloses the details of the buildup to confrontation; American refusal to engage in diplomatic give-and-take; the Carter mission; and the diplomatic deal of October 1994. In the post-Cold War era; the United States is less willing and able than before to expend unlimited resources abroad; as a result it will need to act less unilaterally and more in concert with other nations. What will become of an American foreign policy that prefers coercion when conciliation is more likely to serve its national interests? Using the events that nearly led the United States into a second Korean War; Sigal explores the need for policy change when it comes to addressing the challenge of nuclear proliferation and avoiding conflict with nations like Russia; Iran; and Iraq. What the Cuban missile crisis was to fifty years of superpower conflict; the North Korean nuclear crisis is to the coming era.
#882554 in Books Amy Jill Levine 2006-11-05 2006-11-05Ingredients: Example IngredientsOriginal language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.00 x 1.15 x 6.00l; 1.39 #File Name: 0691009929456 pagesThe Historical Jesus in Context
Review
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Once you've read the basics; read thisBy PabloThis review is for non-academics. If you've read the popular books on the historical Jesus; such as those by Ehrman and Fredriksen; and you're OK with reading academic texts as recreation -- which isn't such a stretch if you're into this particular subject -- then don't miss this book.Seriously; if you're genuinely interested in the topic; and you know the groundwork; this book is a perfect next step.Keep in mind; it's not a single book; it's a collection of articles regarding a bunch of specific subtopics; so there's no cohesive take-away or thesis here. But what you'll learn is astonishing; from the results of recent archaeology in 1st century Galilean digs; to descriptions of Jerusalem and the Temple; to what we can learn about the gospels from ancient Greek schoolbooks; how the Aramaic word for "father" was used and what that tells us about Jewish texts; and so forth.There's a lot of low-information baloney about Jesus out there right now. So it's good to see a well-documented book like this being published. I wish there were more like it.10 of 10 people found the following review helpful. An Anthology is an AnthologyBy Old TimerThis is not a stand-alone book. It is avowedly an anthology of new translations of two dozen or so non-canonical texts or textual clusters intended to place the hisotircal Jesus of the Gospel narratives in "their full literary; social; and archaeological contexts." Because of the editorially limited scope; the anthology necessarily doesn't include the whole documentary story. I don't see anything that makes this book more integrated than an anthology of selected sources. Prof. Levine's forty-page introduction to the search for the historical Jesus provides a general historical framework. But each documentary chapter seems to stand on it own. What some readers will want is a parallel textbook tying the anthologized documents to framework. That said; the volume abounds in latent insights to the writings to be discovered and integrated by a diligent reader who brings his own framework to the book.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Facts of Jesus' time in context of all aspects of the life he livedBy Elaine CreadenScholarly and readable research findings and essays on the social and political time frame of his life. Reading this kind of information and learning the influences that impacted the attitudes and behaviors of those in the world around Jesus helps me to move away from the "magic and mystery" that has resulted in so much abuse of what we refer to as religion. I've realized I don't need that to maintain my spirituality.
