The Next Attack: The Failure of the War on Terror and a Strategy for Getting it Right

Benjamin, Daniel and Simon, Steven

ISBN 10: 0805079416 / ISBN 13: 9780805079418

Published by Times Books [Henry Holt and Company], New York, 2005

About this Item

xvii, [1], 330, [4] pages. Notes. Index. Inscription signed by the Dan Benjamin on the half-title page. The inscription reads To Janie--With gratitude for all you're doing to prevent the next attack. All best wishes. Dan. Daniel Benjamin (born October 16, 1961) is an American diplomat and journalist, and was the Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the United States Department of State from 2009 to 2012, appointed by Secretary Clinton. He is Director of the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College. From 1994 to 1999, as a member of President Clinton's staff, Benjamin served as a foreign policy speech writer and special assistant. During that period, he also served on the National Security Council. From 2009 to 2012, Benjamin was the US State Department's Coordinator for counter-terrorism, with the rank of Ambassador-at-Large. The Next Attack received high-praise from Bill Clinton. Steven Simon is a former United States National Security Council senior director for the Middle East and North Africa.[1] He also previously served as the Executive Director IISS-US and Corresponding Director IISS-Middle East [2] and as a Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute based in Washington, D.C.[3] He was Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, at the Council on Foreign Relations. He was a Spring 2008 Berlin Prize Fellow. We are losing. Five years after the September 11 attacks, America finds its strategic position deteriorating in the global war on terror. In The Next Attack, former White House counterterrorism experts Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon show how the terrorist threat has evolved since 9/11 and how America has undermined its own goals through our failure to understand the jihadists' ideology. Our actions have confirmed Osama bin Laden's message in the eyes of disaffected Muslims in the Middle East, Europe. Benjamin and Simon argue that America needs a far-reaching and creative new strategy in combating Islamic radicalism, one that sets realistic priorities for homeland security. We ignore this warning at our peril. Derived from a Publishers Weekly article: The chilling first words, "We are losing," capture the tone of this scathing evaluation of the Bush administration's responses to the September 11 attacks. Benjamin, a Center for Strategic and International Studies senior fellow, and Simon, an instructor at Georgetown University, authors of the award-winning Age of Sacred Terror: Radical Islam's War Against America, do not mince words; America's foreign policy vis-a-vis the Muslim world is bankrupt and has "cleared the way for the next attack-and those that will come after." By invading Iraq, the authors argue, the U.S. demonstrated a profound misunderstanding of the scope of the threat posed by al Qaeda and other jihadist groups, and has turned Iraq into a "country-sized training ground" for terrorists. The authors also explore terror's philosophical roots, analyzing how salafism, a strain of Islamic fundamentalism, dominates jihadist beliefs, as well as how the Internet helps facilitate global dissemination of its tenets, strategies and tactics. The authors' remedies for this state of affairs include fostering an understanding that independent cell-based terrorist units, not state sponsors, are the backbone of the movement; dispensing with reflexive use of military solutions; improving links with foreign intelligence and law enforcement agencies; and recognizing the limitations of democracy in solving developing nations' problems. It is a sobering analysis of compromised American security. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated].

Seller Inventory # 85910

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Next Attack: The Failure of the War on Terror and a Strategy for Getting it Right
• Publisher: Times Books [Henry Holt and Company], New York
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0805079416
• ISBN 13: 9780805079418
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very good
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Terrorism
  • Insurgency
  • CIA

About this title

Synopsis

The authors of the bestseller The Age of Sacred Terror show how the United States is losing the war on terror and what we need to do if we're serious about winning it.

We are losing. Four years and two wars after September 11, 2001, the United States is no closer to victory in the "war on terror." In fact, we are unwittingly clearing the way for the next attack.

In this provocative new book, Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon show how the terrorist threat is evolving, with a broadening array of tactics, an army of new fighters and, most ominously, a widening base of support in the global Muslim community. The jihadist movement has been galvanized by the example of 9/11 and the missteps of the U.S. government, which has consistently failed to understand the nature of the new terror. Left on this trajectory, much worse faces us in the near future.

It doesn't have to be this way. The Next Attack makes the case that America has the capacity to stem the tide of Islamic terrorism, but Benjamin and Simon caution that this will require a far-reaching and creative new strategy, one that recognizes that the struggle has been over-militarized and that a campaign for reform must be more than rhetoric and less than bayonets. And they point out how America's increasing tendency to frame the conflict in religious terms has undermined our ability to advance our interests.
Is America is truly equipped to do what is necessary to combat Islamist terrorism, or are we too blinded by our own ideology? The answer to that question will determine how secure we will truly be, in the years and decades to come.

About the Author

DANIEL BENJAMIN is a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He previously served as director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council staff and as special assistant and foreign-policy speechwriter for President Clinton. He is a former Berlin bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal and foreign correspondent for Time. He is a graduate of Harvard and Oxford universities.

STEVEN SIMON teaches at Georgetown University, having previously been assistant director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. He served on the National Security Council staff for five years following a career at the U.S. Department of State in Middle Eastern security affairs. He holds degrees from Columbia, Harvard, and Princeton and was an international affairs fellow at Oxford.