John Mueller

Public policies and attitudes toward war are examined to determine why, despite unprecedented arms stockpiles, major war as a policy option among developed nations has been disregarded

Retreat From Doomsday

The Persian Gulf crisis may well have been the most extensively polled episode in U.S. history as President Bush, his opponents, and even Saddam Hussein appealed to, and tried to influence, public opinion. As well documented as this phenomenon was, it remains largely unexplained. John Mueller provides an account of the complex relationship between American policy and public opinion during the Gulf crisis. Mueller analyzes key issues: the actual shallowness of public support for war; the effect of public opinion on the media (rather than the other way around); the use and misuse of polls by policy makers; the American popular focus on Hussein's ouster as a central purpose of the War; and the War's short-lived impact on voting. Of particular interest is Mueller's conclusion that Bush succeeded in leading the country to war by increasingly convincing the public that it was inevitable, rather than right or wise. Throughout, Mueller, author of War, Presidents, and Public Opinion, an analysis of public opinion during the Korean and Vietnam wars, places this analysis of the Gulf crisis in a broad political and military context, making comparisons to wars in Panama, Vietnam, Korea, and the Falklands, as well as to World War II and even the War of 1812. The book also collects nearly 300 tables charting public opinion through the Gulf crisis, making Policy and Opinion in the Gulf War an essential reference for anyone interested in recent American politics, foreign policy, public opinion, and survey research.

Policy and Opinion in the Gulf War

The Obsolescence of Major War

Retreat from Doomsday

This book deals with a variety of issues of history, of national security, and of political economy, and focuses on the need for a dynamic perspective. It emphasizes the development of ideas as the motor forces behind the economic policies.

Peace, Prosperity, And Politics

Mueller argues that war is an idea, like dueling or slavery, that has been substantially discredited, reduced to its remnants--or dregs--and thugs are the residual combatants.

The Remnants of War

John Paul Mueller

Chair of National Security Studies Professor of Political Science John Mueller

Working from the idea that the institution of war is in decline, a fascinating examination of the nature of warfare and its modern face describes the changing global attitudes toward the waging of war, and the implications this has for modern foreign policy.

Mark G. Stewart

In seeking to evaluate the efficacy of post-9/11 homeland security expenses the common query has been, "Are we safer?" This, however, is the wrong question. The correct question is, "Are any gains in security worth the funds expended?" In this engaging, readable book, John Mueller and Mark Stewart apply risk and cost-benefit evaluation techniques to answer this very question. Cataloging the mistakes that the US has made--and continues to make--in managing homeland security programs, Terror, Security, and Money has the potential to redirect our efforts toward a more productive and far more cost-effective course.

Balancing the Risks, Benefits, and Costs of Homeland Security

Terror, Security, and Money

Are We Safe Enough? Measuring and Assessing Aviation Security explains how standard risk analytic and cost-benefit analysis can be applied to aviation security in systematic and easy-to-understand steps. The book evaluates and puts into sensible context the risks associated with air travel, the risk appetite of airlines and regulators and the notion of acceptable risk. It does so by describing the effectiveness, risk reduction and cost of each layer of aviation security, from policing and intelligence to checkpoint passenger screening to arming pilots on the flight deck. Quantifies the risks, costs and benefits of various aviation security methods, including policing, intelligence, PreCheck, checkpoint passenger screening, behavioral detection, air marshals and armed pilots Focuses on security measures that reduce costs without reducing security, including PreCheck, Federal Flight Deck Officer program and Installed Physical Secondary Barriers Features risk-reduction insights with global applications that are fully transparent, and fully explored through sensitivity analysis

Measuring and Assessing Aviation Security

Are We Safe Enough?

B. J. Walsh

Up-to-date for the newest release of Clipper, this book is a comprehensive programmer's reference to using and interfacing Clipper with LANs, Assembly language, C, and other programs. Complete routines and programs demonstrate how to master the commands and functions found in the new version of Clipper. Readers will learn how to directly access Clipper's classes.

The CA-Clipper Interface Handbook

Following 9/11, Americans were swept up in a near hysteria-level fear of terrorists, especially of Islamic extremists working domestically. The government and media reports stoked fears that people living in the US have the desire and means to wreak extreme havoc and destruction. Early reports estimated slightly more than 300 al Qaeda operatives living in the United States. It wasn't long before this number became 2,000 or 5,000 domestic terrorists. As these estimates snowballed, so did spending on federal counterterrorism organizations and measures, spending which now totals over a trillion dollars. The federal government launched more covert operations in the name of fighting terrorist adversaries than they did in the entirety of the forty-five year Cold War. For each apprehension of a credible terrorist suspect, the US government created or re-organized two counterterrorism organizations. The scale of these efforts has been enormous, yet somehow they have not been proven to make Americans feels safe from what they perceive to be a massive terrorist threat. But how well-founded is this fear? Is the threat of terrorism in the United States as vast as it seems and are counterterrorism efforts effective and appropriately-scaled? It has not, statistically speaking, been efficient or successful. Only one alarm in 10,000 has proven to be a legitimate threat-the rest are what the authors refer to as "ghosts." These ghosts are enormous drains on resources and contribute to a countrywide paranoia that has resulted in widespread support and minimal critical questioning of massive expenditures and infringements on civil liberties, including invasions of privacy and questionably legal imprisonments. In Chasing Ghosts, John Mueller and Mark Stewart argue that the "ghost chase" occupying American fears, law enforcement, and federal spending persists because the public believes that there exists in the US a dire and significant threat of terrorism. The authors seek to analyze to what degree this is a true and to what degree the threat posed by terrorists in the US defends the extraordinary costs currently put towards their investigation. The chance that an American will be killed by a terrorist domestically in any given year is about one in four million (under present conditions). Yet despite this statistically low risk and the extraordinary amount of resources put towards combatting threats, Americans do not profess to feel any safer from terrorists. Until the true threat of domestic terrorism is analyzed and understood, the country cannot begin to confront whether our pursuit of ghosts is worth the cost.

Nuclear Alarmism from Hiroshima to Al-Qaeda

Atomic Obsession

Democracy is overrated. Capitalism, on the other hand, doesn't get enough credit. In this provocative and engaging book, John Mueller argues that these mismatches between image and reality create significant political and economic problems--inspiring instability, inefficiency, and widespread cynicism. We would be far better off, he writes, if we recognized that neither system is ideal or disastrous and accepted instead the humdrum truth that both are "pretty good." And, to Mueller, that means good enough. He declares that what is true of Garrison Keillor's fictional store "Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery" is also true of democracy and capitalism: if you can't get what you want there, "you can probably get along without it." Mueller begins by noting that capitalism is commonly thought to celebrate greed and to require discourtesy, deceit, and callousness. However, with examples that range from car dealerships and corporate boardrooms to the shop of an eighteenth-century silk merchant, Mueller shows that capitalism in fact tends to reward behavior that is honest, fair, civil, and compassionate. He argues that this gap between image and reality hampers economic development by encouraging people to behave dishonestly, unfairly, and discourteously to try to get ahead and to neglect the virtuous behavior that is an important source of efficiency and gain. The problem with democracy's image, by contrast, is that our expectations are too high. We are too often led by theorists, reformers, and romantics to believe that democracy should consist of egalitarianism and avid civic participation. In fact, democracy will always be chaotic, unequal, and marked by apathy. It offers reasonable freedom and security, but not political paradise. To idealize democracy, Mueller writes, is to undermine it, since the inevitable contrast with reality creates public cynicism and can hamper democracy's growth and development. Mueller presents these arguments with sophistication, wit, and erudition. He combines mastery of current political and economic literature with references to figures ranging from Plato to P. T. Barnum, from Immanuel Kant to Ronald Reagan, from Shakespeare to Frank Capra. Broad in scope and rich in detail, the book will provoke debate among economists, political scientists, and anyone interested in the problems (or non-problems) of modern democracy and capitalism.

Capitalism, Democracy, and Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery

This innovative argument shows the consequences of increased aversion to international war for foreign and military policy.

American Foreign Policy and the Case for Complacency

The Stupidity of War

Expert author John Mueller provides a complete view of Microsoft's free Web site creation program.

Web Matrix Developer's Guide

Google Brings Data Mining to the People! Virtually everyone sees Google as, hands down, the best online search tool. Now you can use and improve on Google technology in your own applications. Mining Google Web Services teaches you dozens of techniques for tapping the power of the Google API. Google already gives you fine-grained control over your search criteria, and this book shows you how to exert the same control in your own focused search and analysis applications. With just a little knowledge of JavaScript, VBA, Visual Studio 6, Visual Studio .NET, PHP, or Java, you will get better (and more relevant) search results—faster and more easily. Here's a little of what you'll find covered inside: Improving the speed and accuracy of searches Performing data mining across the Internet Using Google Web Services to search a single website Building search applications for mobile devices Using caching techniques to improve application performance and reliability Analyzing Google data Creating searches for users with special needs Discovering new uses for Google Obtaining historical data using cached pages Performing spelling checks on any text Reducing the number of false search hits Whether your goal is to improve your own searches or share specialized search capabilities with others, this is the one resource that will see you through the job from start to finish.

Building Applications with the Google?API

Mining Google?Web Services

Peter Norton

Written by award-winning author Peter Norton, this book provides expert advice using a friendly, hands-on, step-by-step approach. This second edition explains the many benefits of Service Pack 1 and, especially, of OEM Service Release (OSR) 2, with Internet addresses from where to download many of these enhancements for free.

Peter Norton's Complete Guide to Windows 95

Julian Templeman

Explains how COM and COM+ fit into the .NET architecture, covering topics including COM and .NET components, programming, and interoperability.

COM Programming with Microsoft .NET

"War... is merely an idea, an institution, like dueling or slavery, that has been grafted onto human existence. It is not a trick of fate, a thunderbolt from hell, a natural calamity, or a desperate plot contrivance dreamed up by some sadistic puppeteer on high. And it seems to me that the institution is in pronounced decline, abandoned as attitudes toward it have changed, roughly following the pattern by which the ancient and formidable institution of slavery became discredited and then mostly obsolete."—from the Introduction War is one of the great themes of human history and now, John Mueller believes, it is clearly declining. Developed nations have generally abandoned it as a way for conducting their relations with other countries, and most current warfare (though not all) is opportunistic predation waged by packs—often remarkably small ones—of criminals and bullies. Thus, argues Mueller, war has been substantially reduced to its remnants—or dregs—and thugs are the residual combatants. Mueller is sensitive to the policy implications of this view. When developed states commit disciplined troops to peacekeeping, the result is usually a rapid cessation of murderous disorder. The Remnants of War thus reinvigorates our sense of the moral responsibility bound up in peacekeeping. In Mueller's view, capable domestic policing and military forces can also be effective in reestablishing civic order, and the building of competent governments is key to eliminating most of what remains of warfare.

In today's rapidly changing technological world, it is increasingly important that web and desktop applications be accessible to everyone, including those of us with special needs. However, the legal requirements for accessibility are often convoluted and diffucult to understand, making it impossible for most developers to comply with the laws. In the first book on the market to address the topic, Author John Paul Mueller leads you through the maze of Section 508—the congressional law ensuring that all Americans have access to information technology—and offers comprehensive guidance on how to quickly and easily update your applications to conform to Section 508 requirements. To begin, Mueller outlines the Section 508 requirements that are relevant to web and desktop application developers, and explains the laws in language you can understand. Using extensive and varied program examples, Mueller continues on to teach you to write web and desktop applications that not only conform to Section 508 standards, but look forward to ensure long-term universal accessibility for all types of computer users. Specific topics include writing accessible web applications and desktop applications using Visual Basic .NET and Visual C# .NET, developing special application capabilities, using Microsoft and other third-party tools to develop accessible features, developing accessible scripting solutions, and more. The book even includes a directory of helpful organizations, agencies, and resources to help you with any further accessibility concerns you may have.

John Mueller

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