A Devil's Triangle: Terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and Rogue States

Brookes (national security affairs, Heritage Foundation) provides an overview of the tripartite security threat he believes threatens the United States: terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, and rogue states. He essentially surveys the more pessimistic scenarios concerning these three threats and their interrelationships, employing a somewhat more sober tone in the actual text than in such chapter titles as "Iran: Mullahs of Mayhem" but also repeating some accusations that other regional experts have found unbelievable, such as the idea that Al Qaeda has a relationship to Iran. Annotation c2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Peter Brookes is a senior fellow for National Security Affairs and Director of the Asian Studies Center at the Heritage Foundation. He also has a weekly column on foreign policy and defense issues for the New York Post. He has served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Affairs in the Office of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and was a Republican staffer on the House Committee on International Relations. Brookes also served as an Intelligence Officer with the CIAOs Directorate of Operations and worked on international economic issues for the State Department at the United Nations. His military background included active duty in Iraq/Kuwait (Desert Storm); Haiti (Restore Democracy); and Bosnia (Joint Endeavor). He flew reconnaissance missions in East Asia and the Persian Gulf while stationed in Japan covering military matters related to the Soviet Union, North Korea, China, Vietnam, Iran, and Iraq. While serving in Panama, he worked Latin American and Caribbean counter-narcotics and issues related to insurgencies/counter-insurgencies in Nicaragua and El Salvador. Brookes is also a Commander in the Naval Reserves and is assigned to the Defense Intelligence Agency where he serves as an Associated Professor in the Masters-level Postgraduate Intelligence Program at the Joint Military Intelligence College. He has also performed reserve assignments as a staff officer, defense attachZ, intelligence analyst and collector, and interpreter/translator with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, unified and specified commands, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Office of Naval Intelligence, the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Office of the Vice President and in support of the National Security Council. His military decorations include: the Joint Service Commendation Medal; the Navy Commendation Medal; the Navy Achievement Medal; several naval and joint unit awards; the Defense Language InstituteOs Kellogg Award; the Joint Chiefs of Staff service badge; and Naval Aviation Observer wings. Brookes is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy; the Defense Language Institute; the Naval War College; Georgetown University; and the Johns Hopkins University. In January 2006 he was named to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.