Democracy Betrayed: The Rise of the Surveillance Security State - Tapa dura

Praise for Democracy Betrayed

"Keller charts the growth of what he calls "Secure Democracy," a security state with the outward trappings of a free society but one that, since 9/11, has been ever more intrusive and manipulative, especially in the misrepresentation of facts concerning the dangers of terrorism...Keller makes a spirited case for preferring untrammeled freedom to managed and monitored safety."--Kirkus

"This tightly written book [is] a useful reference for a timely topic." --Winnipeg Free Press

"Many Americans believe that they are the beneficiaries, rather than the potential victims, of government surveillance. Those who have nothing to hide, goes the saying, have nothing to fear. In this important book, William Keller shows how naive this view is. The political philosopher Thomas Hobbes observed that the purpose of knowledge is power. And, having acquired vast knowledge about us, our government us in a position to exercise vast power over us." --Benjamin Ginsberg, author of What Washington Gets Wrong and Professor of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University

"For many years now, William W. Keller has been one of the most talented and insightful writers on questions of security and liberty, beginning with his study in the 1980s on J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI. He continues on with this marvelous new work on the rise of Big Brother in the United States. Keller writes smoothly, researches exhaustively, and cares deeply about both the factual and normative dimensions of public policy. The result in Democracy Betrayed is a book worth reading from cover-to-cover, for within its pages reside reliable information on the elusive topic of national security, along with thoughtful prescriptions on how to fight against America's slide toward an ever intrusive surveillance society." --Dr. Loch K. Johnson, author of A Season of Inquiry Revisited: The Church Committee Confronts America's Spy Agencies

Praise for Arm in Arm: Political Economy of the Global Arms Trade

"All the attention given to the proliferation of nuclear weapons has led statesmen to overlook a crucial point: it is the spread of conventional weapons and military technology that is actually undermining international stability today...William Keller has successfully drawn upon his deep knowledge of both economics and technology to reveal and explain the complex pressures leading to the spread of arms. A Washington 'insider, ' his account is highly topical and, indeed, fascinating." --Andrew J. Pierre, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and author of The Global Politics of Arms Sales

"William Keller has delineated with frightening clarity the coming crisis for world order: the accelerating global commerce in arms...This new 'cold war' is potentially more dangerous than the old one since the major governments are themselves promoting the arms trade in the name of market shares. Keller has sounded an important alarm. In candor, he is not confident that government will heed it." --William Greider, National Editor, Rolling Stone

"Keller's book explains why, despite the fact that most American oppose profligate arms exports, they keep on happening...A rational yet passionate tour de force." --Ann Markusen, Rutgers University

"Here is a jeremiad that transcends partisanship, nationalism, internationalism, and pacifism. Keller provides final and definitive validation of Marx's observation that events and personalities in world history repeat themselves--the first time as tragedy, the second as farce." --Theodore J. Lowi, John L. Senior Professor of American Institution, Cornell University

"An important subject, an intelligent book." --Les Gelb, President, Council on Foreign Relations

Praise for The Myth of the Global Corporation

"The activities of multinational corporations now have an important impact on a full range of key public policies. Questions relating to how and where multinationals develop new technologies, how they trade and invest, and how they finance themselves are more important then ever. In our fast-changing world, the national interest can only realistically be conceived and defended if we understand that important differences remain in the way corporations based in the United States, Europe, and Asia operate. This excellent and meticulously researched book explodes many of the myths currently surrounding the word 'globalization.' It is essential reading for business leaders and policymakers alike." --Senator John D. Rockefeller IV

"The Myth of the Global Corporation provides the most authoritative and detailed information available today on the governance, finance, innovation systems, and strategic behavior of today's multinational firms. It demonstrates how deeply embedded U.S., European (mainly German), and Japanese multinationals are in both their national institutional and cultural environments." --Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., Harvard Business School

"This is an important contribution to scholarship on the multinational firm and the subject of international political economy. It will go far to correct the prevalent idea in popular and academic thinking that the multinational corporation has become an autonomous actor in international economic affairs." --Robert Gilpin, Princeton University

"With astonishing naiveté, some analysts and many policymakers have assumed that globalization is homogenizing corporate structures and debilitation the state. The Myth of the Global Corporation demonstrates how false this belief is even in an area, the multinational corporation, where global forces were perceived by some as overwhelming. This book is a major contribution to our empirical and conceptual understanding of the contemporary world." --Stephen D. Krasner, Stanford University

Praise for Hitting First: Preventative Force in U.S. Security Policy

"Hitting First breaks new ground in exposing political and semantic manipulations on the road to war in Iraq, the dumbing-down of threat 'imminence, ' the covering up of internal dissent, skill in pulling certitude from uncertainly, and success in controlling the public case for war. Iran's new prominence as a possible target for American-Israeli first strikes make all this particularly prescient and timely." --Thomas L. Hughes, former Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research

"As an invaluable dissection of the theory and practice of preventive war, this book is an important guide to understanding past misguided uses of preventive force and to asking the right questions before the next time it is used." --Paul R. Pillar, former National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia

"Provides an excellent framework for thoughtful deliberation by policymakers, scholars, and citizens." --Robert Hariman, Northwestern University

"Hitting First locates a principal source of the preventive war against Iraq in the national 'discourse failure' surrounding the decision to go to war--rather than only in the intelligence failure concerning Iraq's WMD and the influence of the neoconservatives." --Seyom Brown, Brandeis University

"A very thoughtful and provocative collection on the U.S. policy of preemption and preventive war, drawing in a wide range of history and legal philosophy, but focused closely on today's events." --George Quester, University of Maryland

A vital and important look at the rise of a security state that is transforming the nature of our democracy

In the aftermath of 9/11, in lockstep withbooming technological advancements, a newand more authoritarian form of governance issupplanting liberal democracy. The creation ofthe Security Industrial Complex — an “internalsecurity state-within-the-state” fueled by techcompanies, private security firms, and the IntelligenceCommunity to the tune of $120 billiona year — is intruding on civil liberties to an unprecedentedextent. Politicians tolerate it; somecitizens welcome it, thinking it may be the wayto keep America safe in a time of uncertaintyand terrorism. But how real is this threat, and isit worth the loss of our individual privacy?

As a society, we have yet to comprehend themeaning of universal digital interconnection, itsimpact on our psychology, and its transformationof our government and society. Americais at a crossroads in contending with a securitygoliath; allowing the beginnings of a police state, and theconversion of our of our “liberal democracy” toa “secure democracy”— one where governmentoverreaches, tramples on civil liberties, and harnessesgreat advancements in technology to spyon the populace. Keller walks us through whatthese changes can mean to our society and, moreimportantly, what we can do to halt our marchtoward intrusive and widespread surveillance.

An urgent wakeup call for a country in crisis,Democracy Betrayed is a timely and deeplyimportant book about the future of America.