{"title":"VBL AD June 2026 - Current Affairs International","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"the-un-and-counter-terrorism","title":"THE UN AND COUNTER-TERRORISM","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis book traces the evolution of the UN Security Council’s actions against terrorism and extremism.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe work examines the progression of the UN Security Council’s fight against international terrorism and its development of practices to prevent radicalisation and extremism. It also looks at the consequences of these processes and how they have deeply moulded global counter-terrorism. The book looks at the discursive construction of a global threat and tracks how this construction evolved in relation to the Council’s establishment of legal practices and bodies, and by its Members’ discourses. It argues that the very specific definition the Council provided on international terrorism in the 2000s is profoundly shaped by global hegemonies, relations of power shaping the international community, and its own identity. To demonstrate this, it offers a long genealogical perspective of the structure of the UN since the 1930s and then focuses specifically on the developments taking place in the 2000s. The book thus looks at the Security Council’s fight against international terrorism as a global, globalised, and globalising enterprise.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis book will be of much interest to students of critical terrorism studies, security studies, global governance, and International Relations.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vanguard Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42609606787108,"sku":"9780367564216","price":46520.0,"currency_code":"PKR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0739\/4823\/3764\/files\/9780367564216.jpg?v=1757581574"},{"product_id":"political-and-military-leadership-in-the-world-wars","title":"POLITICAL AND MILITARY LEADERSHIP IN THE WORLD WARS","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis book approaches the World Wars and the decades between them as a single unit in modern history. It is impossible to understand either the cause or conduct of the 1939–45 war without an appreciation of the issues not wholly answered in the conflict of 1914–18. Bridging the World Wars was the establishment, revision, and ultimate collapse of the Versailles settlement and the League of Nations system between 1919 and 1939. The 1919 settlement was contested in the 1920s by Fascist Italy and began to unravel irreparably in 1931 with Japan’s incursion into Manchuria. The strategic thought of the interwar years is therefore especially instructive in assessing the prosecution of WWII, as the military ventures of these two revisionist powers pointed toward future developments even before Germany thrust a new way of war upon Eastern and Western Europe. Meanwhile, Britain, France, and the United States began an incremental conversion to new approaches to war in the air and on the sea in particular. The interwar decades are best understood as a period of calibrated rearmament by all the powers based on assumptions about the probability of a future war and the nature of its prosecution.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vanguard Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42609609408548,"sku":null,"price":46520.0,"currency_code":"PKR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0739\/4823\/3764\/files\/9780367720995.jpg?v=1757581679"},{"product_id":"victims-and-perpetrators-of-terrorism","title":"VICTIMS AND PERPETRATORS OF TERRORISM","description":"","brand":"Vanguard Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42610121506852,"sku":"9781138739550","price":40709.0,"currency_code":"PKR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0739\/4823\/3764\/files\/9781138739550.jpg?v=1757591419"},{"product_id":"enemies-known-and-unknown","title":"ENEMIES KNOWN AND UNKNOWN","description":"","brand":"Vanguard Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42613179940900,"sku":null,"price":7009.0,"currency_code":"PKR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0739\/4823\/3764\/files\/9781849046442.jpg?v=1757657062"},{"product_id":"the-power-of-creative-destruction","title":"THE POWER OF CREATIVE DESTRUCTION","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eHayek Book Prize Finalist\u003cbr\u003eAn \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eEconomist\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e Best Book of the Year\u003cbr\u003eA \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eForeign Affairs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e Best Book of the Year\u003cbr\u003eA \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e Summer Reading Favorite\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Sweeping, authoritative and―for the times―strikingly upbeat…The overall argument is compelling and…it carries a trace of Schumpeterian subversion.”\u003cbr\u003e―\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Economist\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[An] important book…Lucid, empirically grounded, wide-ranging, and well-argued.”\u003cbr\u003e―Martin Wolf, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eFinancial Times\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Offers…much needed insight into the sources of economic growth and the kinds of policies that will promote it…All in Washington would do well to read this volume carefully.”\u003cbr\u003e―Milton Ezrati, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eForbes\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eInequality is on the rise, growth stagnant, the environment in crisis. Covid seems to have exposed every crack in the system. We hear calls for radical change, but the answer is not to junk our economic system but to create a better form of capitalism.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn ambitious reappraisal of the foundations of economic success that shows a fair and prosperous future is ours to make, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Power of Creative Destruction\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e draws on cutting-edge theory and hard evidence to examine today’s most fundamental economic questions: what powers growth, competition, globalization, and middle-income traps; the roots of inequality and climate change; the impact of technology; and how to recover from economic shocks. We owe our modern standard of living to innovations enabled by free-market capitalism, it argues, but we also need state intervention―with checks and balances―to foster economic creativity, manage social disruption, and ensure that yesterday’s superstar innovators don’t pull the ladder up after them.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vanguard Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43072209059876,"sku":null,"price":5530.0,"currency_code":"PKR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0739\/4823\/3764\/files\/9780674292093.jpg?v=1765965039"},{"product_id":"the-mission","title":"THE MISSION","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e'No one has opened up the CIA to us like Weiner has, and The Mission deserves to win him a second Pulitzer'\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJOHN SIMPSON, GUARDIAN\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eThe epic successor to Tim Weiner’s National Book Award-winning classic, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eLegacy of Ashes\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e: a gripping and revelatory history of the CIA in the 21st century, reaching from 9\/11 through the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to today’s battles with Russia and China – and with the President of the United States.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAt the turn of the century, the Central Intelligence Agency was in crisis. The end of the Cold War had robbed the agency of its mission. More than thirty overseas stations and bases had been shuttered, and scores that remained had been severely cut back. Many countries where surveillance was once deemed crucial went uncovered. Essential intelligence wasn’t being collected. At the dawn of the information age, the CIA’s officers and analysts worked with outmoded technology, struggling to distinguish the clear signals of significant facts from the cacophony of background noise.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThen came September 11th, 2001. After the attacks, the CIA transformed itself into a lethal paramilitary force, running secret prisons and brutal interrogations, mounting deadly drone attacks, and all but abandoning its core missions of espionage and counterespionage. The consequences were grave: the deaths of scores of its recruited foreign agents, the theft of its personnel files by Chinese spies, the penetration of its computer networks by Russian intelligence and American hackers, and the tragedies of Afghanistan and Iraq. A new generation of spies now must fight the hardest targets – Moscow, Beijing, Tehran – while confronting a president who has attacked the CIA as a subversive force.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFrom Pulitzer Prize winner Tim Weiner,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003e The Mission\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e tells the gripping, high-stakes story of the CIA through the first quarter of the twenty-first century, revealing how the agency fought to rebuild the espionage powers it lost during the war on terror – and finally succeeded in penetrating the Kremlin. The struggle has life-and-death consequences for America and its allies. The CIA must reclaim its original mission: know thy enemies. The fate of the free world hangs in the balance.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA masterpiece of reporting, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Mission\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e includes exclusive on-the-record interviews with six former CIA directors, thirteen station chiefs, and scores of top spies who served undercover for decades and have never spoken to a journalist before.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vanguard Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43078638698532,"sku":null,"price":4045.0,"currency_code":"PKR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0739\/4823\/3764\/files\/9780008606602.jpg?v=1766129462"},{"product_id":"to-lose-a-war","title":"TO LOSE A WAR","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eNamed a Best Book of the Year by\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A book that is as deeply humane and profoundly rendered as any I’ve read about Afghanistan, or any other war.” —Elliot Ackerman,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom one of the great foreign correspondents of our time, author of some of the most essential reporting from Afghanistan from before 9\/11 to the return of the Taliban to power in 2021, the first full accounting of that entire era, combining previously published dispatches and new reporting into a single epic tapestry\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJon Lee Anderson first reported from Afghanistan in the late 1980s, covering the US-backed mujahideen’s insurrection against the Soviet-backed regime in Kabul. Within days of the 9\/11 attacks, he was again on the ground as an early eyewitness to the new war launched by the US against the Taliban and their Al Qaeda allies. His reportage from the first year of the war won a number of awards and was published in book form as \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Lion’s Grave: Dispatches from Afghanistan\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. At the time, the American military had prevailed on the battlefield, and the newfound peace seemed to offer a precious space for Afghan society to restore itself and to forge a democratic future. But all was not well: Osama bin Laden was still in hiding, the Taliban were stealthily reorganizing for a comeback, and the United States was about to turn its attention to Iraq.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eTo Lose a War\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e collects Anderson’s writing from Afghanistan over a near-quarter-century span. Containing the stories from \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eThe Lion’s Grave\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e and all of those he published since, as well as important writing appearing here for the first time, the book offers a chronological account of a monumental tragedy as it unfolds. The colossal waste, missed signals, and wishful thinking that characterized the twenty-year arc of the US-led war in Afghanistan have consecrated it as one of the greatest foreign policy failures of the modern era, and a bellwether of a larger American imperial decline.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vanguard Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43145138470948,"sku":null,"price":5125.0,"currency_code":"PKR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0739\/4823\/3764\/files\/9780593493090.webp?v=1767869080"},{"product_id":"for-the-sun-after-long-nights-the-story-of-irans-women-led-uprising","title":"FOR THE SUN AFTER LONG NIGHTS: THE STORY OF IRAN'S WOMEN-LED UPRISING","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eLONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD • A moving exploration of the 2022 women-led protests in Iran, as told through the interwoven stories of two Iranian journalists\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Unlike anything I’ve read . . . A searing, courageous, and ultimately beautiful book filled with the spirit of the movement that it covers.” —Ben Rhodes, author of\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eThe World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn September 2022, a young Kurdish woman, Mahsa Jîna Amini, died after being beaten by police officers who arrested her for not adhering to the Islamic Republic’s dress code. Her death galvanized thousands of Iranians—mostly women—who took to the streets in one of the country’s largest uprisings in decades: the Woman, Life, Freedom movement.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDespite the threat of imprisonment or death for her work as a journalist covering political unrest, state repression, and grassroots activism in Iran—which has led to multiple interrogation sessions and arrests—Fatemeh Jamalpour joined the throngs of people fighting to topple Iran’s religious extremist regime. And across the globe, Nilo Tabrizy, who emigrated from Iran with her family as a child, covered the protests and state violence, knowing that spotlighting the women on the front lines and the systemic injustice of the Iranian government meant she would not be able to safely return to Iran in the future.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThough they had met only once in person, Nilo and Fatemeh corresponded constantly, often through encrypted platforms to protect Fatemeh. As the protests continued to unfold, the sense of sisterhood they shared led them to embark on an effort to document the spirit and legacy of the movement, and the history, geopolitics, and influences that led to this point. At once deeply personal and assiduously reported, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eFor the Sun After Long Nights\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e offers two perspectives on what it means to cover the stories that are closest to one’s heart—both in the forefront and from afar.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vanguard Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43145165471780,"sku":null,"price":5305.0,"currency_code":"PKR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0739\/4823\/3764\/files\/9780593701447.jpg?v=1767872774"},{"product_id":"irans-rise-and-rivalry-with-the-us-in-the-middle-east","title":"IRAN'S RISE AND RIVALRY WITH THE US IN THE MIDDLE EAST","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe 1979 Islamic Revolution triggered a cold war between Iran and the United States – former fast friends. Despite the US’s relentless efforts at containment, Iran has risen as a formidable power in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and Gaza. Its newfound status not only frustrates the US but has swiftly become a thorn in the side of Israel and Saudi Arabia. How did Iran rise so rapidly? And as it faces ever increasing pressure at home and abroad, can it hold onto its power? Mohsen Milani guides us through the twists and turns of the Iran–US rivalry in the battlefields of the Middle East. Going from the fall of the Shah to revolutionary Iran’s alliances with Syria, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iraqi militias, and the Houthis in the Axis of Resistance, Milani lifts the veil on Iran’s foreign policy strategy and its implications for the region, the US and Iran itself.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vanguard Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43161302761508,"sku":null,"price":8995.0,"currency_code":"PKR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0739\/4823\/3764\/files\/9780861548422.jpg?v=1768390788"},{"product_id":"the-middle-east-crisis-a-global-flashpoint","title":"THE MIDDLE EAST CRISIS: A GLOBAL FLASHPOINT","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Middle East Crisis: A Global Flashpoint provides a comprehensive overview of the Palestine question, tracing its origins to the 1948 creation of Israel and the displacement of over 700,000 Palestinians. It examines the evolution of the Arab-Israel conflict, focusing on the rise of Fatah and Hamas and their sustained struggle for the Palestinian “right of return” from 1948 to 2022. The narrative moves through successive Intifadas and culminates in the events of October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and Israel responded with a devastating assault on Gaza. The analysis highlights how these developments reshaped global public opinion and led several UN member states, including key Western countries, to recognize the State of Palestine. The book also offers brief comparative insights into the Kashmir crisis and concludes with an assessment of possible pathways to resolving the Palestinian question. It serves as a valuable resource for researchers, policymakers, and peace advocates seeking to navigate and address one of the world’s most enduring crises.                                                          \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vanguard Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43221092401188,"sku":null,"price":1350.0,"currency_code":"PKR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0739\/4823\/3764\/files\/9789694488653.jpg?v=1769855630"}],"url":"https:\/\/vanguardbooks.com\/collections\/faisal-national-international-current-affairs.oembed","provider":"Vanguard Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}