For Last-Minute Stocking-Stuffers: Michael Flynn’s Reading List

by Jim Lobe

For those of you who are looking for books to buy at the last minute for friends and family for Christmas or Hanukah (or both, in light of the incoming administration’s celebration of “Judeo-Christian”–as opposed, one supposes, to Islamic–values), here’s the list of books that Trump national security adviser Gen. Michael Flynn (ret.) recommends as “Suggested Reading” in his book, The Field of Fight: How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies, published last July. Of course, Flynn has been the subject of a number of recent posts on LobeLog.

You’ll note that, of the 22 books listed, no less than four are by Michael Ledeen, Flynn’s co-author, and all of them are about Iran, whose regime Ledeen has always put at the center of what he calls “The Terror Masters.” While the list includes works by serious scholars, historians and regional experts, such as Yitzhak Nakash and Ahmed Rashid, there’s a pretty heavy presence of well-established Islamophobes, such as Glenn Beck, Brigitte Gabriel, as well as Ledeen himself. Particularly intriguing is the inclusion of Bill Gertz’s The China Threat, if for no other reason than that Flynn’s book barely mentions China, other than to accuse it of being part of “The Enemy Alliance” along with Bolivia, Nicaragua, Russia, etc. Gertz was a charter member of the so-called “Blue Team,” a group of writers, pundits, and Capitol Hill staffers who tried to persuade public opinion in the late 1990’s and early in the Bush administration that military conflict with Beijing was inevitable, and that henceforward China should be considered “Public Enemy Number One.” The fact that Gertz is cited suggests that China is right up there on Flynn’s “enemy list,” presumably after ISIS and Iran.

In any event, the list should offer another insight into the worldview of the man who may have the last word in advising the Donald Trump on foreign affairs.

Ansary, Tamim, Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes. New York: Public Affairs, 2010.

Bar, Shumel, Warrant for Terror, the Fatwas of Radical Islam and the Duty to Jihad. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006.

Beck, Glenn, It is About Islam: Exposing the Truth About ISIS, Al Qaeda, Iran, and the Caliphate. New York: Threshold, 2015.

Cleary, Thomas, The Art of War: Sun Tzu. Boulder, Co.: Shambhala, 1988.

Finkel, Caroline, Osman’s Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire. New York: Basic Books, 20007.

Gabriel, Brigitte, They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2008.

Gertz, Bill, The China Threat: How the People’s Republic Targets America. Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2002.

Gorka, Sebastian, Defeating Jihad: The Winnable War. Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2016.

Hamid, Tawfik, Inside Jihad: How Radical Islam Works; Why It Should Terrify Us; How to Defeat It. Moutain Lake Park, MD: Mountain Lake Press, 2015.

Hopkirk, Peter, The Great Game. New York: Kodansha International, 1992.

Ledeen, Michael, Accomplice to Evil: Iran and the War Against the West. New York: Truman Talley Books, 2009.

—-, The Iranian Time Bomb: The Mullah Zealots’ Quest for Destruction. New York: Truman Talley Books, 2007.

—-, The War Against the Terror Masters: Why It Happened. Where We Are Now. How We’ll Win. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2003.

—-, and W. H. Lewis, Debacle: The American Failure in Iran. New York: Knopf, 1981.

Murawiec, Laurent, The Mind of Jihad. Cambridge, Mass.: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

Nakash, Yitzhak, The Shi’is of Iraq. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2003.

Naylor, Sean, Relentless Strike: The Secret History of Joint Special Operations Command. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2015.

Patai, Raphael, The Arab Mind. Tucson: Recovery Resources Press, 2010.

Quataert, Donald, The Ottoman Empire: 1700-1922. Cambridge, Mass.: Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Rashid, Ahmed, Descent into Chaos: The U.S. and the Disaster in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia. New York: Penguin, 2009.

Weiss, Micahel and Hassan, Hassan, ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror. New York: Regan Arts, 2015.

Zakaria, Fareed, The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad. New York: Norton, 2003.

Jim Lobe

Jim Lobe served for some 30 years as the Washington DC bureau chief for Inter Press Service and is best known for his coverage of U.S. foreign policy and the influence of the neoconservative movement.

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  1. The version of Sun Tzu’s Art of War translated by Thomas Cleary is indeed a good pick. If Flynn read the introduction, it would give him a solid roadmap to the path toward strength and peace. Happy reading!

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