Hello,

I do hope you check out the Armchair Diplomat on Europe (Penguin UK, Aug 2005): you can get from amazon.co.uk. I wrote it because it became obvious that even Europeans are having difficulty keeping up with what Europe is and is becoming these days -- and few can even name the 25 members of the European Union. This book includes quite a bit of history and culture as well -- Plume/Penguin US is releasing a shorter version in 2006.

What Every American Should Know (WEASK) about the Rest of the World, I would contend, is not "useless" (as suggested above by Erik Olsen): it was written as a "first course" to US foreign policy in the aftermath of 9/11. It's difficult to assess what the "average American" knows and I was trying to reach a broad swatch of people who kept on asking me to write an E-Z overview, telling me "Help -- I am clueless!" I included information from international sources that at least at the time was not widely known, and I would bet most Americans still dont know about such figures as Hassan al-Turabi (who helped cobble together al-Qaida) or the importance of the Hashemite family or the who FARC or ETA are, even if they read the dailies each day. It's written in an eqsily-digestible format, but there is valuable information embedded througout.

The book coming out in December 2005, WEASK about Who is Really Running the World is a) far more critical and b)assumes the reader has more of a handle on world events. I do hope you read it: I am seriously concerned about the state of affairs in US and the world, and this lays out quite a few of the problems and trouble makers...For instance, look up and look out: the US Dept of Defense is seriously trying to weaponize and dominate outer space -- for starters. And how would thou like the Ten Commandments for thy Constitution? Seriously alarming issues and power mongers are trying to steal the show, and I hope that we quit snoring through this!

Best,
Melissa Rossi

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