America's Secret War: Inside the Hidden Worldwide Struggle Between America and Its Enemies

As founder and chairman of Stratfor Forecasting (""predictive, insightful global intelligence,"" its Web site states), Friedman is in the business of gathering information and predicting outcomes of global conflicts for businesses and governments. Following up on The Future of War, he assesses the causes, players and parameters of what he calls ""the fourth global war""--September 11th and its aftermath--from the perspective of the company. Much of what's here will be familiar to readers of the 9/11 report or the reams of news coverage over the last three years. Yet Friedman's stock-taking exercise is compelling as a distillation of corporate intelligence, where the spin is less about maintaining the image of particular politicians or governments, and more about being right so that money can be made.