Overview

Early May 2011, in a dramatic late-night appearance at the White House, President Obama declared that ""justice has been done"" as he announced that Osama bin Laden was dead. After more than a decade of military operations across Central Asia and the Middle East, the Al Qaida leader who orchestrated the 9/11 terrorist attacks was finally killed in a firefight with U.S. Navy SEALs in Pakistan. Although this daring raid marked the end of the longest strategic manhunt in American history, bin Laden was not the first individual targeted as the objective of a military campaign. From Geronimo to Pancho Villa, to Manuel Noriega, to Saddam Hussein, the United States has deployed military forces to kill or capture a single person nearly a dozen times since 1885. Part military history, part action thriller, and part strategic policy analysis, Wanted Dead or Alive chronicles the extraordinary efforts of the military and intelligence agencies to bring America's enemies to justice.

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9780230104853

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Reviews

<p> Runkle's 12 manhunts illustrate key features of counterinsurgency or asymmetrical warfare strategy, and indicate how America's military leadership, and its thinking, has been shaped through the succession of such hunts and campaigns . . . Going behind the headlines, Runkle provides worthwhile background and context for understanding current wars and how they are fought. -- Kirkus Reviews <p> Ben Runkle's book is an exciting history of American manhunts, successful and not, and gives tantalizing glimpses of the role the Pakistani government have played in the hunt for Bin Laden. -- Stephen Peter Rosen, Harvard University <p> I... was captivated. Little did I know how much I did not know concerning U.S. military manhunts. Ben's book changed all that, it is a first-class contribution to our community of interest and practice. --Dave Dillegge, editor at Small Wars Journal <p> Runkle nailed it, expertly capturing the amazing chase of manhunting... the dangerous game of cat and mou

Author Information

BENJAMIN RUNKLE is a former Army paratrooper with a Harvard Ph.D. In January 2006, he quit his job as a presidential speechwriter to serve on active duty in Iraq, where he earned a Bronze Star. He has also served as an official in the Department of Defense and as a director at the National Security Council. He is currently a political scientist at the RAND Corporation. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, The Washington Times, and the Harvard International Review, among others. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia, USA.

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