John R. Cronin joined the Marines at 19 and went to Vietnam twice with Battalion and Force Recon units from 1967-69, where he was wounded once during each tour. He returned to the States and completed his BA in political science at The Citadel before being commissioned back into the Marines as an infantry officer for three years. Following his discharge in 1976, he went to Rhodesia for four years where he served as an officer on Fire Force with the Rhodesian Light Infantry, an operations officer and as a deployed operational Group second-in-command with the Selous Scouts. He left Rhodesia in 1980 and in 1982 went to Cairo and then Beirut, where, after having survived a kidnapping by Hezbollah, he received an MA in Middle East Studies, and then went on to The School of Oriental and African Studies at The University of London for his PhD in Middle East Politics. He has since held a series of administrative positions in, and taught international politics at, the university level in the...