An incisive, prophetic look at our increasing reliance on preemptive action from profiling to preventive war. Every so often, a startling book emerges that gives voice to a new or previously unexamined trend that is transforming society. Alan M. Dershowitz's provocative new work, Preemption , is just such a book, chronicling a paradigm shift in our approach to controlling destructive conduct. As he reveals, we are movingwhether in society's manner of fighting crime or in our response to terrorismtoward more preventive and proactive approaches and away from primary reliance on deterrent and reactive responses. Although the events of 9/11 have accelerated this revolutionary shift, Dershowitz compellingly documents that the seeds were planted much earlier. In this thought-provoking account, Dershowitz explores the historical origins of the change as well as its troubling implication for civil liberties, human rights, criminal justice, national security, and foreign policy. About the series: Issues of Our Time  "Aware of the competition for the attention of readers, W. W. Norton & Company and I have created the "Issues of Our Time" as a lucid series of highly readable books through which some of today's most thoughtful intellectuals seek to challenge the general reader to reexamine received truths and grapple with powerful trends that are shaping the world in which we live. The series launches with Anthony Appiah, Alan Dershowitz, and Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen as the first of an illustrious group who will tackle some of the most plangent and central issues defining our society today through books that deal with such issues as sexual and racial identities, the economics of the developing world, and the concept of citizenship in a truly globalized twenty-first-century world culture. Above all else, these books are designed to be read and enjoyed." -- Henry Louis Gates Jr., W. E. B. DuBois Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University When and how should democratic societies respond to potentially dangerous conduct before the conduct takes place? The latest book from this prolific defense lawyer and legal scholar examines preemptive war, preventative detention, and restrictions on dangerous speech, and claims that in the absence of general legal principles (or even a healthy debate) about preemptive action, society's current trend away from deterrence and toward prevention (as accelerated by the "war on terrorism") threatens longstanding notions of individual liberty and state sovereignty. Attempting to articulate the rudiments of a jurisprudence of prevention and preemption, Dershowitz considers the risk calculus applied by Israel in its various preventative wars and digs into his own previous research into the problematic mathematics of prediction. Although the subject matter dovetails nicely with Dershowitz's recent work on torture and terrorism, this account conspicuously avoids those works' polemics and admits that constructing a jurisprudence for a democracy is a daunting task not well served by narrow political stances. Yet perennially provocative Dershowitz sneaks in a punch or two, speculating aloud about the possibility of preemptive action against Iran's nuclear program and arguing that preemptive war in Iraq may have hindered preemptive action against that nation. Best read in conversation with Richard Posner's cost-benefit argument for prevention in Catastrophe: Risk and Response (2004), this book is an academic and accessible framing of an important debate. Brendan Driscoll Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved A path-breaking must-read for government leaders, strategists, and all concerned Americans. -- General Wesley K. Clark Dershowitz is a brave man who writes about the hardest questions. -- Michael Walzer, Institute for Advanced Study Lucid, sober, courageous…a first-rate work of scholarship. -- Richard Posner, U. S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Provocative, illuminating, lively. -- Cass Sunstein, Karl N. Llewellyn Distinguished Service Professor of Jurisprudence, University of Chicago Leading criminal law and constitutional scholar Alan M. Dershowitz is the author of such critically acclaimed books as Rights from Wrongs , The Case for Israel , and Why Terrorism Works . A professor at Harvard Law School, he lives in Massachusetts.