Pre-publication reviews...
"An intriguing and thought-provoking book on the challenges America faces globally."
Bruce Riedel, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy, Saban Center for Middle East Policy, Brookings Institution."Ever insightful, journalist-writer Keith Spicer has given us an urgently needed, fact-packed, cogently analyzed deconstruction of a world hell-bent on reflexively using military might instead of creative diplomacy to resolve conflicts and remove despots. It's also a damning portrait of media and journalists as cheerleaders."
– John Owen, Professor of International Journalism in London's City University, and Executive Producer for Programs for the Al Jazeera English Channel, co-author of International News Reporting: Frontlines and Deadlines"Keith Spicer uses his experience as professor, journalist-cum-author and public servant in North America, together with 14 recent years in Paris, to give a uniquely balanced commentary on the crisis of relations between the West and the Arab world. Rejecting a 'clash of civilizations', he affirms their common hopes for education, democracy, scientific advancement - and peace. Sharply critical of American policies, he sets imaginative challenges: for Barack Obama over Palestine, for Hillary Clinton on women's education and (glory be!) for Saudi Arabia on funding free e-libraries of the world's classics for Arab youth. A fresh, witty and very worthwhile book."
– Clyde Sanger, former Economist correspondent for Canada, Adjunct Professor, University for Peace, author of The Law of the Sea."At a time when the ground under the entire Middle East is shifting and no one knows in which direction, Keith Spicer in Sitting on Bayonets delivers a brilliant and penetrating analysis of where the entire Middle East has come from and where it may be heading. With a meticulous history of the recent past, Sitting on Bayonets makes a compelling case that the days of maintaining stability through American troops on the ground, if ever wise, is now counter-productive and destructive to the region's, America's and the world's interests. Spicer makes a strong argument that the best path to containing terrorism, providing responsive government and promoting the rights of women will come through negotiation, public diplomacy and the social media."
– Jeff Cole, Director, Center for the Digital Future, Annenberg School, University of Southern California, Director of World Internet Project"From his perch on the Left Bank in Paris, self-confessed incorrigible Canadian and expat public intellectual Keith Spicer convincingly identifies the failure of military means to defeat radical Islam. He argues instead for the rebirth of a lucid American idealism, one that would educate women rather than killing men. Spicer would replace a war on Jihadism with reconciliation with mainstream Islam as the only sane course to avoid the predicted conflict of civilizations."
– Michael Adams, President, Environics Group, author of Fire & Ice, and American Backlash.