The Next Front: Southeast Asia and the Road to Global Peace with Islam - Hardcover

The next front in the war on terror is in Southeast Asia, warn Senator Christopher Bond (R-MO) and Lewis Simons, both leading experts on the region. The U.S. has bankrupted its policies in dealing with the Islamic world. As Fundamentalist Islam gains traction in Southeast Asia, backed by Saudi money, the U.S. must act swiftly to re-establish its credibility there and help defuse global terrorism. Bond and Simons present a bold plan to accomplish this key goal by substituting smart power (civilians in sneakers and sandals) for force (soldiers in combat boots) in Indonesia and the other nations of Southeast Asia, home to the world's greatest concentration of Muslims.

• Introduces a critical new "smart power" approach to combat global terror
• Written by two experts on Southeast Asia with extensive contacts in Washington and overseas
• Tackles a crucial challenge to U.S. foreign policy and President Obama's administration
• Examines a wide range of views and people, from Osama bin Laden-trained armed terrorists to radical clerics to western-trained officials who plead for Americans to come to their countries to teach, start small businesses, and improve health care

The Next Front offers exactly the kind of fresh, out-of-the-box thinking the United States needs to rebuild its credibility and transcend its foreign policy failures.

"The Next Front is an eye-opener. Senator Kit Bond and Lew Simons reawaken us to Southeast Asia. Here's the way to mutual respect between America and Islam."
—Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's Hardball and NBC's The Chris Matthews Show

"The Next Front is important reading for anyone interested in America's relations with the world's Muslims. Bond and Simons demonstrate that a piece of the solution lies with the huge Islamic population of Southeast Asia, a vital region we have largely ignored since the end of the Vietnam War."
—Sen. John McCain

"Kit Bond and Lew Simons masterfully articulate the importance of incorporating Southeast Asia and its Islamic majority into a new twenty-first-century style of diplomatic engagement. Required reading for today's policymakers and anyone who is concerned about the spread of religious extremism."
—Sen. John Kerry, Chairman, Senate Foreign Relations Committee

"Rare insights that could only be offered by these two individuals—one a United States senator and the other a Pulitzer Prize winner, both of whom have fastidiously worked to build bridges between the people of Southeast Asia and the United States."
—Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), ranking member, Senate Foreign Relations Committee

"Bond and Simons have cornered the elusive enemy we all face. It is mutual ignorance. . . . The Next Front presents a bold, new, outside-the-box way of thinking for Americans to achieve understanding and peace with Muslims throughout the world."
—Greg Mortenson, author of the No. 1 New York Times bestseller, Three Cups of Tea