Deepa Kumar
A must-read for all who want to make sense of the wars on drugs, crime, and terror and their interconnections. In highly accessible prose, Osamah Khalil gives us a wide-ranging tour of US wars waged under the guise of ‘civilization’ over the last half century.
Nathan J. Citino
In A World of Enemies, Khalil paints a dark image of post-Vietnam America, where a fear of decline drives militarized wars against crime, drugs, and terrorism. This deeply researched book explains our present moment with great clarity, showing what links the ‘badlands’ targeted by imperial violence at home and abroad.
Stephen Wertheim
Osamah Khalil brings together America’s wars on crime, drugs, and terror in an arresting narrative of a country fearing decline and lashing out. Donald Trump capitalized on but hardly created the self-destructive campaigns that Khalil traces from the 1960s to the present. A bracing portrait of a country endlessly at war—with the world and with itself.
Vali Nasr
In this compelling, well-researched, and timely book, Osamah Khalil asks why the theme of war looms so large in America’s domestic and foreign affairs. Showing how the ghosts of the Vietnam War have shaped American statecraft at critical junctures over the last six decades, Khalil argues that war-making has come to define the nation’s approach to resolving conflicts—with profound consequences at home and abroad. His insightful account poses important questions with which all Americans must grapple.
Richard H. Immerman
Osamah Khalil’s magisterial book could not be more timely. Relentlessly critical of six decades of US global policy, it challenges readers’ assumptions in a way that is intelligible, innovative, and deeply grounded in evidence. A World of Enemies should become required reading for students, scholars, policymakers, and the public.
Paul Thomas Chamberlin
This sweeping history delivers a powerful indictment of America’s War for Civilization, an all-encompassing battle to preserve American primacy and ward off decline in the decades after the Vietnam War. Khalil shows how presidents from Kennedy to Biden waged interconnected wars against revolutionary movements, drugs, terrorism, and crime, with tragic consequences for the nation and the world.