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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
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HOW WE WIN

Farah Pandith

How Cutting-Edge Entrepreneurs, Political Visionaries, Enlightened Business Leaders, and Social Media Mavens Can Defeat the Extremist Threat

Farah Pandith, one of the world's most respected experts on countering violent extremism and the first-ever United States special representative to Muslim Communities, reveals how we can stop the rapid spread of extremist ideology.
Mass shootings in the name of foreign armies; cars running down innocent pedestrians; suicide bombs destroying schools - only a miniscule sample of the savage terrorist attacks of last year. After so much effort, so much money, so much proclaimed expertise, it is clear that extremism is not diminishing but spiraling out of control. Unable to stem recruitment, we seem doomed to a worsening struggle with a constantly evolving enemy that remains several steps ahead of us. Meanwhile, current policies seem as if they were carefully calibrated not to reduce extremist violence, but to encourage it.

But while most policymakers don't realize it, we actually possess the means right now to inoculate communities against extremist ideologies. In How We Win, Farah Pandith shows us how we can do just that. Based on visits to eighty countries, thousands of discussions, interviews, and focus groups she's held around the world, as well as her own high-level experience on the National Security Council, at the State Department and on the Homeland Security Advisory Council, Pandith exposes the surprising root causes and dynamic by which Muslim millennials are pulled toward extremism. She also reveals exactly how that dynamic can be profoundly disrupted, incapacitating the abilities of radicals to turn millennials and Gen Z toward violence - a strategy that requires dispensing with outdated twentieth-century policy approaches, drawing instead on a new kind of power, Open Power, which mobilizes the expertise and resources of diplomats, corporate leaders, mental health experts, sociologists, entrepreneurs, and most of all, Muslim youth themselves.


Farah Pandith has spoken at the United Nations, the World Bank, NATO, the British House of Lords, EU, Google, SxSW, TEDx, and dozens of other organizations. She has appeared in The New York Times, CNN, BBC, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, The Guardian, and The Times of India. She was born in Kashmir, India and raised in Massachusetts. She currently splits her time between Washington DC, Boston, and London.
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Book

Published 2019-03-12 by Custom House / HarperCollins

Book

Published 2019-03-12 by Custom House / HarperCollins

Comments

...There is no more important voice on how we should recognize and confront these morphing ideological threats; how to enlist social, corporate, and economic power including Millenials and new technologies to confront the underpinnings of terror globally; and ultimately how we win through the power of our ideas...

Farah Pandith draws on her wide-ranging experience as a diplomat and communicator to lay out a comprehensive strategy against violent extremism. A timely book for government and civil society leaders.

For decades, policymakers, academics and community leaders have struggled with the question: how do people of good faith stop extremism in their midsts? Pandith doesn't just ask the question, but provides- for the first time - a concrete, detailed, and engaging answer: the solution lies with all of us.

Farah Pandith offers a much needed critique of nearly two decades of failed American efforts to counter violent extremist ideology. More importantly, she charts a thoughtful alternative course that demands the attention of policymakers and practitioners in the United States and around the world.

"When the threat of terrorism triggers our instincts to lock ourselves down or shout each other down, Ms. Pandith tells us to suit up and open up. Having survived from the frontlines of bureaucratic infighting, she optimistically calls us to be outgoing." - Ambassador Matthew Barzun, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom and Sweden and former Chief Strategy Officer, CNET Networks

No one knows more about appeal of the ideology on Muslim youth than Farah Pandith. ... I wish I'd had How We Win as a resource during my critical leadership efforts against Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and the Islamic State.

How We Win offers sharp, incisive wisdom from someone who had a front-row seats for one of modern history's great inflection points. An expert and an experienced practitioner, Pandith brilliantly captures how to think differently about extremism, and how to draw on the wisdom of great leaders to confront the extremist threat. How We Win should be required reading for anyone interested in harnessing new ideas to tackle some of the world's toughest international security challenges.

In How We Win, Farah Pandith offers fresh thinking, both profound and practical, on one of our most vexing challenges--combating violent extremism.

How We Win is a much-needed corrective to those who argue primarily for military "hard power" solutions.

"Farah Pandith was a pioneer for Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama and appointed America's first emissary to the Moslem World. Now a Harvard Senior Fellow, she illuminates in this indispensable book how America and her friends and allies can defeat the extremist threat and build a new and more positive relationship with the one fourth of humanity who are Moslems." - Ambassador (ret.) Nicholas Burns, former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Professor at the Harvard Kennedy School.

A new approach to countering global extremism....Comprehensive and expansive in scope...An inspired, intensively focused examination of issues of and solutions about extremist ideology, sure to inspire spirited debate.

Farah has written a vitally important book on an incredibly important topic that for too long has received short shrift. Every policy maker involved in national security and foreign affairs needs to focus on how we still face a generational ideological challenge.

How We Win is surely the best book about how the US government and others need to think about how best to counter violent extremism and also how to act to curb the spread of extremist ideologies. It is also a lively and well written memoir of Farah Pandith's many years working for the State Department combating extremism around the world.

The private sector has a vital role to play in stopping violent extremism. Farah Pandith's revelatory How We Win is the playbook we've been waiting for. Read it and join in. Farah has much to tell us. The world will benefit from her insights.

In the all-out effort to defeat Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, we have struggled to win the war of ideas. Pandith, who has served on the front lines of this ideological conflict, is uniquely qualified to confront the enduring system that gives rise to the extremist threat. In this indispensable book, Pandith sets forth a detailed and comprehensive approach to countering violent extremism that serves as a call to arms for governments, businesses, and communities alike.

One of the most critical tools in the fight to keep our country and world safe is the effort to combat the ideology that underlies extremist activity. Farah Pandith offers a comprehensive look at the war of ideas and provides concrete solutions to this vexing problem. Her book is essential for anyone who cares about security and the resilience of democratic values.

For more than decade, Farah Pandith has been on the front lines of the battle against extremist ideologies across the world. She's provided her expertise to religious and political leaders, to diplomats and global leaders, and to two US presidents. Now that expertise is available in this remarkable and timely book. This is the new paradigm in the fight against global extremism.

AUS: Allen & Unwin

How We Win shows us exactly what we need to do, and can do, to turn the tide.

How We Win is a smart, original and timely look at the ground reality of extremism in the Muslim world; and more important, how an unlikely alliance of entrepreneurs and technologists could provide the antidote. This is a must read for policy-makers and scholars alike, and all those interested in the future of the Muslim world.

It is hard to think of anyone more knowledgeable than Farah Pandith when it comes to countering violent extremism. After traveling the world serving two presidents, she brings enormous experience and common sense to the task. This book is full of wisdom about how to deal with one of our great challenges.