New Releases by Ian Johnson

In the wake of the news that the 9/11 hijackers had lived in Europe, journalist Ian Johnson wondered how such a radical group could sink roots into Western soil. Most accounts reached back twenty years, to U.S. support of Islamist fighters in Afghanistan. But Johnson dug deeper, to the start of the Cold War, uncovering the untold story of a group of ex-Soviet Muslims who had defected to Germany during World War II. There, they had been fashioned into a well-oiled anti-Soviet propaganda machine. As that war ended and the Cold War began, West German and U.S. intelligence agents vied for control of this influential group, and at the center of the covert tug of war was a quiet mosque in Munich—radical Islam’s first beachhead in the West. Culled from an array of sources, including newly declassified documents, A Mosque in Munich interweaves the stories of several key players: a Nazi scholar turned postwar spymaster; key Muslim leaders across the globe, including members of the Muslim Brotherhood; and naïve CIA men eager to fight communism with a new weapon, Islam. A rare ground-level look at Cold War spying and a revelatory account of the West’s first, disastrous encounter with radical Islam, A Mosque in Munich is as captivating as it is crucial to our understanding the mistakes we are still making in our relationship with Islamists today

Amazing portraits of iconic jazz musicians of the 40s, 50s and 60s by San Francisco based artist Ian M. Johnson. These are people who were cultural innovators as well as true artists, and whose music truly embodied notions of freedom, dignity and respect. Ian Johnson paints to their music and his portraits capture the visages of jazz greats such as Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, Billie Holliday, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker perfectly. More than simply an aural experience, jazz, with its enthusiastic blend of compositional structure and improvisation, is an exercise in imagination and visualization. These portraits are as vibrant as the music itself, full of color, rhythm and melodic flights of fantasy. Ian Johnson''s work has been published in the San Francisco Chronicle, Skateboard Journal and Chaser magazine.

This book starts by establishing that all believers in Christ are already, in fact, one with each other in Christ. This leaves us with the challenge, not of creating unity where it does not exist, but of living consistently with the oneness that already exists. The first section explains why living consistently with our oneness is important, including God’s commands and expectations, the benefits of living in oneness and the hazards of living contrary to the truth. Part two explains what oneness is and is not, including the concepts that oneness is a harmony of diverse believers each doing their own part, not unison, unanimity or strict conformity to the same mold. The third section deals with practical barriers to living in oneness—selfishness, misunderstandings, heresy, and incorrect understanding of the origin of the organizational divisions in the universal Church—and suggests how to overcome them.

East Africa is to be the focus of Africa Geographic''s third book in the highly successful and acclaimed Safari in Style series. It will combine the aspirational and inspirational elements of enticing travel experiences, wildlife, landscapes, architecture, decor and the individual ambience found at some 30 prime game and country lodges throughout Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. In order to ensure that only unique, intimate destinations are selected, each of the establishments to be included in Safari in Style will be chosen with great care by an editorial committee comprising the authors and Africa Geographic''s editors and travel consultants. The book is organised into eight chapters, each of which captures the spirit and sense of place as well as the scenic and wildlife diversity of southern Africa.

Abstract : ''Strategic Conversation'' is a term that has been mentioned with increasing frequency in literature over the last decade. Having the ability to engage in ''conversation that is strategic'' has been promoted as a new core skill that is needed within organisations to help improve overall performance. The value of strategic conversation has been demonstrated by research that compared organisational performance before and after a program that used conversation to improve goal alignment. However, researchers have had to make broad assumptions about the nature of strategic conversation, and about how to manipulate it for research purposes. There has been no definition, construct, or instrument to help researchers use, or assess, strategic conversation. This research used three studies to define strategic conversation, develop a construct and measurement instrument, and test the impact of strategic conversation on organisation performance. Study 1 set out to define strategic conversation, generate a construct, and assemble and test an instrument. Independent panels of strategy experts helped create potential constructs that were subsequently converged by the researcher with a construct created from literature. The resultant construct comprised two components that were labelled ''Purpose'' and ''Topic''. The construct suggests that for a conversation to be strategic, its purpose must be to create or support organisational goals, and the topic must belong within one or more of the components of a strategic life-cycle (viz. scanning, planning, implementing, measuring, assessing). An instrument was assembled to test for evidence of strategic conversation in organisations. The instrument was checked by panel members for face and content validity, underwent a pilot study for ambiguity, and was tested using a cross-sectional study of 380 members from a wide variety of manufacturing, service, and government organisations. The two-factor instrument demonstrated validity and reliability. Study 2 examined relationships of Strategic Conversation with selected organisational variables. Literature suggests that more instances of strategic conversation, or the extent to which conversation is more ''strategic'', will correlate with organisational variables such as Strategic Planning, Strategic Behaviour, and Organisational Performance. The results of Study 2 supported most of the hypotheses, finding that Strategic Conversation was correlated with Strategic Planning (r = .59), Strategic Behaviour (r = .65), and Organisational Performance (r = .47) all with p less than .001. Also supported, using Baron and Kenny''s four-step regression process and the Sobel test, was an expectation that the relationship between Strategic Planning and Strategic Behaviour (r = . 6) would be mediated by Strategic Conversation. This finding helps explain some of the variability reported in studies on strategic planning. Significantly, the strength of the relationship between Strategic Conversation and Performance (r = .47) was similar to that between Strategic Behaviour and Performance (r = .46). This parallel pathway to performance suggests that additional options exist for change agents to influence organisational development. The final study tested if strategic conversation could be learned by organisational members, and whether the learning made any difference (wanted or unwanted) to the organisation. To test the extent of learning of strategic conversation, and its subsequent impact, Study 3 facilitated a 6-month skills-development program that was completed by 11 organisations, whose representatives met for an hour each week. Three time-interval measurements (start, mid-point, finish) were made of the four variables. The average scores over the three measurement times for Strategic Conversation were 2.59, 2.99, and 3.69. Simultaneous performance scores were 2.82, 3.27, and 3.46. The increased scores over the period were 42% for Strategic Conversation, and 23% for performance, demonstrating that strategic conversation could be learned and that the elevated skills made a difference to organisational performance. There were also increased scores for Strategic Planning (51%) and Strategic Behaviour (62%). By comparison, scores of non-participating groups of organisations taken over the same period remained constant, thus excluding external common causes as an explanation for the performance improvement reported by participants. In an effort to capture unintended outcomes, especially negative ones, of either strategic conversation or the learning program, a technique called ''Most Significant Change'' was employed to detect, identify, and quantify such outcomes. Participants reported thirteen unexpected outcomes, and decided on a way to quantify them. All unintended outcomes were beneficial, and the magnitude of changes, averaging 45% for all 11 organisations and all 13 unexpected outcomes, were similar to the change-scores for behaviour and performance derived by the instruments. Future academic and practitioner research posibilities, and potential applications for strategic conversation within organisations, are suggested.

Ian Johnson''s evaluation of Alwyn''s film music places his achievement in the context of wider movements within the film industry. William Alwyn was a leading composer of British film music in the 1940s and ''50s, a time when the British film industry was at its peak. His scores ranged from documentaries to almost 80 full-length feature films, including classics such as Fires were Started, Desert Victory, Odd Man Out, The Fallen Idol, and The History of Mr Polly; he was adept at any musical genre, from classical to cartoon slapstick, and in the process worked with legendary directors, including Carol Reed, David Lean, Humphrey Jennings, and Anthony Asquith. Alone with Vaughan Williams he was granted the distinction of a separate title credit; columnists mentioned him alongside Bliss, Bax and Walton. However, as the reputation of the British film industry declined in the 1950s, so musical snobbery against those who were its leading lights became unpleasantly raw. In recent years, however, with sensitive performances of hisfilm and concert music available on CD, this most appealing of composers has enjoyed something of a renaissance. In this long overdue reassessment, Alwyn''s films are analysed and put into the context of his biography,the film industry, and of society at large: the author shows in particular this remarkably versatile composer developed a hitherto unrecognised grammar of film music which enhanced every film on which he worked. He also examines his work for war propaganda, radio, and the concert hall. The volume is enhanced by the most complete filmography, discography, and bibliography of the composer''s works yet published, as well as listings of his concert and radio music.

Is work the love of your life? Has your business completely consumed you? If you are like most people in today''s fast paced world, you have likely sacrificed personal well being in pursuit of professional success. How to Lead and Still Have a Life! illustrates how career-minded people can have the best of both worlds: business success and time to enjoy living the dream.

This publication offers invaluable tax planning help for the tax specialist and with its easy to use subject index and cross-referencing, it is a highly practical publication, ideal for the busy tax practitioner and lawyer. Debt and Treasury management occupies an increasing proportion of the work of tax practitioners. With considerable legislation to get to grips with, this publication, updated twice per annum, offers a concise and comprehensive version of the law in this area. This publication examines, in detail, each of the regimes involved.

Provides an analysis of the various types of financial instruments and transactions. ThE book looks at each instrument or transaction in its commercial context and the appropriate tax treatment and accounting procedure to be considered.