His bottom line is clear: we are not spending enough on the varied elements of national security, with special emphasis on a severely under-funded and under-manned diplomatic service.

From Gaddis Smith and Walter Mondale to Sam Nunn and Robert Oakley, from David Gergen to David Abshire to David Boren, from Kissinger to Brzezinski to Kirkpatrick, in combination with a whole host of lesser known but equally talented practitioners, capped off by comments from five Directors of Central Intelligence, this books sets a standard for organized high quality reflection on the future of U.S. foreign policy.

Most interestingly, there is general consensus with David Abshire's view that we are in a strategic interregnum, and still lacking for a policy paradigm within which to orchestrate our varied efforts to define and further our vital interests.

David Gergen clearly articulates the shortfalls in our national educational, media, and political patterns that leave the vast majority of Americans ignorant of our foreign interests and unsupportive of the need for proactive engagement abroad. Reading this book, I could not help but feel that our national educational system is in crisis, and we need both a wake-up call and a consequent national investment program such as occurred after the first Sputnik launch.

David Boren is clearly a decade or more ahead of most current commentators in his call for a new paradigm, for a new analytical framework, for the internationalization of American education across the board. I am reminded of the quotation from early America: "A Nation's best defense is an educated citizenry." Interestingly, he cites Daniel Boorstein's caution that we must not confuse information with knowledge, and in the next sentence notes: "I watched during my term as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee while the CIA greatly increased its information, its raw data, but became overwhelmed and unable to separate the important from the unimportant."

I would itemize just a few of the many, many useful insights that this book offers:

1) Diplomacy is the sum total of familiarity with the role, knowledge of the component parts of the overall national security policy, and the ability to design and implement comprehensive policies that achieve the national objectives;

2) Politicians and policy-makers are losing the ability to think objectively and act with conviction...they are too dependent on short-term domestic polling and opinion;

3) (Quoting Donald Kegan): Power without the willingness to use it does not contribute to world peace;

4) We must strengthen the domestic roots of national power if we are to have a sound strategy;

5) Future of U.S. education and strength of U.S. family unit will quite simply determine whether U.S. can meet the economic challenges of the 21st Century;

6) Our domestic insecurity and domestic violence-and resulting foreign perceptions and disrespect for our competence at home-reduce our effectiveness overseas;

7) U.S. is its own worst enemy, with declining attention to foreign policy matters;

8) Weapons of mass destruction are our only substantive vital interest today;

9) Hunger, pestilence, and refugees within Africa will affect all nations;

10) Corruption has replaced guerrilla movements as the principal threat to democratic governance;

11) Commerce rather than conflict will be the primary concern of 21st century foreign policy;

12) The environment joins trade and commerce as an essential objective for foreign policy;

13) Long-term non-military challenges, and especially global financial markets, require refocusing of our security perspectives;

14) Asia will edge out Europe as our primary trading partner;

15) China in Asia and Turkey in the West are linch-pin nations;

16) NATO will survive but we must take care not to threaten Russia;

17) The UN is not very effective at peacekeeping operations-it is best confined to idea exchanges;

18) Our military is over-extended and under-funded but still the best in the world;

19) For the cost of one battalion or one expensive piece of military equipment, one thousand new Foreign Service officers could be added toward preventive diplomacy;

20) Lessons from the Roman empire: its decline results in part from a loss of contact with its own heartlands, a progressive distancing of the elite from the populace, the elevation of the military machine to the summit of the power hierarchy, and blindness in perceiving the emergence of societies motivated by nationalism or new religious ideologies; and

21) We may need a new National Security Act.

If I had one small critical comment on the book is would be one of concern-concern that these great statesmen and scholars appear-even while noting that defense is under-capitalized-to take U.S. military competence at face value. I perceive a really surprising assumption across a number of otherwise brilliant contributions to the effect that we do indeed have all that we need in the way of information dominance, precision firepower, and global mobility (strategic lift plus forward presence)-we just need to use it with greater discretion. I do not believe this to be the case. I believe-and the Aspin-Brown Commission so stated-that we lack effective access to the vast range of global multi-lingual open sources; that our commitment to precision munitions is both unaffordable and ineffective (we ran out in 8 days in the Gulf, in 3 days in Kosovo); and that we fail terribly with respect to mobility-naval forces are generally 4-6 days from anywhere, rather than the necessary 24-48 hours. This book is a very fine starting point for the national dialogue that must take place in 2001 regarding our new national security strategy.

I purchased it for my professional library and refer to it often. My particular interests are "Thinking Dispositions" which are addressed very well, but must be reflected upon from time to time to be sure that genuine understanding is obtained.

This is not a one time read type of a book and then put away. This is a book for those who are profoundly interested in knowing, reflecting and understanding connections to "thinking" and "understanding"... and especially "thinking dispositions".

You may be a brilliant individual who doesn't seem to accomplish what is expected of you either from teachers, employers and/or particularly yourself. Maybe the content in this book on thinking dispositions might explain something to you.

This book is for the scholar and the learner...and not a difficult read.

In a world gone mad for something, anything, to repair the ills of our fledgling education system, David Perkins is a welcome voice of reason. He provides readers with a clear description of the problems in our current system and offers common-sense educational solutions.

This is not a reactionary, radical reformist volume which advocates the dismantling of education as we know it in favor of untested theories. Rather, Perkins defines a logical system of educational beliefs which are based upon sound research and work toward clearly defined educational goals.

Perkins writes with a clarity and simplicity that is all too rare among educators. He uses no educational jargon without first defining it in an understandable way. Further, he provides a checklist for educational change which will assist concerned parents, educators, and administrators in systematically implementing his recomendations.

In its organization, content, and writing, "Smart Schools" exemplifies all that our education system should foster in our children to prepare them for an active and significant role in the shaping of our world's future. If you are concerned with the quality of our children's education, you must have this book in your library.

Reading this book takes great effort. Not an easy reas at all and I have been working with SNMP for 5 years and am a Certified OpenView Consultant, and have been for 3 years. There are part of this book that are helpful, but if you are going to be writing a MIB for the first time do not count on this book to help you get it done. Try Total SNMP, which gived a better breakdown and look at some of the MIBs already out there like the UPS MIB.

My task at work is to learn about SNMP and start monitoring our equipment. This is a simple task that should be fairly straightforward. Unfortunately, I haven't found any two resources that can even agree on the definition of a MIB. Not even this book, one that's dedicated to MIBs, has helped me out.

If you're looking for a good beginner's guide, don't waste your money on this book. If you don't know where to begin to compile MIBs, don't buy this book. Unless you deeply understand SNMP and are to the point where you feel you have to write MIBs, don't buy this book. You'll be sadly disappointed.

I'm sure this is a wonderful book for the right audience, and I respect the authors for their technical abilities. My problem is not with the book, but with the way the book is marketed within the SNMP community.

The book does a wonderful job in covering all the related aspects around MIBs. It gives a very good introduction to SNMP (yes, it is brief, but it is much easier to read than some of the texts that focus on SNMP) it gives a detailed description of the MIB syntax and on how to define, build and maintain MIBs. The task of designing and implementing a MIB is illustrated from different points of views. In one chapter, the practical considerations in building MIBs are laid out, e.g. v1 vs. v2, module naming and module layout, in another chapter, the authors lead the readers through the definition process of the MIBs for a hypothetical company with a small product. I addition an analysis of some standard MIBs and the techniques applied in these is included. The whole book is written very well and is in fact very understandable and clear. A lot of critical points in SNMP and the structure of MIBs are explained and commented (although some of the comments are not really constructive).

There are only a few minor points that I did not like about this text. a) Some of the illustrations are just plain horrible, b) the chapter ordering is a little weird: SNMP intro, MIB syntax, SNMP operations, MIB design, MIB browser, MIB design example (but maybe that's just me?) and c) where is the 2nd edition including v3?

Overall, this is a very helpful book. The material is very well presented and really helps to understand SNMP MIBs.

The author spends way too much time on error, sometimes his own. His facts are wrong about Copernicus - Copernicus was not an astronomer-he was a mathematician. See the web page - university of florida - history of science. I am afraid if he can't a simple fact right about Copernicus, where else is he wrong. He studied astronomy, but was a mathematician. Ptolemy used mathematics (equants) to prove his theory not idealism. He did not just a patch a leak. Talk about intelligence, the author should stick to terms and definitions and stay away from poetry like-patch a leak. That doesn't sound to scientific to me. Before he talks about science, he ought to study history of philosophy. This author must have relied on unreliable sources, he certainly didn't look up information himself. He ought to have given up in the chapter on telescopes and intelligence. Ohhh, boy...

P.S. as to the other review of the boy in Phillipians I hope you go to college and study before you speak or write.

...Rob Harriman, Ed.D.

The authors start out by drawing you in with simple and compelling points on creativity and problem solving along with simple exercises to illustrate each point. They then build from there to elaborate and drive home both the techniques and the rationale behind those techniques in a way that continues to be engaging.

As with any book of this sort, 50% is stuff you already know (but may not be practicing). However, I'll bet the other 50% will really make you to think about ways to improve your personal and your company's ability to achieve breakthrough thinking.