New political thriller entertains and cautions on the politics of bioterrorism

March 13, 2012 - PRLog -- WASHINGTON, DC – As an international specialist with over 30 years of experience, John D. Steinbruner embarked on a new venture when he decided to write a fictional political thriller derived  from his academic work. In his first work of fiction entitled "The Secular Monastery," Steinbruner takes the reader on a political—and, at times, deeply personal—adventure with an innovative institution dedicated to the constructive use of advanced information technology.

“I wrote ‘The Secular Monastery’ as an exercise of the imagination but also as a sharp practical warning. Advanced  biotechnology has extremely dangerous potential, and the politics of managing it  can amplify  the danger. Globally organized oversight is ultimately vital for mutual protection but immediately precluded by belligerent politics,” author John Steinbruner said.

Between the pages of "The Secular Monastery" the reader learns that there's been an apparent terrorist attack on a government laboratory that has been conducting controversial experiments using the smallpox virus. The main character, a university professor named David Turner, is surreptitiously tasked by a wary U.S. president to investigate the incident independent of a formal commission already assigned to conduct an official investigation. The assignment makes him an emissary to a powerful watchdog organization that provides indispensable assets for the mission but also subjects him to their scrutiny.

Seeking to assure his independence, David enlists an American student with Iranian parentage to help him weigh evidence that Iran was responsible for the attack. He also develops an intimate, and increasingly consequential, relationship with an aide to the President assigned to monitor his project. As David struggles with his assignment under the pressure of politically ominous and potentially violent threat, he taps the deeper currents of global politics and personal relationships. Not able to disentangle his own fate from the outcome of the investigation, he encounters the ambiguities and dangers but also the liberating qualities of truth.

“Preventing potential disaster before it actually occurs is an increasingly vital matter in the age of globalization,” Steinbruner added, “and the burden primarily falls on prescient individuals. Governments depend on experience to form consensus. They are typically poised to react to threats they have encountered and typically blind to those they have not. The Secular Monastery is a story about anticipation, and it traces the consequences for core features of the characters’ lives – love, trust and credibility.”  

The Secular Monastery by John D. Steinbruner
Publication Date: September 2011
Paperback; 13.95 on Createspace.com
Paperback; $13.95 on Amazon.com
E-book; $8.95 on Amazon.com

http://www.thesecularmonastery.com

About the Author: John D. Steinbruner, PhD is Professor of Public Policy at the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland and Director of the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM). His work has focused on issues of international security and related problems of international policy. Steinbruner was Director of the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brookings Institution from 1978-1996. He received his A.B. from Stanford University in 1963, and his Ph.D. in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1968. Click here to read his complete bio.