Much of this study deals with the Arabic-speaking world. There is no universally accepted means for transliterating Arabic into English, so names of prominent individuals and organizations have entered the English language with a sometimes bewildering number of different spellings. Since I am not an Arabic speaker, I cannot attest to the virtues of one system of transliteration as opposed to another. Therefore, for purposes of clarity, I have chosen what I believe to be the most commonly used and recognizable spellings of important names—for example, al Qaeda, rather than al-Qa’ida; Osama bin Laden, rather than Usama bin Ladin; Shiite rather than Shi’ite or Shia; and Hizballah, rather than Hezbollah or Hizbullah—to cite the most prominent examples. I have done this with the hopes of making the text more accessible to readers. These spellings are used consistently in my writing, but alternative spellings in direct quotations and book and article titles have been properly retained.