Complementing his academic work, these three volumes are filled with impressions, research findings, gossip, and preliminary ideas and concepts - the true "stuff" of how scholarly books get written. For Wiarda has had a remarkable life: in some of the nation's leading universities, academic policy work in the State and Defense Departments, and denizen of the Washington think tanks. He has also lived abroad for extensive periods and traveled widely in some of the world's most troubled and exciting places. These books tell the story of his "adventures in research."