Secret Wars is the first book to systematically analyze the ways powerful states covertly participate in foreign wars, showing a recurring pattern of such behavior stretching from World War I to U.S.-occupied Iraq. Investigating what governments keep secret during wars and why, Austin Carson argues that leaders maintain the secrecy of state involve "Carson is to be congratulated for a scholarly study with broad appeal that presents a new perspective on international politics that overturns many commonly held assumptions. - Matthew Hughes, Journal of Interdisciplinary History "