Includes bibliographical references and index.

Foreword / Stephen Van Evera -- Introduction : understanding threat inflation / Jane K. Cramer and A. Trevor Thrall -- Understanding beliefs and threat inflation / Robert Jervis -- Imperial myths and threat inflation / Jack Snyder -- Estimating threats : the impact and interaction of identity and power / David Rousseau and Rocio Garcia-Retamero -- Hawkish biases / Daniel Kahneman and Jonathan Renshon -- Threat inflation and the failure of the marketplace of ideas : the selling the Iraq War / Chaim Kaufmann -- The sound of silence : rhetorical coercion, democratic acquiescence, and the Iraq War / Ronald R. Krebs and Jennifer Lobasz -- Militarized patriotism and the success of threat inflation / Jane K. Kramer -- The war over Iraq : selling war to the American public / Jon Western -- Framing Iraq : threat inflation in the marketplace of values / A. Trevor Thrall -- Inflating terrorism / John Mueller -- Perception and power in counter-terrorism : assessing the American response to Al Qaeda before September 11 / Benjamin H. Friedman.