I can suggest 3. Each for very different reasons..but each with invaluable perspective and insight into what we're seeing happen around us today.
1).
Confessions of an Economic Hitman
2).
Tiger Force
3).
Inside the Jihad: My Life with al Qaeda, a Spy's
story
The first one is a comprehensive insiders account of the games played at the extremely high levels of the UN, IMF and Geopolitics. What happens when
whole countries are bought and sold like silver ingots on the spot market and how can such things happen? That book is the best I've ever seen for
explaining it in basic terms with researchable data points all through the pages.
The second book I chose chronicles the 'life and times' of one of the single most evil units I've ever had the displeasure to read about within the
United States Military, bar none, across ANY time period. The worst thing is..they committed their evils at the behest of Saigon by way of their chain
of command in the field. I really didn't understand how black the behavior of war could get from my fellow countrymen before reading that little
gem.
My final choice comes from Omar Nasiri, who had led one of those lives you normally see in a Hollywood movie. The circumstances are explained and
natural in progression though. Happenstance can make for some wild life experience, as some of us can relate. THIS man returned as a graduate of the
terrorist training pipeline in Afghanistan and holds nothing back in the telling of it. At the same time he makes Al Qaeda trainers and recruits human
beings....but so culturally different and alien as to remove any doubts I had about co-existence within the same national borders. It just can't
happen with the radical elements..and this does more to explain why, in real depth and from actual life experience than any class or lecture ever
could.
I hope those help and are what you were asking for. Enjoy!