London, UK -- (SBWIRE) -- 08/18/2014 -- While many haven’t given the United States’ recent bombing in Iraq anything more than a passing glance through their TV, investigative journalist and international security scholar Dr Nafeez Ahmed is steadfast in his belief that the nation’s Islamic Insurgency could fight back against further UK-US action. But his research shows something far more chilling; this retaliation could destabilise the entire Middle East, North Africa, and even the West. Dr. Ahmed predicted western intervention in his gripping upcoming novel, ‘Zero Point’, and it has already become a reality.

This eagerly-awaited new science fiction thriller, inspired by true events, weaves a chillingly plausible narrative of a near future dystopia following a Fourth Iraq War, in which Britain and the United States intervene repeatedly in Iraq to crush an Islamist insurgency there and defend Western oil interests. The narrative draws on Dr. Ahmed’s first-hand experience as a security journalist, academic and government adviser to explore the self-defeating hubris of an all-powerful national security state in an era of converging environmental, energy and economic crises.

“The short-term is hope is that air strikes will save some lives from the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), but the reality is that the west actually created this crisis,” explains Dr. Ahmed. “Since the 2003 Iraq invasion the US and UK have broken up large concentrations of power in the Middle East for their own gain. Coupled with their short-sighted support for al-Qaeda affiliated rebels in Syria and elsewhere backed by the Gulf regimes, things are looking pretty bad.”

Continuing, “The old adage that “it all comes down to oil” is also absolutely true. My research has shown that more military action could be put in place to simply protect our oil interests, which will inflame the crisis in the long-term and lead to possible global unrest.”

The novel stands as a fictional exploration of the current predicament and its challenges. Dr. Ahmed knows that it’s extremely timely.

“People currently have huge anxieties over the threat of terrorism, mass surveillance and the rising possibility of major civilizational crisis. The recent recession tested these fears and my narrative speculates how such civil liberties could actually be cracked down on if Iraq and wider Middle East insurgents threaten terrorist attacks on our home soil. The results could affect the entire world. Although frighteningly close to reality, my narrative does also have its exciting, fun and fantastical elements – it’s not just a story of looming destruction!” Dr. Ahmed adds.

Former NASA engineer Boyd Morrison, now an international bestselling thriller author of The Ark, The Vault, Rogue Wave, The Catalyst and The Roswell Conspiracy, is raving about Ahmed’s new book:

“Nafeez Ahmed has mined his extensive background in international security to create a fast-paced thriller that combines conspiracies, terrorism, and cutting-edge technology. Prepare to hold on for a wild ride!”

ZERO POINT will be published on 14th August by Curiosity Quills Press in DC, and officially launched in New York City on 18th August at The Henley Vaporium, 23 Cleveland Place, New York, NY 10012, United States at 7-9PM. Ahmed will be joined by journalist and philosopher Daniel Pinchbeck, founding director of the Center for Planetary Culture, and Alnoor Ladha, board member of Greenpeace International and director of The Rules.

For more information, check out the ZERO POINT website and trailer at zro.pt. Nafeez Ahmed will be touring New York City between 18th August and 1st September 2014, and Washington DC from 21st and 22nd August, and is available for interviews. Contact him on 0044(0)7824 441044 or iprdoffice@gmail.com

Official Synopsis:

Mass riots
Economic meltdown
Black outs

And a new oil war in Iraq to keep the world economy afloat.

Fourth Iraq War veteran and war crimes whistleblower, David Ariel, is sick of violence, and trying to make ends meet working for police specialist protection. But after Prime Minister Carson is brutally assassinated by extremists on Ariel’s watch, he is covertly targeted by a compromised police investigation.

When forensics discover that Carson’s assassination inexplicably defied the very laws of physics, bodies drop like flies. Key witnesses are murdered in impossible circumstances.

Fleeing for his life while London is locked-down under martial law, Ariel gets a phone call from Iraq he will never forget: his estranged girlfriend, journalist Julia Stephenson, warns that the Carson killing is just the beginning of a wider plot to bring the west to its knees. Then she disappears.

Ariel’s blood-soaked race against time to track the terror cells behind Carson’s death tumbles into the cross-fire of a hidden battle between mysterious rogue intelligence agencies. Their goal: to monopolise black budget technologies which could unlock the universe’s darkest, arcane secrets.

As the world he thought he knew unravels, Ariel faces off against bent coppers, double-crossing agents, psychic killers and super soldiers to complete a black ops mission like no other: Stop Quantum Apocalypse.

About Dr Nafeez Ahmed
Through his books, films and journalism, Ahmed argues that a combination of political repression, failed economic models, young disenfranchised populations and escalating resource scarcity due to energy, food and water crises are contributing to what he calls a “new age of unrest.” Instability in far apart locations from Brazil to Ukraine to Thailand – as well as Syria, Egypt and beyond – are symptoms of an accelerating “global riot epidemic” due to the end of cheap oil and intensifying climate disasters.

In March 2014, Ahmed made global headlines with his exclusive Guardian report on a NASA-funded model of the risks of civilisational collapse which identified how widening economic inequalities and looming resource shortages due to ecological stress could precipitate a collapse of global industrial civilisation. In a further series of exclusives this summer, Ahmed exposed how the Pentagon and UK Ministry of Defence are funding social science and data-mining projects to develop tools to track political dissent and public opposition to fossil fuels. His exclusive reporting has also included revelations on the link between NSA mass surveillance, environmental crisis, and political activism; and how US-UK covert operations and foreign policies have empowered Gulf state-backed jihadists, fanning the flames of Middle East unrest from Iraq to Egypt to Syria.

A former lecturer in international politics at Sussex and Brunel universities, Ahmed is the bestselling, award-winning author of five books on international security issues, the latest of which is A User’s Guide to the Crisis of Civilization: And How to Save It (2010) – the first peer-reviewed academic work to analyse the intersection of climate change, energy depletion, food crisis, economic turbulence, international terrorism, and state-militarisation. Ahmed wrote, co-produced and presented the documentary feature film inspired by the book, The Crisis of Civilization.