This Global I.Q. Minute with Jim Falk focuses on a novelist, his inspiration and his goals. Istanbul-based writer Elliot Ackerman, a U.S. Marine with combat experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, has lived a life that has led him to what he calls an "improbable friendship, " an opportunity for understanding that helps him "trace the emotional topography" of "complex geopolitical events."

Global I.Q. Minute with Jim Falk is sponsored by Greenberg Traurig, LLP