Review – “A Problem From Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide
In this damning indictment of American indifference to humanitarian crises, journalist and academic Samantha Power refutes the arguments that US leaders were either unaware of genocidal horrors in the Twentieth Century or unable to stop them. Instead, the majority of American leaders knowingly did nothing as millions suffered.
Review – Dancing in the Glory of Monsters
Jason Stearns’ recently released book ‘Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa’ brings an analytical lens to a conflict that until now has largely been discussed in sentimental terms, if at all. Stearns delivers a fresh perspective on the conflict and an understanding of not just its symptoms, but also its roots.
Review – Mao’s Great Famine
In 1957 Chairman Mao Zedong launched a programme of rapid industrialisation with the ostensible aim of overtaking British steel production within 15 years. Over the following four years millions died in the greatest famine in history. Using recently opened archival material, Frank Dikötter has exposed the scale of this disaster in greater detail than any writer before and illustrates Mao’s central role in the suffering and devastation.
Review – John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon
As the product of a noted political scientist and longtime space policy specialist at George Washington University, John Logsdon’s John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon has been long awaited. It brings new insight into the history of the most spectacular U.S. and human space commitment ever accomplished.
Review – Counterstrike
Can al-Qaeda and like-minded terrorist groups be deterred? The Bush and Obama administrations both eventually concluded that they can be, according to a new book based on first hand accounts by Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker.
Review – The Role of Energy in Russian Foreign Policy towards Kazakhstan
This in-depth study into the complex and multi-faceted aspect of the role of oil and gas in Russian foreign policy goes beyond the headlines, taking the reader through the hydrocarbon fields, and into the backroom of energy contract negotiations between the Russian Federation and Kazakhstan since 1991. It is recommended reading for all regional or country-experts and interested readers alike.
Review – Chinese Aerospace Power, Evolving Maritime Roles
With the large amount of scholarship that details Chinese aerospace technology and its application into military power, there is always a danger any edited volume could get lost in the crowd. This book clearly has no such troubles. The work assembles what constitutes an all-star cast of scholars to discuss one of the most timely security studies subjects of the 21st century.
Review – A Contest For Supremacy
Friedberg’s thesis is two-fold. First, he argues the United States and China are locked in a quiet but increasingly intense struggle for power and influence in Asia and across the globe, which will only become more acute as China continues to accumulate more power. Second, the emerging rivalry is not the result of easily erased misperceptions, but driven by power politics and differing ideologies
Review – The Future of Power
In ‘The Future of Power’, Joseph S. Nye outlines a synthesis of his more than two decades of scholarship on the future of world power politics. Nye explains how power works and how it is changing under the conditions of a burgeoning revolution in information technology, globalization, and the return of Asia in the 21st century.
Review – No Exit: North Korea, Nuclear Weapons and International Security
North Korea is of perennial security concern to both its neighbors and the United States. North Korea is the only state that has ever withdrawn from the Nonproliferation Treaty and reneged on every denuclearization agreement it had ever signed. In late 2010, satellite data indicated that North Korea possessed a uranium enrichment facility, and now a potential third nuclear test is underway.
