Political science and theory Books

Book SynopsisPopulism is the key political phenomenon of the 21st century. From Trump to Brexit, from Chávez to Podemos, the term has been used to describe leaders, parties and movements across the globe who disrupt the status quo and speak in the name of ‘the people’ against ‘the elite’. Yet the term remains something of a puzzle: poorly understood, vaguely defined and, more often than not, used as a term of abuse. In this concise and engaging book, leading expert Benjamin Moffitt cuts through this confusion. Offering the first accessible introduction to populism as a core concept in political theory, he maps the different schools of thought on how to understand populism and explores how populism relates to some of the most important concepts at the heart of political debate today. He asks: what has populism got to do with nationalism and nativism? How does it intersect with socialism? Is it compatible with liberalism? And in the end, is populism a good or bad thing for democracy? This book is essential reading for anyone – from students and scholars to general readers alike – seeking to make sense of one the most important and controversial issues in the contemporary political landscape.Trade Review"Employing a political theory perspective, Moffitt elucidates populism’s affinities and tensions with major left- and right-wing ideologies and develops novel insights into reactionary populists’ opportunistic invocation of liberal values."Kurt Weyland, University of Texas at Austin "The first book to analyse populism in its broader ideological context by relating it to nationalism, socialism, liberalism and democracy, Benjamin Moffitt’s accessible and concise Populism is essential reading for anyone speaking, thinking or writing about this phenomenon."Cas Mudde, University of Georgia"It is undoubtedly the introductory work that I would recommend to those seeking to get a definitive overview of the discipline, equally to undergraduate students and to more experienced scholars. Moffitt’s Populism is an impressive piece of scholarship that is both didactic and ambitious, with the potential to become a standard introduction to the study of populism."Théo Aiolfi, University of WarwickTable of ContentsAcknowledgements 1. Why Populism Matters 2. What is Populism? 3. Populism, Nationalism & Nativism 4. Populism & Socialism 5. Populism & Liberalism 6. Populism & Democracy References

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Book SynopsisWe have entered the gateway to the apocalypse. This theological concept is the best metaphor to describe the world in which we are already living. Chaos is all around us: political folly, economical delirium, ecological catastrophe, intellectual cynicism, technological simulation of life. This is what Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi suggests in this wry, dark, disconcerting but also brilliant and invigorating journey through the main events that we have witnessed in recent years. One century after the Communist revolution, the very idea that the world could be changed for the better seems dead once and for all. Every time that a new change occurs nowadays, it seems to be a change for the worse. But the fact that nothing can save us any more shouldn’t be seen as a form of fatality or a reason for surrender. On the contrary, if our world is dead, then the space is open for another to appear – a world where apocalypse can shake us out of our zombie-like contemporary existence. The second coming of Communism will have nothing to do with 1917. Apocalypse has to be conceived of as a metaphor, and Communism is a metaphor too: the metaphor of the possible deployment of the potentials of the mind.Table of Contents0. How to How to deal with chaos Not action but interpretation Black out 1. In retrospect Fifty years after sixty-eight A hundred years after the Soviet revolutionIs fascism back? 2. Apocalypse The expanding sphere of nothingness The Empire of Chaos and the Embedded Order Guns, opioids and reason Trumping truth in the empire of fake Auschwitz on the beach 3. Is there life after the apocalypse?

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Book SynopsisCedric Robinson – political theorist, historian, and activist – was one of the greatest black radical thinkers of the twentieth century. In this powerful work, the first major book to tell his story, Joshua Myers shows how Robinson’s work interrogated the foundations of western political thought, modern capitalism, and changing meanings of race. Tracing the course of Robinson’s journey from his early days as an agitator in the 1960s to his publication of such seminal works as Black Marxism, Myers frames Robinson’s mission as aiming to understand and practice opposition to “the terms of order.” In so doing, Robinson excavated the Black Radical tradition as a form of resistance that imagined that life on wholly different terms was possible. In the era of Black Lives Matter, that resistance is as necessary as ever, and Robinson’s contribution only gains in importance. This book is essential reading for anyone wanting to learn more about it.Trade Review“Joshua Myers… does an excellent job in contextualizing Robinson in this very readable biography.”The Progressive“Cedric J. Robinson finally has found a worthy biographer in Joshua Myers. This book will remind you why we must urgently read and re-read Robinson’s work. A tour de force.”Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination “Joshua Myers has written a necessary and much needed text to broaden and deepen our understanding of the life, thought, and practice of Cedric Robinson.”Corey D. B. Walker, Wake Forest University"[A] clear and concise biography... valuable in developing an understanding of Robinson's thought and life."Ken Olende, Ethnic and Racial Studies “a thought-provoking and an inspirational study.”CHOICE Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Preface: Cedric’s Time Chapter 1: All Around Him Chapter 2: The Town and Gown Chapter 3: Authority and Order Chapter 4: Beyond Racial Capitalism Chapter 5: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition Chapter 6: Culture and War Conclusion: I Am You Notes

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Book SynopsisCryptocurrencies are often associated with right-wing political movements, or even with the alt-right. They are the preserve of libertarians and fans of Ayn Rand and Friedrich Hayek. With their promotion of anonymity and individualism, there’s no doubt that they seamlessly slot into the prevailing anti-State ideology. But in this book Mark Alizart argues that the significance of cryptocurrencies goes well beyond cryptoanarchism. In so far as they allow us ‘to appropriate collectively the means of monetary production’, to paraphrase Marx, and to replace ‘the government of persons by the administration of things’, as Engels advocated, they form the basis for a political regime that begins to look like a communism which has at last come to fruition – a cryptocommunism.Trade Review"A fascinating antidote to reductive takes on cryptocurrencies. Blockchains are more than just cryptolibertarianism and this book makes a provocative and wide-ranging case for just how important they might be." Nick Srnicek, King’s College London"Alizart's arguments are compelling and replete with insights into what a digital-empowered post-capitalist society might look like."Red Pepper"Creative and iconoclastic"Marx and Philosophy Review of Books

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Book SynopsisPolitical science emerged as a response to the challenges of imperial administration and the demands of colonial rule. While not all political scientists were colonial cheerleaders, their thinking was nevertheless framed by colonial assumptions that influence the study of politics to this day. This book offers students a lens through which to decolonize the main themes and issues of political science - from human nature, rights, and citizenship, to development and global justice. Not content with revealing the colonial legacies that still inform the discipline, the book also introduces students to a wide range of intellectual resources from the (post)colonial world that will help them think through the same themes and issues more expansively. Decolonizing Politics is a much-needed critical guide for students of political science. It shifts the study of political science from the centers of power to its margins, where the majority of humanity lives. Ultimately, the book argues that those who occupy the margins are not powerless. Rather, marginal positions might afford a deeper understanding of politics than can be provided by mainstream approaches.​Trade Review"Decolonizing Politics is a necessary book as it peels back the Western assumptions about politics and political life. This is a vital text for all students of political studies."—Anthony Bogues, Brown University "This is the kind of book that unlocks doors in people's minds. Most of all, it brings new energy to the urgent quest, the world over, to challenge Western dominance of the social sciences and humanities."—Amy Niang, University of the Witwatersrand &"In Decolonizing Politics, Shilliam provides a brilliant, erudite but also accessible and enjoyable guide to how to de-center the production of our knowledge about politics. This is a 'must read' for all students of Political Science, Political Theory and International Relations."—Kimberly Hutchings, Queen Mary University of London "Written with spunk and verve, this book is the refreshing and exciting introduction that the discipline of political science has been waiting for! While revealing the imperial, racial, gendered, and class hierarchies that shaped the intellectual roots of the discipline’s core subfields and organizing concepts, the book introduces readers to anticolonial thinkers from the margins and borderlands, who offer compelling alternative routes to reimagining the human, the citizen, the path to development, and the causes of war and peace."—Catherine Lu, McGill University "This is a vital text for anyone committed to teaching Politics with honesty and rigour. Shilliam re-engages faithfully with canonical figures, such as Kant and Aristotle, confronting the constitutive dehumanising exclusions which have since been airbrushed from their theories, before introducing routes to repair by way of thinkers, such as Wynter and Anzaldúa, who imagine humanity without exclusions."—Lisa Tilley, Birkbeck, University of London "Political Science needs to be decolonized and Robbie Shilliam has done it. Crisp, clear and accessible, this book exceeds the ambition of a conventional textbook by developing and applying a decolonial method of reading across the discipline's subfields."—David L. Blaney, Macalester College "In Decolonizing Politics, Robbie Shilliam challenges Political Science to critically examine the colonial and racist logics at the foundations of the discipline. It may be an introductory text aimed at undergraduates, but I wish all mainstream political scientists dared to engage with its premise."—Times Higher Education "A valuable contribution to academic life."—Ethnic and Racial Studies "Decolonizing Politics critiques the colonial logics of four subfields of political science and reimagines each from its margins. Each chapter revolves around a theme that illuminates the history of imperiasl power and colonial rule in that part of the discipline."—International AffairsTable of Contents1. Introduction 2. Political Theory 3. Political Behavior 4. Comparative Politics 5. International Relations 6. Conclusion Bibliography

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Book SynopsisWho are refugees? Who, if anyone, is responsible for protecting them? What forms should this protection take? In a world of people fleeing from civil wars, state failure, and environmental disasters, these are ethically and politically pressing questions. In this book, David Owen reveals how the contemporary politics of refuge is structured by two rival historical pictures of refugees. In reconstructing this history, he advocates an understanding of refugeehood that moves us beyond our current impasse by distinguishing between what is owed to refugees in general and what is owed to different types of refugee. He provides an account of refugee protection and the forms of international cooperation required to implement it that is responsive to the claims of both refugees and states. At a time when refugee protection is once again prominent on the international agenda, this book offers a guide to understanding the challenges this topic raises and shows why addressing it matters for all of us.Trade Review‘David Owen provides historical, conceptual, principled and practical perspectives on questions about refugees. His book is clear and accessible, but also subtle and sophisticated. It greatly advances our understanding of this important issue.’Joseph H. Carens, University of Toronto ‘A sparkling introduction to the central ethical issues raised by refugees from a respected philosopher. This work is a major contribution to our understanding of this great challenge of our time.’Matthew J. Gibney, University of OxfordTable of ContentsAcknowledgements Prologue: A Tale of Two Ships Introduction Picturing Refugees Who are Refugees? Responsibility for Refugees Predicaments of Protection Notes References

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Book SynopsisLaw is the most sacred fetish of our time. From radicals to conservatives, there is no militant, activist or thinker who would consider doing without it. But the history of our fascination with law is long and complex, and reaches deeper into our culture than we might think. In After Law, Laurent de Sutter takes us on a journey to uncover the sources of our fascination. He shows that at a certain moment in our history a choice was made to treat law as a decisive feature of civilization, but this choice was neither obvious nor necessary. Other political, social, religious or cultural possibilities could have been chosen instead – from ancient Egypt to Mesopotamia, from medieval Japan to China, from Islam to Judaism, other cultures have devised sophisticated tools to help people live together without having to deal with norms, rules and principles. This is a lesson worth reflecting on, especially at a time when the rule of law and the functioning of justice are increasingly showing their sinister side – and their impotence. Is there life beyond law?Trade Review‘There is little in need of more urgent scrutiny than the sclerotic legal systems of Western law. Tersely, rudely, brilliantly, After Law dares to imagine what has not yet been conceived, a post-juridical era of collapsing, chaotic, sensuous, transhuman, ethical community.’Peter Goodrich, Professor of Law, Cardozo School of Law, New York ‘Laurent de Sutter’s amazingly erudite tour of the major legal traditions explores the concepts, institutions and strategies of the world’s nomophilia – the age-old love of law. After Law is necessary reading for every lawyer, academic and researcher looking for links, comparisons and contrasts in the legal foundations of the world and the indispensable companion for every course in jurisprudence, legal history and comparative law.’Costas Douzinas, Professor of Law, Birkbeck, University of London

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Book SynopsisInequality is the crisis of our time. The growing gap between a few at the top and the rest of society damages us all. No longer able to deny the crisis, every government in the world is now pledged to fix it – and yet it keeps on getting worse. In this book, international anti-inequality campaigner Ben Phillips shows why winning the debate is not enough: we have to win the fight. Drawing on his insider experience, and his personal exchanges with the real-life heroes of successful movements, he shows how the battle against inequality has been won before, and he shares a practical plan for defeating inequality again. He sets a route map for us to overcome deference, build our collective power, and create a new story. Most books on inequality are about what other people ought to do about it – this book is about why winning the fight needs you. Tired of feeling helpless in the face of spiralling inequality? Want to know what you can do about it? This is the book for you.Trade Review“This powerful book makes clear why we cannot rely on elites to fix inequality and why it is up to us, together. Ben Phillips introduces us to the frontline heroes of the fight against inequality, and shows how we have won previous struggles and can win now.” Winnie Byanyima, former executive director of Oxfam International “Inequality would not be a major issue around the world without the work of Ben Phillips. He has helped mobilize people power to transform the imbalances that destabilize our economies and scar our communities. This practical book empowers readers with the data, information, arguments and advice they need to be able to help bring an end to this crisis.” Ann Pettifor, author of The Case for the Green New Deal “Ben Phillips is a stalwart campaigner for a fairer world. How to Fight Inequality is a handy primer to help people to build power together.”John Githongo “Ben Phillips has helped bring global attention to the inequality crisis. How to Fight Inequality is an ideal guide for anyone who wants to help. He brings to the book lessons and stories from a lifetime deeply enmeshed in activism and organising, finding hope not in famous leaders but in everyday people, and helping set out how each of us can get engaged in building a more equal society.”Naila Kabeer “We now know just how harmful inequality is to us all. But can anything be done about it? Ben Phillips’s smart new book is packed with powerful stories of change won from the ground up, helps guide us in what we can do by organising together, and demonstrates that a more equal future is ours to make.”Kate Pickett “Inequality defines our present but it is not our fate. In Ben Phillips’s crisp guide he shows from past victories and today’s vibrant new movements a way we can win. His first-hand stories from ‘extraordinary, ordinary people’ winning change illustrate how together we have the power to beat inequality.”Kumi Naidoo “Most of us know how severe – and how dangerous – inequality has become. The debates have been won, but the problem keeps getting worse. Now we must win the fight. And there can be no spectators: it is up to you and me to make change happen. As US President Lyndon Johnson once told Martin Luther King: ‘I know what I have to do – but you have to make me do it.’ Ben Phillips’ short, sharp, powerful book provides a rousing call for action, and draws on the hard lessons of history to create an essential how-to guide to what works and what doesn’t, in the epoch-defying struggle of our new gilded age.”Nicholas Shaxson

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Book SynopsisIn this pathbreaking book, Pierre Charbonnier opens up a new intellectual terrain: an environmental history of political ideas. His aim is not to locate the seeds of ecological thought in the history of political ideas as others have done, but rather to show that all political ideas, whether or not they endorse ecological ideals, are informed by a certain conception of our relationship to the Earth and to our environment. The fundamental political categories of modernity were founded on the idea that we could improve on nature, that we could exert a decisive victory over its excesses and claim unlimited access to earthly resources. In this way, modern thinkers imagined a political society of free individuals, equal and prosperous, alongside the development of industry geared towards progress and liberated from the Earth’s shackles. Yet this pact between democracy and growth has now been called into question by climate change and the environmental crisis. It is therefore our duty today to rethink political emancipation, bearing in mind that this can no longer draw on the prospect of infinite growth promised by industrial capitalism. Ecology must draw on the power harnessed by nineteenth-century socialism to respond to the massive impact of industrialization, but it must also rethink the imperative to offer protection to society by taking account of the solidarity of social groups and their conditions in a world transformed by climate change. This timely and original work of social and political theory will be of interest to a wide readership in politics, sociology, environmental studies and the social sciences and humanities generally.Trade Review"Because he speaks the language of political philosophy and not that of environmentalism, Charbonnier manages, paradoxically, to bring questions of the material conditions of existence much closer to what those who pursue the modern ideals of freedom and prosperity need in order to realize them. He might succeed in rendering political ecology mainstream."Bruno Latour, Sciences Po, Paris"Impressive and forensic"Times Higher Education“An unlikely environmental history of Enlightenment political and economic thought.”London Review of BooksTable of ContentsAcknowledgements Foreword Introduction Chapter One. The critique of ecological reason The fabric of liberty The other history. Ecology and the labour question Subsisting, dwelling, knowing Autonomy and abundance Chapter Two. Sovereignty and property. Political philosophy and the land The political affordances of the land Grotius: Empire and possession Locke: the improving citizen Chapter Three. Grain and the market. The order of commerce and the organic economy in the eighteenth century The good use of the land The agrarian kingdom of the Physiocrats The liberal pact: Adam Smith Two types of growth Fichte: the ubiquity of the moderns Chapter Four. The new ecological regime From one liberalism to another The paradoxes of autonomy: Guizot The paradoxes of abundance: Jevons Colonial extractions Extraction-autonomy: Tocqueville Chapter Five. Industrial democracy. From Proudhon to Durkheim Revolutions and industry Property and labour Proudhon as critic of the liberal pact The fraternal idiom Durkheim: ‘carbon sociology’ The political affordances of coal Chapter Six. The technocratic hypothesis. Saint-Simon and Veblen Material flows and market arrangements The technological normativity of the moderns Laying bare the productive schema Veblen and the cult of efficiency The engineer and property Chapter Seven. Nature in a market society Marx as a thinker of autonomy Putting the forest to good use Technology and agronomy Conquering the globe Karl Polanyi: protecting society, protecting nature Disembedding Socialism, liberalism, conservatism Chapter Eight. The great acceleration and the eclipse of nature Freedom from want Emancipation and acceleration: Herbert Marcuse Oil and atomic power: invisible energies Chapter Nine. Risks and limits: the end of certainties Alarms and controversies The critique of development and political naturalism Risk and the reinvention of autonomy The impasse: between collapse and resilience Chapter Ten. The end of the modern exception and political ecology Symmetrizations Authority and composition Under naturalism lies production Unequal ecological exchange Provincializing critique A new conceptual cartography Changing expectations of justice Autonomy without abundance Towards a new critical subject Chapter Eleven. The self-protection of the Earth. Changing expectations of justice Autonomy without abundance Towards a new critical subject Conclusion. Reinventing liberty Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe global crisis of our time involves a complex of ecological, economic, technological and migratory challenges that no state is able to control. The result is a provincialisation of our democracies with respect to the new planetary powers confronting humanity. It is from this that our increasingly impotent and rabid politics stems. Paradoxical as it may seem, it is precisely the decline of the nation-state that is the source of the great nationalist uprising of our time.We need a new planetary vision that is able to reclaim and liberate our world, starting today and engaging each of us. This is the task of philosophy as much as it is of politics, of theory as it is of activism. Connecting with a new generation taking to the streets across the globe, this book tells the story of the ever-closer union of our world, from the age of empire to the climate crisis, and presents a plea and a roadmap to step beyond the mental and material boundaries of our nations.Trade Review"In an age of planetary-scale existential crises spearheaded by the cul-de-sac of financialised globalisation, Lorenzo Marsili's focus on the need for a renewed internationalism is vital and urgent."—Yanis VaroufakisTable of ContentsTable of contents:Introduction The twilight of universal Europe The human zoo The last ideology Before the revolution All under heaven A glimpse into a politics for the planet Notes

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Book SynopsisAlliance politics is a regular headline grabber. When a possible military crisis involving Russia, North Korea, or China rears its head, leaders and citizens alike raise concerns over the willingness of US allies to stand together. As rival powers have tightened their security cooperation, the United States has stepped up demands that its allies increase their defense spending and contribute more to military operations in the Middle East and elsewhere. The prospect of former President Donald Trump unilaterally ending alliances alarmed longstanding partners, even as NATO was welcoming new members into its ranks. Military Alliances in the Twenty-First Century is the first book to explore fully the politics that shape these security arrangements – from their initial formation through the various challenges that test them and, sometimes, lead to their demise. Across six thematic chapters, Alexander Lanoszka challenges conventional wisdom that has dominated our understanding of how military alliances have operated historically and into the present. Although military alliances today may seem uniquely hobbled by their internal difficulties, Lanoszka argues that they are in fact, by their very nature, prone to dysfunction.Trade Review"Elegant, engaging, and important. Alexander Lanoszka provides a masterclass on the origins and workings of modern military alliances. This is essential reading for today’s debates on international relations and the future of American grand strategy."G. John Ikenberry, Princeton University "Alliances are a foundational building block of the international order, but academics and practitioners have slighted the study of alliance management. Alexander Lanoszka provides a remedy with a scintillating tour d’horizon of the promise and perils of alliances in the twenty-first century."Eric S. Edelman, Former Under-Secretary of Defense for Policy "This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the dynamics and politics of military alliances. It offers both a concise, coherent, and insightful synthesis of existing scholarship as well as cogent, original arguments on classic questions of alliance politics."Brian Blankenship, University of Miami "In this excellent book, Lanoszka reviews, refreshes and challenges the scholarly debates on alliance politics. This is a book for both the student and scholar: for those seeking to understand alliances, and those whose understanding needs to be further refined."Iain D. Henry, Australian National UniversityTable of ContentsTables and Figure Acknowledgments Introduction 1: Formation 2. Entrapment 3. Abandonment 4. Burden-sharing 5. Warfare 6. Termination Conclusion References Index

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Book SynopsisAfter leading the world economy for a century, the United States faces the first real challenge to its supremacy in the rise of China. Is economic (or broader) conflict, well beyond the trade and technology war that has already erupted, inevitable between the world’s two superpowers? Will their clash produce a new economic leadership vacuum akin to the 1930s, when Great Britain was unable to play its traditional leadership role and a rising United States was unwilling to step in to save the global order? In this sweeping and authoritative analysis of the competition for global economic leadership between China and the United States, C. Fred Bergsten warns of the disastrous consequences of hostile confrontation between these two superpowers. He paints a frightening picture of a world economy adopting Chinese characteristics, in which the United States, after Trump abdicated much of its role, engages in a self-defeating attempt to “decouple” from its rival. Drawing on more than 50 years of active participation as a policymaker and close observation as a scholar, Bergsten calls on China to exercise constructive global leadership in its own self-interest and on the United States to reject a policy of containment, avoid a new Cold War, and instead pursue “conditional competitive cooperation” to work with its allies, and especially China, to lead, rather than destroy, the world economy.Trade Review“Bergsten makes an urgent case for US–China cooperation: work together to stabilize the world economy or risk a disaster on par with the Great Depression of the 1930s.”The New York Review of Books“No matter where you sit on the China-engagement spectrum, you will find Bergsten’s intelligent arguments of merit and practical use; whether you find yourself nodding in agreement and glad to be armed with such persuasive points, or furrowing your brow while attempting to formulate sound rebuttals, you’ll come away with a more informed and nuanced view of options for the China–U.S. economic relationship.”Bookish Asia “Americans may be uncomfortable with the lurch toward self-fulfilling Cold War thinking on China. But discomfort is not a plan. C. Fred Bergsten’s seminal new book draws on his five decades of experience as a leading global economic thinker and doer to outline the most compelling alternative in the economic sphere yet put forward.”Lawrence H. Summers, former Secretary of the Treasury and President Emeritus of Harvard University “Escalating tensions between the world’s two largest economies have fueled concerns of a repeat of the 1930s disaster. Esteemed economist C. Fred Bergsten analyzes what’s at stake and brilliantly outlines policy options to avoid these risks. A must-read for all of us, and particularly those in government today.”Carla A. Hills, Chair & CEO, Hills & Company International Consultants “An outstanding work … If the US and China ever find a way out of their current conflict, the balanced analysis and policy recommendations in this book will have played a fundamental role.”Barry Naughton, University of California, San Diego “No one is better suited than Fred Bergsten to undertake this critical study of US-China economic competition. It will be the defining challenge of the 21st-century for both nations, and the prescriptions he lays down are well-suited to avoid a trade war neither side can win.”James Stavridis, Admiral, US Navy (retired), former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, and Vice Chair of The Carlyle Group “Fred Bergsten is one of the world’s foremost experts on the global economy. His exceptional book offers a 21st Century complement to Charles Kindleberger’s classic about international leadership and economic orders. Bergsten explains why the global economic system depends on an accommodation between the United States and China. He challenges the new Cold War thesis of condemning and containing China. Instead, he offers a work plan of cooperation and competition, conditioned upon reciprocity.”Robert B. Zoellick, Former President of the World Bank, US Trade Representative, and Deputy Secretary of State, and author of America in the World “In this stimulating book, Fred Bergsten ponders the challenge for global economic leadership being waged by the U.S. and China now and in the coming decades. It is a powerful work, drawing on deep experience and insider knowledge.”David Bachman, University of Washington “In his masterful opus, Fred Bergsten, a pioneer in the study of international economic policy coordination, explores the modus vivendi of the United States and China in the age of global leadership vacuum. He argues that liberal internationalism still serves the enlightened self-interest for both countries, as well as for the rest of the world. His vision is solidly anchored with geopolitical realism and pragmatic idealism.”Yoichi Funabashi “Fred Bergsten, an experienced and influential economic policymaker, warns against a new Cold War between the US and China, and offers positive suggestions for managing a competitive cooperation.”Joseph Nye, Distinguished Service Professor at Harvard Kennedy School of Government and author of Do Morals Matter? Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump"Impressive book[…]."The Critic''Bergsten’s book is important for its breadth of perspective and depth of knowledge.''Vivek Arora, Finance & Development“cogent and comprehensive”Andrew Peaple, The Society of Professional Economists“Bergsten makes a compelling case that the risks associated with a leaderless global economy, or worse, one where China and the United States are at each other’s throats, should get the two governments to pursue his agenda.” Foreign AffairsTable of ContentsList of Figures, Tables, and Boxes Abbreviations Preface PART I: The Setting 1 A New Global Economic Order? 2 Why Global Economic Leadership Matters PART II: The Superpowers 3 China’s Capabilities 4 China’s Aspirations 5 America’s Capabilities 6 America’s Will to Lead PART III: The Systemic Alternatives 7 The Leadership Vacuum: A G-0 World? 8 G-1 Chinese Economic Pre-Eminence 9 Effective Co-Leadership: A US-China G-2 10 Toward Conditional Competitive Cooperation References Notes

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Book SynopsisImages of killer robots are the stuff of science fiction – but also, increasingly, of scientific fact on the battlefield. Should we be worried, or is this a normal development in the technology of war? In this accessible volume ethicist Deane Baker cuts through the confusion over whether lethal autonomous weapons – so-called killer robots – should be banned. Setting aside unhelpful analogies taken from science fiction, Baker looks instead to our understanding of mercenaries (the metaphorical ‘dogs of war’) and weaponized animals (the literal dogs of war) to better understand the ethical challenges raised by the employment of lethal autonomous weapons (the robot dogs of war). These ethical challenges include questions of trust and reliability, control and accountability, motivation and dignity. Baker argues that, while each of these challenges is significant, they do not – even when considered together – justify a ban on this emerging class of weapon systems. This book offers a clear point of entry into the debate over lethal autonomous weapons – for students, researchers, policy makers and interested general readers.Trade Review‘In this deceptively small volume, Deane Baker brings his usual clarity and precision to the issue of the ethics of the use of lethal autonomous weapons systems.’Martin L. Cook, United States Naval War College ‘Engaging, stimulating and well researched. This is not a theoretical treatment for philosophers, but rather an informed and deeply practical exploration of the ethical arguments surrounding machines and killing.’David Whetham, Director of the Centre for Military Ethics, Kings College, LondonTable of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction Chapter One: Of War Dogs, Bat Bombs, Mercenaries and Killer Robots Chapter Two: Trust, Trustworthiness and Reliability Chapter Three: Control and Accountability Chapter Four: Motives and Dignity Conclusion: So Then, Should We Ban Killer Robots? Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThe virtue of obedience is seen as outdated today, if not downright toxic – and yet, are we any freer than our forebears? In this provocative work, Jacob Phillips argues not. Many feel unable to speak freely, their opinions policed by the implicit or explicit threat of coercion. Impending ecological disaster is the ultimate threat to our freedoms and wellbeing, and living in a disenchanted cosmos leaves people enslaved to nihilistic whim. Phillips shows that the antiquated notion of obedience to the moral law contains forgotten dimensions, which can be a source of freedom from these contemporary fetters. These dimensions of obedience – such as loyalty, discipline and order – protect people from falling prey to the subtle forms of coercion, control and domination of twenty-first-century life. Fusing literary insight with philosophical discussion and cultural critique, Phillips demonstrates that in obedience lies the path to true freedom.Trade Review‘This book is not a thunderous polemic, still less a dry work of abstract argumentation. Phillips, writing in effective and elegant prose, draws on literature, modern history and personal experience to craft richly human insights into thinking and living well […] stimulating and insightful.’The Critic‘A thoughtful, fascinating read.’Tim Stanley, author of Whatever Happened to Tradition? 'Obedience is Freedom ​musically weaves together high and low culture, ancient and modern, the sacred and profane, in a richly resonant texture of ideas. This is a book that will surprise and delight both the very well-read and the very online.'Mary Harrington, Contributing Editor, UnHerd ‘We live in the wreckage created by the individual liberationist transformations of the twentieth-century Left and Right. More an exploration than a polemic, Phillips uses literary criticism, storytelling and the history of ideas to envision another path based on solidarity, loyalty and obligations, without which we are liberated from all duties, only to find ourselves alone in a harsh and unjust world.’Angela Nagle, author of Kill All Normie“Jacob Phillips has written a book which needed to be written and which needs to be read […] this work cements his reputation as a fine essayist in the best of English traditions.”European Conservative“Utterly unique.”Seamus Flaherty, Merion West"Phillips calls on an eclectic range of philosophers, poets, and novelists as tutelary spirits; and he extracts unexpected lessons from disparate, real-world events."The Irish Examiner"brilliant and unusual”Spiked“Paragraph after paragraph, a seductive threnody unfolds, structured by an almost syllogistic order.”Henry Hopwood-Phillips, The Critic“erudite…crowded with well-expressed insights”Chronicles MagazineTable of ContentsIntroduction 1 Allegiance 2 Loyalty 3 Deference 4 Honour 5 Obligation 6 Respect 7 Responsibility 8 Discipline 9 Duty 10 Authority Notes

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Book SynopsisThe notion of ‘immigrant integration’ is used everywhere – by politicians, policy makers, journalists and researchers – as an all-encompassing framework for rebuilding ‘unity from diversity’ after large-scale immigration. Promising a progressive middle way between backward-looking ideas of assimilation and the alleged fragmentation of multiculturalism, ‘integration’ has become the default concept for states scrambling to deal with global refugee management and the persistence of racial disadvantage. Yet ‘integration’ is the continuance of a long-standing colonial development paradigm. It is how majority-white liberal democracies absorb and benefit from mass migration while maintaining a hierarchy of race and nationality – and the global inequalities it sustains. Immigrant integration sits at the heart of the neo-liberal racial capitalism of recent decades, in which tight control of nation-building and bordering selectively enables some citizens to enjoy the mobilities of a globally integrating world, as other populations are left behind and locked out. Subjecting research and policy on immigrant integration to theoretical scrutiny, The Integration Nation offers a fundamental rethink of a core concept in migration, ethnic and racial studies in the light of the challenge posed by decolonial theory and movements.Trade Review“Written by the inimitable Adrian Favell, this work of brilliance is one of the most stimulating books on a migration-related topic that I have read in a long time.”Roger Waldinger, University of California, Los Angeles“Favell offers a biting critique of ‘immigrant integration’ as policy, logic and doxa. He powerfully points to the ways this seemingly common-sense concept underpins nationalist, racist and colonialist practices. Our views on the concept will never be the same again.”Steven Vertovec, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity“Adrian Favell has presented a pointed synopsis, analysis and critique of the integration paradigm […] Favell’s book is an important contribution to a reflexive examination of one’s own production of knowledge.”BEHEMOTH A Journal on Civilisation“Favell presents nothing less than a social theory of how and why Integration has been constituted, historically and conceptually, as a distinctive feature of liberal democracies and modern development.”Janine Dahinden, Ethnic and Racial Studies“The Integration Nation is a provocative book. Its goal is to push the reader by challenging some core, foundational constructs [….] In this provocation, it succeeds in the extreme.”Sara Wallace Goodman, Ethnic and Racial Studies“Adrian Favell achieves in The Integration Nation not only an important and informative discussion of the history of integration policies in the United States and Europe, but also a powerful and illuminating critique of the underpinning coloniality inherent in a focus on integration in policy making. The book […] should be required reading for all those interested in questions of bordering, statehood, and migration, particularly those looking to understand the logics underpinning policies intended to maintain capitalism and the nation-state.”International Migration Review“[A]mbitious and thought-provoking […] this book makes an important contribution to the academic and public debates on immigration and is recommended reading for scholars of migration, students, and policymakers.”Nima Dahir, Sociology of Race and EthnicityTable of ContentsIntroduction1. Integration as a Paradigm2. Integration and Assimilation3. Integration and Multiculturalism4. Integration and Race5. Integration and Transnationalism6. Integration and Decolonization

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Book SynopsisIn the past, pandemics were considered divine punishment, but we now understand the biological characteristics of viruses and we know they are spread through social interaction. What used to be divine has become human – all too human, as Nietzsche would say. But while the virus dispels the divine, we are discovering that living beings are more complex and harder to define than we had previously imagined, and also that political power is more complex than we may have thought. And this, argues Nancy, helps us to see why the term ‘biopolitics’ fails to grasp the conditions in which we now find ourselves. Life and politics challenge us together. Our scientific knowledge tells us that we are dependent only on our own technical power, but can we rely on technologies when knowledge itself includes uncertainties? If this is the case for technical power, it is much more so for political power, even when it presents itself as guided by objective data. The virus is a magnifying glass that reveals the contradictions, limitations and frailties of the human condition, calling into question as never before our stubborn belief in progress and our hubristic sense of our own indestructibility as a species.Trade Review‘Into the craw of the pandemic, every tomorrow seems to have slid. Nancy here attempts to breathe out. In articulating the contradictions we confront and rendering the tentativeness of our situation palpable, he scans for an opening.’Professor Joan Copjec, Brown UniversityTable of ContentsPublisher’s NotePreface PrologueI. An All-Too-Human Virus II. “Communovirus” III. Let Us Be Infants IV. Evil and Power V. Freedom VI. Neo-Viralism VII. To Free Freedom VIII. The Useful and the Useless IX. Still All Too Human Appendix 1: Interview with Nicolas Dutent Appendix 2: From the Future to the Time to Come: The Revolution of the Virus (with Jean-François Bouthors) Sources of the Texts

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Book SynopsisIn the late twentieth century, disasters seemed like distant happenings in countries far away from the prosperous West. But today they are ‘coming home’ with a vengeance. From global warming to migration crises, from assaults on democracy to Covid-19 and the fall-out of war in Ukraine – the West is in the grip of multiple, overlapping crises that keep its populations in a state of perpetual fear and distraction. Disasters should be awakening us to the need to reform our disaster-producing system. Yet instead, as David Keen shows in this disturbing and original book, they are routinely being exploited for political as well as economic gain. A number of crises, whether slow-burning or sudden, are not only reinforcing each other but also bolstering the toxic politics that helped to generate them. One key problem here is the use of emergencies to vilify those who are trying to relieve them or to highlight their root causes. Unless these voices and alternative perspectives find a way to break through, we risk being locked into a system of emergency politics that is self-reinforcing rather than self-correcting – and that routinely manufactures its own legitimacy.Trade Review"This is an important book, full of original and thought-provoking insights, about how the permanent emergencies that characterize large parts of what is known as the Global South, as well as the self-reinforcing ‘magical thinking’ that goes with them, are increasingly to be found in places like Britain and the United States of America."Mary Kaldor, the London School of Economics and Political Science"In this remarkable book, David Keen has brought decades of disaster research to devastating fruition. Once thought the lot of less fortunate regions, a state of permanent emergency engulfs the rich world. From the economy, politics and society to the environment and climate change, an interconnected and self-reinforcing general crisis now defines the way people live and die. As Keen shows, however, all disasters have winners and losers. Unable to address this general crisis and, should it reduce profits, unwilling to tackle its root causes, politicians have instead embraced permanent emergency as a new and magical mode of government. Able to override democracy in the name of emergency, the winners have foisted austerity and precarity on the masses, while inflicting acts of exemplary cruelty on the weak and vulnerable. This book lays bare the predicament and sounds the alarm: sleepwalkers, ignore it at your peril."Mark Duffield, University of Bristol"A comprehensive insight into how and why disasters are created by the western democracies."Ksenia Chmutina, Loughborough UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsChapter 1: Disasters Coming HomeChapter 2: Lessons from the ‘Far Away’Chapter 3: A Self-reinforcing System?Chapter 4: Emergency PoliticsChapter 5: Hostile EnvironmentsChapter 6: Welcoming InfectionChapter 7: Magical ThinkingChapter 8: Policing DelusionsChapter 9: Action as PropagandaChapter 10: Choosing DisasterChapter 11: Home to RoostBibliographyNotes

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Book SynopsisIn June 2016, the people of the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. As the EU’s chief negotiator, for four years Michel Barnier had a seat at the table as the two sides thrashed out what ‘Brexit’ would really mean. The result would change Britain and Europe forever. During the 1600 days of complex and often acrimonious negotiations, Michel Barnier kept a secret diary. He recorded his private hopes and fears, and gave a blow-by-blow account as the negotiations oscillated between consensus and disagreement, transparency and lies. From Brussels to London, from Dublin to Nicosia, Michel Barnier’s secret diary lifts the lid on what really happened behind the scenes of one of the most high-stakes negotiations in modern history. The result is a unique testimony from the ultimate insider on the hidden world of Brexit and those who made it happen.Trade Review"There is admiration for Britain in Barnier's Secret Brexit Diary, a blow-by-blow account of the marathon dance that he performed with a succession of British ministers and two prime ministers, all of whose behaviour he found exasperating."The Times "Michel Barnier's new book helps explain why Britain ended up being comprehensively out-negotiated over Brexit and saddled with a flawed withdrawal agreement and a deeply disadvantageous future relationship, both of which will cause us major problems for decades to come. This is therefore an important account."Jonathan Powell, The Guardian "Michel Barnier, who is one of the most experienced and intelligent leaders in the world, played a hugely significant role in the Brexit process and this book provides a lively and compelling account of it, drawing on his unique perspective. Anyone with a serious interest in understanding the terms of the UK's departure from the European Union will benefit from reading it."Tony Blair "Michel Barnier, an Anglophile and natural team-player, is methodical, loyal, steady, above all honest. So his Brexit diary is disconcerting: it seems we really were as ill-prepared and inconsistent as observers suspected. His accounts of the posturing of Davis and Raab, and his discovery that he couldn't trust Johnson and Frost, ring all too true. His is a sobering story of British self-harm."Lord Kerr of Kinlochard "For historians writing about the UK’s long and painful exit from the European Union, Michel Barnier's account is essential reading. For anyone interested in Brexit, it offers a valuable guide to the EU's negotiating strategy and the people who shaped it."Jennifer Rankin, Brussels Correspondent, The Guardian "If the treaties are the legal texts of the Brexit talks then this is the human version, revealing a Michel Barnier who is much warmer and far less diplomatic than his public persona. It's a masterclass in how the EU operates, and a rare glimpse into the tensions on their side."Adam Fleming, Chief Political Correspondent, BBC News "How did the European Union deal with the challenge of losing a leading member state? In this unique insider's account, the EU's chief negotiator reflects on the Brexit process, how it unfolded and how he managed the EU's approach to the talks. Required reading for everyone interested in figuring out what happened and why."Anand Menon, Professor of European Politics at King's College, London, and author of Brexit and British Politics "This book is required reading for anyone seriously interested in the exhausting saga of the Brexit negotiations, and it is good to have an English edition of what is undoubtedly an important historical document."Robert Tombs, Professor Emeritus of French History at the University of Cambridge and author of The English and Their History "This is a political thriller: 500 pages of twists and turns, advances and setbacks, taking place behind the scenes in an altogether extraordinary negotiation."Nicolas Demorand, France Inter "The former European chief negotiator has delivered his Brexit novel: a unique experience of four and a half years recounted day by day, in the theatre of the powerful with its noble aims and petty squabbles, its backtracking and its bluffs, its laughter and its tears, including very personal ones. And it's absolutely riveting."Mathieu Laine, Les Échos "An important account of how the EU comprehensively out-negotiated the UK."The New Statesman"Europe out-negotiated the United Kingdom across the board. The British people—faced with confusion on the border with Ireland, severe labor and product shortages, and continuing squabbles over a host of issues from fishing to banking—are now paying the price."Foreign AffairsTable of ContentsList of Illustrations The Main Players A Warning Origins of the Referendum Diary 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 A Second Negotiation 2021 Acknowledgements Glossary Chronology Abbreviations Index

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Book SynopsisThe pandemic has brought into sharp relief the fundamental relationship between institution and human life: at the very moment when the virus was threatening to destroy life, human beings called upon institutions – on governments, on health systems, on new norms of behavior – to combat the virus and preserve life. Drawing on this and other examples, Roberto Esposito argues that institutions and human life are not opposed to one another but rather two sides of a single figure that, together, delineate the vital character of institutions and the instituting power of life. What else is life, after all, if not a continuous institution, a capacity for self-regeneration along new and unexplored paths? No human life is reducible to pure survival, to “bare life.” There is always a point at which life reaches out beyond primary needs, entering into the realm of desires and choices, passions and projects, and at that point human life becomes instituted: it becomes part of the web of relations that constitute social, political, and cultural life.Trade Review“This highly original study by acclaimed political philosopher Roberto Esposito offers a new genealogy of the institution from ancient Rome to the Covid-19 pandemic. For Esposito, human existence is predicated not simply on the bare preservation of our biological life but upon life’s institution across space and time in the form of social, cultural, and political relations. In tracing this institutio vitae, Esposito progressively reveals a new theory of the institution as neither conservative nor repressive, but a creative form of life that liberates us from the twin dangers of institutional sclerosis and anti-institutional anarchy.”Arthur Bradley, Lancaster University“No thinker has emphasised the centrality of concepts of immunity and immunisation to contemporary politics more than Esposito”Radical PhilosophyTable of ContentsBy Way of a Prologue I. The Eclipse II. The Return III. The Productivity of the Negative IV. Beyond the State V. Institutions and Biopolitics Epilogue

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Book SynopsisAs the globalized regime of neoliberal capitalism consolidates its grip on the world, it refines the micropolitics proper to the capitalist system and makes it more perverse. This micropolitics involves the appropriation – what Suely Rolnik calls the “pimping” – of life, as it turns the life drive itself away from creation and cooperation and towards the deadening, destructive practice necessary for capital accumulation. This dynamic is the engine of what Rolnik calls the colonial-capitalistic unconscious regime. She also identifies the conditions necessary to fight against this regime – namely, a reappropriation of the life drive, the energetic basis at the heart of all life forms, human life included, and the principal source of extraction for capitalism. Drawing on examples from across the Americas, including Brazil and the United States, Rolnik examines the circumstances that have given rise to regressive, reactionary governments throughout the world. These circumstances include, at the macro level, an alliance between neoliberalism and extreme conservatism and, at the micro level, a crisis of the hegemonic subject in the face of the emergent empowerment of marginalized communities that practice other modes of subjectivation. This crucial book by one of the most prominent intellectuals in Latin America today will be of great value to anyone interested in contemporary politics and social struggles.Trade Review“In this book, Suely Rolnik dismantles the stable partitions between the micropolitical and the macropolitical. She maps out how to understand their internal vectors (reactionary and emancipatory) rather than reinforcing their simple binarism. Moreover, here shines a precise and precious definition of the colonial as that which makes us distrust the knowledge of the body. For that, this book is also proposed as a practical manual, part of a collective task, which makes the decolonization of the unconscious an anti-fascist practice.”Verónica Gago, feminist activist and Professor at the University of Buenos AiresTable of ContentsIntroduction – Stefano HarneyPrelude: Words Flowering Out of the Lumps in Our Throats“Colonial-Capitalistic Unconscious”Macro and Micropolitical Insurgency: Links and DissimilaritiesThe New Modality of Coup: A Series in Three SeasonsFinale: Ten Suggestions for the Practice of Decolonizing the UnconsciousNotes

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Book SynopsisWhat is the relation between politics and the world? It might seem that global capitalism has created one world, but this is an illusion because capitalism creates a world of objects and money that divides human existence into regions separated by fences and walls built to keep some people out. In place of this falsely unified world of global capitalism, we need to assert a fundamental principle – namely, that there is one world of living subjects. This, in Badiou's view, is the categorical imperative of all true politics. The one world of living subjects is the place where an infinity of differences and identities exist. Hence foreigners are not a problem but rather an opportunity and a gift. They bear witness to the youth of the world in its infinite variety, and it is with this youth that the politics of the future rests. Foreignness is the means by which existence is re-evaluated, and all true politics is a new dawn of existence. This collection of essays by Badiou, in which he draws out the political implications of recent events and social movements, will be of value to anyone interested in the great social and political questions of our time.Trade Review"Badiou once again demonstrates the necessity of communism for thought. Nothing less than a new dialectical materialism is capable of breaking free from the present's ideological confinement."—Jodi Dean, author of Comrade: An Essay on Political Belonging "Badiou's great attempt to show us how to think, to act, and to write as revolutionaries in order to create a society, planet, a new age where Good prevails"—Inscriptions"elegant and provocative"—Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social AnalysisTable of ContentsPart I: Structures and Notions, Becomings and Visions1. The Neolithic Age, Capitalism and Communism2. The Notion of ‘Crisis’3. Science, Ideology, and the Middle Class4. Lecture at the Institute of Political SciencesPart II: Thinking the Present from the To-Come5. Lessons from the ‘Gilets Jaunes’ Movement 6. Pandemic, Ignorance, and New Sites of Collectivity7. Movements without an Idea and an Idea for Movements8. World, Existence, Foreignness: A New Dawn for Politics

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Book SynopsisWhat explains the peculiar intensity and evident intractability of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Of all the ""hot spots"" in the world today, the apparently endless clash between Jews and Arabs in the Middle East seems unique in its longevity and resistance to resolution. Is this conflict really different from other ethnic and nationalist confrontations, and if so, in what way? In this fully revised and expanded fifth edition of his highly respected introductory text, Alan Dowty demystifies the conflict by putting it in broad historical perspective, identifying its roots, and tracing its evolution up to the current impasse. His account offers a clear analytic framework for understanding transformations over time, and in doing so, punctures the myths of an ""age-old"" conflict with an unbridgeable gap between the two sides. Rather than simply reciting historical detail, this book presents a clear overview that serves as a road map through the thicket of conflicting claims. Updated to include recent developments, such as the recent Israeli elections and the debate over the two-state solution, the new edition presents in full the opposed perspectives of the two sides, leaving readers to make their own evaluations of the issues. The book thus expresses fairly and objectively the concerns, hopes, fears, and passions of both sides, making it clear why this conflict is waged with such vehemence – and how, for all that, the gap between the two sides has narrowed over time.Trade Review"Now in its fifth edition, Dowty's Israel/Palestine remains the go-to textbook for anyone interested in understanding the conflicting claims of Arabs and Jews. Moving beyond the dry description of historical events, Dowty's balanced construction of these competing narratives is both fascinating and compelling."—Asaf Siniver, University of Birmingham "This updated edition of Alan Dowty's book comprehensively and chronologically covers a complicated and intractable conflict in a manner that is clear, concise, compelling, accessible, and, above all, impartial. Dowty assiduously and judiciously presents the perspectives of both sides and does so in a clear-eyed and sober fashion while giving the reader hope that a solution is still possible. Dowty's book is required reading for students and specialists alike."—Eric Lob, Florida International UniversityTable of ContentsPrefaceMaps, Figures, and Tables1. Introduction: Two Worlds Collide2. The Jewish Story to 19143. The Arab Story to 19144. The Emergence of Israel, 1914-19675. The Re-Emergence of the Palestinians, 1967-19886. The First Pass at Peace, 1988-20017. The Fourth Stage of the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict, 2001-20098. The Downward Spiral since 20099. The Impasse That Remains10. The Perfect ConflictChronologyFurther ReadingInternet LinksReferencesIndex

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Book SynopsisThree years after the political novice Volodymyr Zelensky was elected to Ukraine’s highest office, he found himself catapulted into the role of war-time leader. The former comedian has become the public face of his country’s courageous and bloody struggle against a brutal invasion. Zelensky’s extraordinary leadership in the face of Russia’s aggression is an inspiration to everyone who stands opposed to the appalling violence unleashed on Ukraine. This book – the first biography of Zelensky published in English – tells his astonishing story. It has been revised and updated for this new paperback edition.Trade ReviewSelected as one of The New Statesman’s Best Books of 2023 "War is a rupture—in a country's life and a leader's. Amid the calamity, Ukrainians have proven lucky in theirs. As Mr Rudenko writes at the close, the man who was 'visibly nervous' in his early bouts of diplomacy, the ingénue and clown, now has an experience of statecraft that no modern Western leader can match, nor would wish to."The Economist "From voice of Paddington to global giant... the man behind the wartime façade"The Observer "The first English-language biography of Zelensky reveals what Ukrainians really think of him"The Telegraph "Serhii Rudenko's biography is a portrait of a wartime hero whose troubled past may return to haunt him... [It is] an extraordinary life story, which is still being written. Reading this biography now, in the wake of a war that upended our understanding of both Zelensky and Ukraine, presents his personal history in a new light."Lyse Doucet, The New Statesman "Fascinating"The Guardian "A fast-paced biography of an unexpected world leader... the author capably shows how Zelensky has displayed an astonishing transformation in the face of continued Russian aggression."Kirkus "Rudenko has written a succinct political biography that plunges readers right into the middle of the Ukrainian political scene"Prospect Magazine "... important and detailed...: Zelensky is easily the equal of the most impressive wartime leaders the West has ever had."Owen Matthews, The Spectator"deftly charts the transformation of a former comedian into a reforming president and then, swiftly, into a charismatic wartime leader and global figure."The New Statesman

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Book SynopsisIn the early hours of 24 February 2022, Russian forces attacked Ukraine. The brutality of the Russian assault has horrified the world. But Russians themselves appear to be watching an entirely different war – one in which they are the courageous underdogs and kind-hearted heroes successfully battling a malign Ukrainian foe. Russia analyst Jade McGlynn takes us on a journey into this parallel military and political universe to reveal the sometimes monstrous, sometimes misconstrued attitudes behind Russian majority backing for the invasion. Drawing on media analysis and interviews with ordinary citizens, officials and foreign-policy elites in Russia and Ukraine, McGlynn explores the grievances, lies and half-truths that pervade the Russian worldview. She also exposes the complicity of many Russians, who have invested too deeply in the Kremlin’s alternative narratives to regard the war as Putin’s foolhardy mission. In their eyes, this is Russia’s war – against Ukraine, against the West, against evil – and there can be no turning back.Trade ReviewA New Statesman Book of the Year 2023 "This is the most comprehensive analysis of popular support for Russia’s war to date. Jade McGlynn emphasizes that broad swathes of Russian society back the invasion and unpacks the varied reasons for this support. An important read for anyone interested in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine."Timothy M. Frye, author of Weak Strongman: The Limits of Power in Putin’s Russia"Timely, original and highly readable, McGlynn’s book is essential for anyone wishing to understand the past, present and future difficulties we face in dealing with Russia."Edward Lucas, former Economist Moscow correspondent and author of The New Cold War"McGlynn offers a tantalising glimpse into the Russian public’s perception of the war in Ukraine. Do the Russians care? McGlynn provides the answer in a gripping narrative that brings out the nationalist fervour, the cautious scepticism and the mind-boggling indifference of those on whom Vladimir Putin counts for support."Sergey Radchenko, Johns Hopkins University"An unnerving exposé of Russian support for the war against Ukraine."James Ryan, Cardiff University"An invigorating take on Russia's war in Ukraine. McGlynn’s refreshing analysis looks beyond the battlefield to understand how Russians see the conflict."Rasmus Nilsson, University College London"compelling"The Moscow Times"Superb. A must-read for anyone looking for an understanding of Russian attitudes."Richard Shirreff, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Strategia Worldwide and former NATO Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe“Anyone who wants to understand why so many Russians support the war in Ukraine should start here”Simon Baugh, Chief Executive of UK Government Communications “The most extensive examination so far of Russian attitudes to the invasion and the nefarious methods that the Kremlin uses to try to manipulate minds … Russia’s War is a thoughtful guide to this deadly cocktail of confusion and hatred. Just don’t expect any easy answers.”The Times“Russian support for the war identified by McGlynn represents a major obstacle to the building of bridges, so her argument that we need to understand it is hard to deny.”Financial Times“Urgently relevant, highly readable.”Owen Matthews, Times Literary Supplement“Powerful and disturbing”The Washington Post“A journey into the heart of darkness, even madness, but with a cool-headed and astute guide we quickly learn to trust.”Robin Ashenden, The Spectator“Anybody wishing to better understand why Russians continue to support this murderous conflict will learn much from this pithy and insightful study”Robert Dale, CEU Review of BooksTable of ContentsAcknowledgements Prologue: Credence and Incredulity Chapter 1: The Bad Tsar Chapter 2: Putin’s Polls Chapter 3: How do you say ‘war’ in the Russian? Chapter 4: Washing brains Chapter 5: We are at war with the West Chapter 6: The Ukrainophobes Chapter 7: Restoration, redemption, revenge Chapter 8: ‘We will go to heaven, they will just croak’ Conclusion: How Russia Lost the War Notes

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Book SynopsisWinner of the Whitbread Biography of the Year.William Gladstone was, with Tennyson, Newman, Dickens, Carlyle, and Darwin, one of the stars of nineteenth-century British life. He spent sixty-three of his eighty-nine years in the House of Commons and was prime minister four times, a unique accomplishment. From his critical role in the formation of the Liberal Party to his preoccupation with the cause of Irish Home Rule, he was a commanding politician and statesman nonpareil. But Gladstone the man was much more: a classical scholar, a wide-ranging author, a vociferous participant in all the great theological debates of the day, a voracious reader, and an avid walker who chopped down trees for recreation. He was also a man obsessed with the idea of his own sinfulness, prone to self-flagellation and persistent in the practice of accosting prostitutes on the street and attempting to persuade them of the errors of their ways.Gladstone, by historian and eminent politician Roy Jenkins, is a full and deep portrait of a complicated man, offering a sweeping picture of a tumultuous century in British history, and is also a brilliant example of the biographer's art.Trade ReviewA splendid biography, which deals justly and fairly with all the controversies of Gladstone’s life … It is a notable achievement and will not be easily superseded. * The Times *Roy Jenkins has written many good books. This is his best. It is beyond praise. -- Vernon Bogdanor * Evening Standard *Inspired by affection for his tremendous subject, the author has scaled the heights with panache … [Jenkins’s] evident delight in the man and his story carry the reader along as though on the crest of a wave. -- Claire Tomalin * Independent on Sunday *Jenkins is a master of irony … This helps to make the book enormous fun to read, while it is also enlightening in any number of ways. -- John Grigg * Sunday Telegraph *Deliciously spiced with mordant wit, Gladstone can be read for sheer pleasure. But it is the wisdom as well as the wit that ensures this biography will live on. * Guardian *This biography matches one of Gladstone’s own towering performances. * Sunday Times *The combination of author and subject makes Roy Jenkins’s Gladstone irrestistible … His biography is all you need to know about Gladstone including the things you never dared ask. * Independent *Roy Jenkins has written the definitive biography of William Ewart Gladstone, the 'Grand Old Man' of Victorian politics. Jenkins is a consummate biographer … Gladstone is his chef-d’oeuvre. * Daily Express *As befits the heroic grandeur of its subject, this is an admirable proportioned and beautifully written book, by turns enthralling, moving and (sometimes) very funny . . . It is the best single volume biography of a Victorian statesman since Robert Blake's like of Disraeli. What higher praise can there be? -- David Cannadine * Observer *

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Book SynopsisDrawing up alternate ways to “make a living” beyond capitalism To live in this world is to be conditioned by capital. Once paired with Western democracy, unfettered capitalism has led to a shrinking economic system that squeezes out billions of people—creating a planet of surplus populations. Wageless Life is a manifesto for building a future beyond the toxic failures of late-stage capitalism. Daring to imagine new social relations, new modes of economic existence, and new collective worlds, the authors provide skills and tools for perceiving—and living in— a post-capitalist future. Forerunners: Ideas FirstShort books of thought-in-process scholarship, where intense analysis, questioning, and speculation take the leadTrade Review"This lucid and penetrating study not only lays bare the critical features of our decaying social order and its historical roots, but also provides valuable guidelines for the task of ‘seizing our autonomy back’ in a world of justice, freedom, communal life, and human dignity. Perceptive and enlightening, and a ray of light in dark times."—Noam Chomsky

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Book SynopsisIn this accessible and sophisticated exploration of the nature and workings of social and political power, Mark Haugaard examines the interrelation between domination and empowerment. Building upon the perspectives of Steven Lukes, Michel Foucault, Amy Allen, Hannah Arendt, Anthony Giddens, Pierre Bourdieu and others, Haugaard offers a clear theoretical framework, delineating power in four interrelated dimensions.The first and second dimensions of power entail two different types of social conflict. The third dimension concerns tacit knowledge, uses of truth and reification. Drawing upon genealogical theory and accounts of slavery as social death, the fourth dimension of power concerns the power to create social subjects. The book concludes with an original normative pragmatist power-based account of democracy.Offering lucid and entertaining illustrations of complex theoretical perspectives, this book is essential reading for undergraduates, postgraduates and academics, while offering an indispensable guide for activists wishing to understand domination, resistance and empowerment.Trade Review'The Four Dimensions of Power is eminently readable as an introduction to the central power debates for the student, yet stimulating and provocative for the specialist.'Stewart Clegg, Distinguished Professor, University of Technology, Sydney‘Hugely impressive. Haugaard embraces a wide range of issues and of relevant thinkers and theories and skilfully deploys the various analytical distinctions that have surfaced in discussion of power—all within a framework that gives the reader the sense of moving both forward and deeper. The product of many years of reflection, this readable book achieves something very important indeed.’Steven Lukes, Professor of Sociology, New York University and author of Power: A Radical View'Power is one of the most important and yet complex concepts through which we make sense of social and political life. And no-one rivals Mark Haugaard in analysing equally carefully and vividly the many dimensions of power. The magnum opus of one of the most powerful and imaginative social theorists of our time.'Rainer Forst, Professor of Political Theory and Philosophy, Goethe University Frankfurt'Pushing the standard actor-agency model toward Wittgenstein, Schutz, Austin, and cultural theory, Haugaard produces a dazzling new map of the subtle and complex intertwinings that political and social power consist of.'Jeffrey C. Alexander, Lillian Chavenson Saden Professor of Sociology, Yale University -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction: Conceptions of power and an overview1 The first dimension of power: Violence, coercion and authority 2 The second dimension of power: Conflicts over structures or deep conflict, and dominant ideology3 The first and second dimensions of power contrasted: Deep versus shallow conflict and resistance4 The third dimension of power: Practical consciousness knowledge, consciousness raising, the natural attitude and the social construction of reasonable/unreasonable5 The third dimension continued: Conventions, reification, the sacred and essentialism 6 The third dimension continued: Descartes’ error, reification of truth and fallible truth7 The fourth dimension of power: The making of the social subject8 The fourth dimension continued: Social death through slavery, death-camps and solitary confinement 9 Normative analysis of the four dimensions of power: A pragmatist approach: what is power for?References

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Book SynopsisHow can governments persuade their citizens to act in socially beneficial ways? This ground-breaking book builds on the idea of 'light touch interventions' or 'nudges' proposed in Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein's highly influential Nudge (2008). While recognising the power of this approach, it argues that an alternative also needs to be considered: a 'think' strategy that calls on citizens to decide their own priorities as part of a process of civic and democratic renewal. As well as setting out these divergent approaches in theory, the book provides evidence from a number of experiments to show how using 'nudge' or 'think' techniques works in practice.Updated and rewritten, this second edition features a new epilogue that reflects on recent developments in nudge theory and practice, introducing a radical version of nudge, ‘nudge plus’. There is also a substantial prologue by Cass Sunstein.Trade Review'A pathbreaking book that for the first time brings smart policy insights into contact with creative, rigorous testing. This book sets the standard for all future scientific evaluations of "what works".'Donald P. Green, Burgess Professor of Political Science, Columbia University'Nudge, nudge, think, think not only informs the reader about how nudge and think strategies can be combined, but also about what the potential benefits and drawbacks of such strategies are for a range of public behaviours.'Sander van der Linden, LSE British Politics and Policy blog -- .Table of ContentsForeword by Greg Clark, MPPrologue by Cass SunsteinIntroduction1 Nudging and thinking2 Testing3 Recycling4 Volunteering5 Voting6 Petitioning7 Giving8 Donating9 Debating10 Including11 Linking12 Summary of key findings13 Epilogue: the future of nudge and thinkIndex

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Book SynopsisPrivacy is one of the most contested concepts of our time. This book sets out a rigorous and comprehensive framework for understanding debates about privacy and our rights to it. Much of the conflict around privacy comes from a failure to recognise divergent perspectives. Some people argue about human rights, some about social conventions, others about individual preferences and still others about information and data processing. As a result, ‘privacy’ has become the focus of competing definitions, leading some to denounce the ‘disarray’ in the field. But as this book shows, disagreements about the role and value of privacy obscure a large amount of agreement on the topic. Privacy is not a technical term of law, cybersecurity or sociology, but a word in common use that adequately expresses a few simple and related ideas.Trade Review‘An impressively thorough and systematic – but always accessible – analysis. O'Hara sorts and sifts the different claims for what is and what is not “privacy”. O Privacy, what crimes are committed in thy name! But O'Hara! What fun you've had finding a way through the muddles and misunderstandings to establish a common language for discussing privacy. I wish I'd had access to Kieron O'Hara's excellent survey when I started out as UK Information Commissioner back in 2009. O'Hara's razor should help us to approach debates around public policy on their own merits, avoiding using “privacy” as a mere label either to support or oppose particular causes or proposals.”Christopher Graham, UK Information Commissioner, 2009–16‘O’Hara gives us a refreshingly provocative, learned, distinctive and lively book about privacy that will stimulate important debates. The vast, unwieldy body of privacy scholarship is seen through new lenses, bringing seven different levels of privacy discourse into focus. Each one veils the meaning of privacy, but all contribute to a new framework that helps to make sense of the supposed “chaos” of this subject. Illustrative discussions of seven important privacy topics and debates are related to the sevenfold framework. O’Hara’s examples and personal style keep the reader in mind along the intricate trail of de (or re)constructive analysis, and a fascinating conclusion affords important insights into privacy by refracting the analysis through the COVID-19 pandemic experience.’Charles Raab, Professor Emeritus, University of Edinburgh‘How should we talk about privacy? Before you answer that question, read this book. The seven veils of privacy is deep and erudite, yet accessible and even humorous. O’Hara takes us on a deeply researched and compelling journey through the points of disagreement in our privacy discourse. This book helps us understand why we keep talking past each other and how to have a more productive conversation about one of the most critical values of our time.’Woodrow Hartzog, Professor of Law, Boston University and author of Privacy’s Blueprint: The Battle to Control the Design of New Technologies -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction: the goal of this bookPart I: A concept in disarray?Part II: Explaining the disarrayPart III: A framework for privacy discoursesPart IV: Commentary on the frameworkPart V: Topics in privacy studiesConclusion: privacy in the time of COVIDIndex

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Book SynopsisIn a world of deep political divisions and rising inequality, many of us feel the need for some form of collective resistance and transformative joint action. Calls for solidarity are heard everywhere. This book presents a critical proposal to guide our reflection on what solidarity is and why it matters. How is solidarity distinct from related ideas such as altruism, justice and fellow-feeling? What value does acting in solidarity with others have? In his lead essay, Andrea Sangiovanni offers compelling answers to these questions, arguing that solidarity is not just a fuzzy stand-in for feelings of togetherness but a distinctive social practice for an anxious age. His ideas are then put to the test in a series of responses from some of the world’s foremost philosophers and political theorists.Table of ContentsPart I: Lead essay 1 Solidarity: nature, grounds and value – Andrea Sangiovanni Part II: Responses 2 Solidarity is not joint action – Avery Kolers 3 The (anti)colonial limits of solidarity: history, theory, practice – Jared Holley 4 Collective transformative hope: on living in solidarity – Sally Scholz 5 The meaning(s) of solidarity – Rainer Forst 6 Solidarity and structural injustice – Catherine LuPart III: Reply7 Response to critics – Andrea SangiovanniIndex

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Book SynopsisThis book combines Karl Marx's critique of capitalism with G. D. H. Cole's democratic pluralism. The result is a regenerated social anarchism, associational anarchism'. Its democratisation of production and consumption form the organisational contours of a new conception of liberty, freedom as Marxian-autonomy'. -- .

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Book SynopsisHow do we rein in the power of Big Tech?How do we tackle the climate crisis? How can all of us play a part in making change happen? For the past four years, Ed Miliband has been discovering and interviewing brilliant people all around the world who are successfully tackling the biggest problems we face, transforming communities and pioneering global movements. Go Big draws on the most imaginative and ambitious of these ideas to provide a vision for the kind of society we need. A better world is possible; the solutions are out there. We can all make a difference. We just need to know where to look - and have the courage to think big.Go Big shows us how.'Enthralling' PHILIP PULLMAN'Such a hopeful book' ELIZABETH DAY'Should be the rallying cry of progressives around the world' RUTGER BREGMANTrade ReviewA new book by Mr Miliband is an important political event ... mounts a coherent challenge to orthodox views, encouraging his audience to think differently and laying the foundations of where the country needs to go ... Miliband is clear that we live in an age where it is movements of people, not politicians, that change the world * Guardian *Full of ambitious ideas about how to solve gigantic social issues such as working life, childcare and climate change ... This flawed, funny Miliband sparkles with an Alan Partridge-like flourish through Go Big ... Miliband never sounds angry. He doesn't even seem to get annoyed when the Tories steal his ideas * GQ *At a time when our problems seem insurmountable and our disagreements intractable, Ed Miliband gives us reasons to be hopeful. This book makes a compelling case we need to hear: if we are willing to think big, politics can be a force for change and a force for good -- MICHAEL J. SANDEL, author of The Tyranny of MeritThere's a lot of good stuff in here ... flashes of insight ... neat observations ... it is hard to disagree with much of what [he says] ... charmingly self-deprecating -- David Goodhart * Sunday Times *By turns bouncy, chatty and confidential, and above all relentlessly upbeat ... fully of ideas, nifty schemes for solving the climate crisis, sound stratagems for encouraging more and better housing, for revitalising public transport, for loosening the stranglehold of the market and a whole lot more besides * Private Eye *

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Book SynopsisThis book provides a lively account of the gilets jaunes, the yellow vest movement that has shaken France since 2018. Charles Devellennes assesses what lessons can be drawn from their activities and the impact for the contemporary relationship between state and citizen. Informed by a dialogue with past political theorists – from Hobbes, Spinoza and Rousseau to Rawls, Nozick and Diderot – and reflecting on the challenges posed by the yellow vest movement, the author rethinks the concept of the social contract for contemporary societies around the world. It proposes a new relationship between the state and the individual, and establishes the necessity of rethinking the modern democratic nature of our representative polities in order to provide a genuine process for the healing of social ills.Table of ContentsIntroduction; Critical times for the social contract; Violence and the state; Liberty; Democracy; Economic justice; A renewal of the social contract; Conclusion

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Book Synopsis‘Being more like America again and less like Europe is the heart of the UK model of capitalism … [but] there are many respects in which Britain remains unlike America despite its strong appeal to the British political class ...’ In 'After Brexit' Andrew Gamble sets out the economic models and external relationships that Britain has pursued since the Second World War and examines the choices it now faces as it adjusts to life outside of the European Union. This volume brings together this essay with some of Andrew Gamble’s most important and influential writings on British politics and political economy from the last forty years. They reflect on many of the issues that animate British politics, from the relative decline of the economy and the reshaping of the welfare state to the transformation of the Conservative and Labour parties and the changing constitutional order with the devolution of power to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The volume is introduced by the author and includes his notes on each of the essays as well as an epilogue, which considers their original context and what has changed since. Taken together, the essays in this volume are testament to the acuity of one of Britain’s foremost political thinkers and provide rich insight into debates and ideas that continue to influence British politics and Britain’s place in the world. A companion volume of Andrew Gamble’s essays, The Western Ideology and Other Essays, focusing on political ideas and ideologies, is also available from Bristol University Press.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Historical Contexts Notes on the Essays After Brexit (2019) Explanations of British Decline (1999) The European Disunion (2006) The Anglo-American World View (2019) The Free Economy and the Strong State (1979) Thatcherism and Conservative Politics (1983) Economic Growth and Political Dilemmas (1983) The Crisis of Conservatism (1995) The Thatcher Myth (2015) Theories of British Politics (1990) The Constitutional Revolution in the United Kingdom (2006) What’s British about British Politics? (2016) Epilogue: Last Thoughts

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Book SynopsisFelix Anderl’s book is a stimulating analysis of the decline of social movements against the World Bank and the rise of a new form of transnational rule. Reflecting on the transnational mobilizations of the 1990s, the book examines activists’ struggles to sustain their momentum. It shows how the opening up of world economic institutions contributed to complex rule in global governance, creating access for some while weakening their critique and fragmenting the overall movement. The book bridges international relations and social movement studies to observe international organizations and social movements in their interaction, demonstrating how social movements are divided and ruled in the absence of a ruler.Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 Social Movements and International Relations 2. Transnational Rule and Resistance 3. Complex Rule in Global Governance 4. Mechanisms of Fragmentation 5. A History of Interaction: The World Bank Group and Its Early Critics 6. When a Contentious Process Opens Up: Extractive Industries Review 7. Fragmentation in Contestation: The Movement during the EIR Process 8. Uncontentious Politics? The Civil Society Policy Forum 9. Fragmentation in Cooperation: Observing the Changing Practices of Critique Conclusion

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Book SynopsisScholars and postgraduate students in the field of International Relations with an interest in international theory.Trade Review"The multifaceted essays are complemented in the book with the author's intellectual depth, theoretical rigour and philosophical engagement." International AffairsTable of ContentsIntroduction Part 1: Politics: Deciding What Matters 1. Comparative International Politics (1982) 2. Prometheus Prostrate (1984) 3. Centre–Periphery Relations (2017) 4. On Power (2017) Part 2: Ethics: Doing What We Should 5. Rules for Torture? (2009) 6. The Ambiguous Modernism of Seyla Benhabib (2009) 7. Relative Strangers (2013) 8. Ethical Systems (2016) Part 3: Semantics: Saying What We See 9. Writing Large (2000) 10. Intertextual Relations (2009) 11. World-making, State-building (2014) 12. What We Do (2018) 13. The Dinosaur Speaks! (2018) Afterword

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Book SynopsisBringing together eminent International Relations (IR) scholars from China and the West, this book examines moral realism from a range of different perspectives. Through its analyses, it verifies the robustness of moral realism in IR theory. The first section of the book is written by Chinese scholars and dedicated to debates about how moral realism relates to traditional schools of IR theory. The latter portion, provided by Western contributors, critically investigates both the universal and practical values of moral realism. Finally, Yan Xuetong concludes by responding constructively to all criticisms and further exploring the nature and characteristics of interstate leadership in moral realism.Table of Contents1. Interstate Leadership, Moral Realism, and Its Critiques - Yan Xuetong and Fang Yuanyuan 2. IR Moral Realism as A Universal Theory - Yan Xuetong 3. Moral Realism as An Alternative Approach to Agent-Structure Problem - Fang Yuanyuan 4. Prospects, Promise, and Limitations of Moral Realism - Wang Qingxin 5. Ideal Morality and Realist Interest of Moral Realism - Kai He 6. The Conception of Morality in Moral Realism - Feng Zhang 7. Moral Realism and Hegemonic Transition - Athanasios Platias and Vasilis Trigkas 8. Innovation of Moral Realism and Dialogue with It - Mario Telò 9. Moral Realism and Sino-American Relations - Deborah Welch Larson 10. Moral Realism on Interstate Leadership in Response to Critics - Yan Xuetong Appendix 1: Pen Discussion Between Rajesh Rajagopalan and Yan Xuetong Appendix 2: “Chinese School” as An Inappropriate Title

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Book SynopsisBig ideas matter in politics, and they spark fierce debates about the future of our society. This pathbreaking new textbook examines the key political ideas that shape our lives today. Political Theory: Why Big Ideas Matter takes a unique disruptive approach by creating conversations between two or three important thinkers, within multiple cultural contexts and perspectives to show innovative connections between thinkers across time and space. Rather than drawing solely from the established canon' of traditional political thought, which has been criticised for being too white, too male, and too Western, this book is part of a worldwide effort to contest and diversify. Have big ideas on sovereignty been fundamental to establishing political order, or a tool to justify colonisation? Is John Locke's theory of property fit to answer questions about who owns our data or the matter of reparations? Can the tradition of human rights incorporate non-human species? Is gender performative, and how does this represent the struggles of LGBTQ+ communities? Political theory can get us thinking more deeply about empirical events, but empirical events can also get us critiquing theories for falling short. This textbook is essential for undergraduate and postgraduate students of political theory and shows how we can be better political theorists. Simon Stevens is Senior Lecturer in Political Philosophy at De Montfort University Leicester, UK and is a winner of the Political Studies Association Bernard Crick Prize for Outstanding Teaching.

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Book SynopsisRecounting the actors and events of U.S. foreign policy, Zoellick identifies five traditions that have emerged from America's encounters with the world: the importance of North America; the special roles trading, transnational, and technological relations play in defining ties with others; changing attitudes toward alliances and ways of ordering connections among states; the need for public support, especially through Congress; and the belief that American policy should serve a larger purpose. These traditions frame a closing review of post-Cold War presidencies, which Zoellick foresees serving as guideposts for the future.Both a sweeping work of history and an insightful guide to U.S. diplomacy past and present, AMERICA IN THE WORLD serves as an informative companion and practical adviser to readers seeking to understand the strategic and immediate challenges of U.S. foreign policy during an era of transformation.

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Book SynopsisTHE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!Michael C. Bender, senior White House reporter for the Wall Street Journal, presents a deeply reported account of the 2020 presidential campaign that details how Donald J. Trump became the first incumbent in three decades to lose reelection-and the only one whose defeat culminated in a violent insurrection. Beginning with President Trump's first impeachment and ending with his second, FRANKLY, WE DID WIN THIS ELECTION chronicles the inside-the-room deliberations between Trump and his campaign team as they opened 2020 with a sleek political operation built to harness a surge of momentum from a bullish economy, a unified Republican Party, and a string of domestic and foreign policy successes-only to watch everything unravel when fortunes suddenly turned.With first-rate sourcing cultivated from five years of covering Trump in the White House and both of his campaigns, Bender brings readers inside the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One, and into the front row of the movement's signature mega-rallies for the story of an epic election-year convergence of COVID, economic collapse, and civil rights upheaval-and an unorthodox president's attempt to battle it all. Fresh interviews with Trump, key campaign advisers, and senior administration officials are paired with an exclusive collection of internal campaign memos, emails, and text messages for scores of never-before-reported details about the campaign. FRANKLY, WE DID WIN THIS ELECTION is the inside story of how Trump lost, and the definitive account of his final year in office that draws a straight line from the president's repeated insistence that he would never lose to the deadly storming of the U.S. Capitol that imperiled one of his most loyal lieutenants-his own vice president.

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Book SynopsisAmericans are living through a social crisis. Our politics are polarized and bitterly divided. Culture wars rage on campuses, social media, and sometimes in the streets and public squares. And for too many Americans, alienation can descend into despair, weakening families and communities.Left and right alike have responded with anger at our institutions, and use only metaphors of destruction to describe the path forward: cancelling, defunding, draining the swamp. But, as Yuval Levin argues, this is a misguided prescription, rooted in a defective diagnosis. The social crisis we confront is defined not by an oppressive presence but by a debilitating absence of the forces that unite us and militate against alienation.In A Time to Build, now updated with a new epilogue, Levin argues that today is not a time to tear down, but rather to build and rebuild by committing ourselves to the institutions around us. From the military to churches, from families to schools, these institutions provide the forms and structures we need to be free. By taking concrete steps to help them be more trustworthy, we can renew the ties that bind Americans to one another.

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Book SynopsisThomas Sowell has an almost godlike status amongst conservative intellectuals. "It's a scandal that economist Sowell has not been awarded the Nobel Prize," wrote a reviewer in Forbes. A profile in the Wall Street Journal described him as "one of America's great sages." His writing on politics, economics, and social issues have prompted both contempt and praise. In Maverick, Jason Riley explores the life and ideas of Thomas Sowell, one of America's most important Black intellectuals.A bright student with a tumultuous home life, Sowell was admitted to one of New York's most competitive high schools but dropped out at age 16. He left home a year later and moved into a shelter in the Bronx for homeless boys where he kept a knife under his pillow for protection. Years later, the G.I. bill enabled him to enroll in night school at Howard University and after his freshman year, he transferred to Harvard. By 1968, Sowell received his doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago, his dissertation written under the guidance of future Nobel economists Milton Friedman and George Stigler. Maverick follows Sowell from the University of Chicago to his early critiques of the Civil Rights moment. In the 60s and 70s, Sowell accepted teaching positions at Howard, Cornell, UCLA, and elsewhere -- but the campus turmoil of the era clashed with Sowell's principles and he refused to bend. He turned his attention to writing.Over the past fifty tears, Sowell has written over thirty books and countless columns and media appearances. Riley offers an introduction to Sowell's ideas, from race and inequality to economics and education. Riley considers how Sowell's own history alongside the moments and movements that shaped his thinking to offer a nuanced portrait of one of America's leading conservative intellectuals. Maverick explores the extraordinary scope and depth of arguably the most influential and trenchant Black social critics alive in America today - one whose contributions have been underacknowledged because they do not align with progressive ideas about race.

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Book SynopsisWilliam Shakespeare understood power: what it is, how it works, how it is gained, and how it is lost. In The Hollow Crown, Eliot A. Cohen reveals how the battling princes of Henry IV and scheming senators of Julius Caesar can teach us to better understand power and politics today. The White House, after all, is a court-with intrigue and conflict rivalling those on the Globe's stage-as is an army, a business, or a university. And each court is full of driven characters, in all their ambition, cruelty, and humanity. Henry V's inspiring speeches reframe John F. Kennedy's appeal, Richard III's wantonness illuminates Vladimir Putin's brutality, and The Tempest's grace offers a window into the presidency of George Washington. An original and incisive perspective, The Hollow Crown shows how Shakespeare's works transform our understanding of the leaders who, for good or ill, make and rule our world.

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Book SynopsisHuman history is full of the stories of peasants, subjects, and tribes. Yet the concept of the "citizen" is historically rare-and was among America's most valued ideals for over two centuries. But without shock treatment, warns historian Victor Davis Hanson, American citizenship as we have known it may soon vanish.In The Dying Citizen, Hanson outlines the historical forces that led to this crisis. The evisceration of the middle class over the last fifty years has made many Americans dependent on the federal government. Open borders have undermined the idea of allegiance to a particular place. Identity politics have eradicated our collective civic sense of self. And a top-heavy administrative state has endangered personal liberty, along with formal efforts to weaken the Constitution.As in the revolutionary years of 1848, 1917, and 1968, 2020 ripped away our complacency about the future. But in the aftermath, we as Americans can rebuild and recover what we have lost. The choice is ours.

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Book SynopsisIn the age of Trump, our society is defined by fear. Indeed, three out of four Americans say they feel more fearful today than they did only a couple decades ago. But are we living in exceptionally perilous times? In his bestselling book The Culture of Fear, sociologist Barry Glassner demonstrates that it is our perception of danger that has increased, not the actual level of risk. Glassner exposes the people and organizations that manipulate our perceptions and profit from our fears: politicians who win elections by heightening concerns about crime and drug use even as rates for both are declining; advocacy groups that raise money by exaggerating the prevalence of particular diseases; TV shows that create a new scare every week to garner ratings. Glassner spells out the prices we pay for social panics: the huge sums of money that go to waste on unnecessary programs and products as well as time and energy spent worrying about our fears.All the while, we are distracted from the true threats, from climate change to worsening inequality. In this updated edition of a modern classic, Glassner examines the current panics over vaccination and "political correctness" and reveals why Donald Trump's fearmongering is so dangerously effective.

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