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Decoding
Obama's Iran policy
A Single Roll of the Dice: Obama's Diplomacy with Iran
by Trita Parsi
An intricate study of how President Barack Obama's Iran policy evolved, this
book relates how campaign pledges to reach out crumbled under the weight of
Israeli and Saudi pressure, and from disillusionment following Iran's 2009
election crackdown. The book reveals top Israeli officials' doubts that a
nuclear strike will ever be launched, with Israel's aggressive stance based on
maintaining its Palestinian territories and aura of invincibility. - Brian M
Downing (Feb 10, '12)
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Playful
lessons for North Korea's young leader
The Lily: Evolution, Play, and the Power of a Free Society
by Daniel Cloud
Princeton University political philosopher Daniel Cloud's gift to North Korea's
new leader Kim Jong-eun could not have come at a better time. The book explains
to the Young General, that by grasping evolutionary forces, free societies - as
the Dao De Jing puts it - "accomplish everything by doing nothing."
Something for Kim to ponder among his ambitious plans to join the "elite club
of nations" this year. - Mark A DeWaever (Feb
6, '12)
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LeT:
Terror incorporated
The Caliphate's Soldiers: The Lashkar-e-Tayyeba's Long War by Wilson
John
With thousands of recruitment and training centers across Pakistan, funds
pouring in from the Gulf and links from Nepal to Sri Lanka, Lashkar-e-Toiba has
flourished since the Mumbai attacks of November 2008. Detailing LeT's growth
into "the world's most powerful and resourceful terror consultancy firm" -
including a Department of Martyrs - this book offers an excellent primer on
LeT's global ambitions. - Surinder Kumar Sharma
(Feb 3, '12)
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Obama,
the Lone Ranger
Barack Obama in Hawaii and Indonesia: The Making of Global President
by Dinesh Sharma
This book maps out how the cultural influences and global underpinnings of
Barack Obama's diverse upbringing in Indonesia and Hawaii created the president
America needed for the multipolar world of the 21st century. Written by a
cultural psychologist, it uses anthropological, political and genealogical
perspectives to argue that Obama's life journey has reflected the challenges
America faces today. - Richard Kaplan (Jan
20, '12)
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How
Imperial Russia wooed Asia
Russia's own Orient: The politics of identity and Oriental studies in the
Imperial and early Soviet periods by Vera Tolz
When Russia launched Oriental studies amid its imperial decline, it sought to
emulate the West. However, the glamorous image of the downtrodden at the time
led minorities to be treated as equals rather than subjects, a wild contrast
from the West's approach. Using a wealth of research this book outlines how
this impacted positively on ethnic policy after the Bolshevik Revolution -
until the regime needed to consolidate power. - Dmitry Shlapentokh
(Jan 13, '12)
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Invisible
walls in Xinjiang
The tree that bleeds: a Uighur town on the edge by Nick Holdstock
A snapshot of Xinjiang province's Yining city four years after deadly ethnic
riots in 1997, this book provides insights into how fraught relations between
Uyghurs and and Han Chinese were worsened by Beijing's divisive rules and
policies, particularly in education. The separate dormitories, canteens and
admissions described as the ethnicities "pretend the other doesn't exist" make
recent violence easier to understand. - Michael Rank
(Jan 6, '12)
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A
future with China
China and the Credit Crisis: the Emergence of a New World Order by
Giles Chance
The book explores the inter-connection between United States policy and China's
participation in globalization. The presentation on what the current economic
crisis means regarding the future of the US dollar and the necessary adjustment
by the world's financial and regulatory systems to incorporate China's needs
are balanced and satisfying. Yet the most important reason to read this work
may be what it has to offer about how these troubled times will reshape
US-China relations. - Benjamin A Shobert (Dec
21, '11)
INTERVIEW
Getting the dragon onboard
The Chinese may have an attitude whereby they want to exploit the rest of the
world for their own benefit. They do not see themselves yet as a responsible
leader of the world economy in a way we would like them to. The issue is how
can we bring China to stand alongside Europe and America? So asks Giles Chance,
author of China and the Credit Crisis in a conversation with Benjamin A
Shobert. (Dec 21, '11)
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Angels
and inquisitors
A Point in Time by David Horowitz For a quarter of a
century, Horowitz has told unpleasant truths about the political left where he
spent the first half of his career before turning conservative some 30 years
ago. He surpasses himself in this new essay, though, by telling unpleasant
truths about the human condition. - David Goldman
(Dec 21, '11)
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The
Unraveling
The Unraveling: Pakistan in the Age of Jihad by John R Schmidt
With relations between Pakistan and the United States in cold storage, John R
Schmidt, a senior US diplomat, sheds some light on the reasons. He argues that
Islamabad's dual policy of supporting US military actions in Afghanistan while
maintaining its connection with radical Islamic groups is understandable and
the US must face up to the problem; advice unlikely to lead to a thaw any time
soon. - Erico Yu (Dec 16, '11)
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Deconstructing
Thomas Friedman
The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work by Belen Fernandez
Analyzing the work of influential New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman,
this book finds flaws ranging from hypocrisy and racism to factual errors and
skewed judgment. More frightening is how Friedman is found to represent a US
media that's sacrificed its objectivity to US economic and political goals,
with corporate profit taking precedent over human life in counsel on Iraq,
Israel and Palestine. - Sandra Siagian (Dec
9, '11)
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Down
the wrong path
9-11 by Noam Chomsky
Updated to cover Osama bin Laden's death, this prescient work on the September
11 attacks written in November 2001 chillingly predicts how expensive and
bloody wars in Muslim countries would drain the American economy and kill
thousands of civilians. Though a compelling indictment of an "imperial
mentality" that's seen America abandon human-rights principals to pursue its
goals, the book's dialogue format may frustrate some readers. - Christopher
Bartlo (Dec 2, '11)
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Revelations
of a secret war
The Secret Army: Chiang Kai-shek and the Drug Warlords of the Golden Triangle
by Richard M Gibson and Wenhua Chen
While it's known that thousands of Chinese nationalists settled in north
Thailand after the civil war, as seen in thriving Chinese villages like Mae
Salong, this book reveals how the United States rebuilt and re-equipped the
forces to fight Mao Zedong's China and later Thai communist insurgents. It also
constructs how US involvement helped created the narcotics production hub that
is today's Golden Triangle. - Bertil Lintner (Nov
18, '11)
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The
incredible lightheadedness of being German
I Sleep in Hitler's Room: An American Jew Visits Germany by Tuvia
Tenenbom
Tuvia Tenenbom comes off as a Jewish Hunter S Thompson, describing cringing
encounters in Germany that strip away the veneer of sanity from his subjects.
His peregrinations show that World War II and the Holocaust have left the
Germans with a terminal case of post-traumatic stress disorder and aspirations
for their national identity to be subsumed into Europe. To understand Germans,
one has to learn their language and live with them - or read Tenenbom's book. - Spengler
(Nov 15, '11)
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Harsh
light on history
Breaking the Rules by Alexander Casella
An insider's account of the United Nations refugee agency's inner workings,
this book sketches out a "humanitarian industry" run by politicians and
bureaucrats more interested in securing their own paychecks and promotions than
helping victims. Starting in post-unification Vietnam and traveling into the
UN's dark heart, it rewards readers with a trove of insights and anecdotes
about events that have shaped our time by someone who was right in the thick it
it. - David Simmons (Nov 10, '11)
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A
path not taken
The Ideal Man: The Tragedy of Jim Thompson and the American Way of War
by Josh Kurlantzick
Rather than seeking answers to Jim Thompson's mysterious disappearance in 1967,
this book examines how the American spy turned Thai silk magnate increasingly
resented his idealized Thailand being swept away by the involvement of the
United States in the region. As Thompson strolled into Malaysian hills never to
return, his era of intrigue and opportunity was fading forever from Southeast
Asia. - Sebastian Strangio (Nov 4, '11)
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A
graveyard for US war strategies
The Wrong War: Grit, Strategy, And the Way Out of Afghanistan by Bing
West
This cold hard look at United States' Afghan war strategies concludes that
Washington's focus on nation-building rather than military supremacy since 2006
has reinvigorated the Taliban's influence. Through boots-on-the-ground
chronicling, readers glimpse how US soldiers are battling bureaucracy as much
as insurgents. However, its final argument - that Afghanizing
counter-insurgency will turn the conflict - is problematic. - Geoffrey Sherwood
(Oct 28, '11)
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The
human face of World War I
To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918 by Adam
Hochschild
An exploration of how World War I became so protracted and bloody, this book
also retells how pacifists braved jail and lynchings to reject the carnage. By
focusing on individuals like the vain generals who ordered a whole generation
into deadly storms of steel, the author offers a timely reminder that blindness
to war's realities leads to unparalleled loss. - Jim Ash
(Oct 21, '11)
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Hidden
eyes and ears
Spies for Nippon by Tony Matthews
Using recently declassified United States intercepts of World War II Japanese
intelligence, this book offers a rare glimpse into how Tokyo ran diplomat spies
in Axis-leaning "neutral" European capitals to track Allied troop movements
across Asia and establish Latin American cells. Though lacking insight into
individual spy operations, it holds compelling revelations on how cracking
Japan's "Purple" code altered the war's course. - George Amurao
(Oct 14, '11)
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US-China
power imbalance threatens Asia
A Contest for Supremacy: China, America, and the Struggle for Mastery in Asia
by Aaron L Friedberg
While arguing that a stark evaluation of Beijing's military strategy proves the
United States has been overly optimistic in believing economic engagement would
foster democracy, this book makes no alarmist predictions of China pursuing
global hegemony. However, to alter deep-seated patterns of power politics
drawing the countries toward conflict, the US needs to rebalance its China
relationship by urgently addressing its own economic and political
dysfunctions. - Benjamin A Shobert (Oct 7,
'11)
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Before
the darkness
Rangoon Journalist: Memoirs of Burma days 1940-1958 by J F
Samaranayake
This gripping account of a journalist's life in 1940s-1950s Burma before press
repression took hold covers the "gold rush", a time when media were more
modern, outspoken and professional than any other in the region. Aside from
offering a chilling glimpse into the descent into military rule, the book
offers a valuable and rare account of the country's forgotten literary history.
- Bertil Lintner (Sep 30, '11)
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Russia's
tug-of-war with its Asian soul
Russian Orientalism: Asia in the Russian Mind from Peter the Great to the
Emigration by David Schimmelpenninck
van der Oye This book expertly details how pre-revolutionary Russia's
view of "Asia" coincided with that of European Orientalists - even as Western
intellectuals saw Russians as Asiatic successors to the Huns and Mongols. As
study of Asia blossomed into a critical source of colonial know-how, belief in
the potential of Eurasian symbiosis gradually gave way to suspicions and benign
imperialism, mimicking present-day Russia's Asian outlook.
- Dmitry Shlapentokh (Sep 23, '11)
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Make
babies or die
How Civilizations Die: (And Why Islam Is Dying Too) by David P
Goldman
The author's demographics-mixed-with-religion dash through history displays the
erudition and sarcasm that marks his writing on this site ("Spengler") and
elsewhere. And demography may indeed be almost (sometimes fatal) destiny - but
pessimism may blind Goldman to what is adaptation and survival.
(Sep 23, '11)
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Lashkar-e-Toiba
- safe at home
Storming the World Stage: The Story of Lashkar-e-Toiba by Stephen
Tankel
A detailed study of Lashkar-e-Toiba's evolution from a relatively unknown group
into the infamous militant organization that launched the 2008 Mumbai attacks,
this book also covers how Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence nurtured LeT
as an indispensable asset in its anti-Indian struggle. The author concludes
that ISI's strong support of LeT leaves it unlikely to turn against Islamabad.
- Brian M Downing (Sep 16, '11)
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Obama
and Osama as archetypes
Barack Obama in Hawaii and Indonesia: The Making of a Global President
by Dinesh Sharma
The ashes and the bellowing smoke of 9/11 metaphorically touched all corners of
the Earth. They also touched the core of Barack Obama's identity as a would-be
senator, global citizen and progressive thinker who knew the world had been
pushed to a cataclysmic point and was determined to play a role in shaping
events. Moreover, in the minds of millions, the Obama-Osama bin Laden binary
opposition formed archetypes of good and evil. (Sep
9, '11)
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One
final word?
On China by Henry Kissinger
Forty years ago, Henry Kissinger's masterful diplomacy helped clear a path for
China's rise, though he could not have foreseen the threat that presents to the
American psyche today. His belief that partnership is possible - yet conflict
the easier path - stems from aged and experienced eyes, but exhortations to
Americans to avoid a contest with China focus readers on a question he is
easily the least qualified to answer. - Benjamin A Shobert
(Sep 2, '11)
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War
without end
Roads of Bones: The Epic Siege of Kohima 1944 by Fergal Keane
Almost forgotten, Kohima in the mountains of northeastern India was where
British and British-Indian troops inflicted the Japanese Imperial Army's worst
defeat and forced a retreat back into Burma (Myanmar). Keane's outstanding
account of "Asia's Stalingrad" shows remarkable understanding of Japanese
soldiers who fought and died, and has important contemporary value since it is
often argued that in the hills of northern Myanmar and northeastern India,
World War II never ended. - Bertil Lintner (Aug
26, '11)
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US
smart power falters in information age
The Future of Power by Joseph S Nye Jr
This too United States-centric analysis of global power trends envisions major
shifts towards non-state actors in the 21st century, with soft power
increasingly important. While the author rejects that the US is in precipitous
decline, he argues that in the age of social networks and information-sharing,
leaders need to think of themselves in a circle rather than atop a mountain. - Shiran
Shen (Aug 19, '11)
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In
search of a way out
No Exit: North Korea, Nuclear Weapons, and International Security
by Jonathan D Pollack
With the belief that the how and why of the North Korean nuclear impasse must
begin with the country's system and its history, the author consults Cold War
archives, interviews and technical history, among others, to weave together the
evolution of the Hermit Kingdom and its nuclear program. It's a useful
narrative with a detailed, beyond-the-Beltway overview.
- Shiran Shen (Aug 11, '11)
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J
Street battles for Jewish hearts and minds
A New Voice for Israel: Fighting for the Survival of the Jewish Nation
by Jeremy Ben-Ami
This manifesto of "pro-Israel, pro-peace" lobby J Street and memoir of leader
Jeremy Ben-Ami lays out the group's strategy to steer United States policy on
the Middle East towards favoring a two-state solution. While J Street is
emerging as a strong voice, forces aligned against it - Christian Zionists,
neo-conservative think-tanks and the Israel Lobby - exert a powerful grip on US
foreign policy. - Mitchell Plitnick (Aug 5,
'11)
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US
rattled by Vietnam War skeletons
Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes Girl
by the Road at Night: A Novel of Vietnam by David Rabe Wandering
Souls: Journeys with the Dead and the Living in Viet Nam by Wayne
Karlin
This wave of Vietnam War literature features the familiar grunt prose, patrol
drama and punji pits, alongside a new, ultimately inadequate attempt to
empathize with the formerly faceless enemy. Yet exploration of the gaping holes
left in Vietnamese families by the countless still missing does suggest
soul-searching, while guilt over the thousands forced into prostitution
recognizes that lives were not only destroyed by bombs and bullets. - Nick Turse
(Jul 29, '11)
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The
real AfPak deal
Inside al-Qaeda and the Taliban: Beyond Bin Laden and 9/11 by Syed
Saleem Shahzad
Drawn from fearless reporting in the complex and deadly Pakistani tribal areas,
this book outlines the grand strategy al-Qaeda plotted for AfPak before the
United States even coined the term. Despite the book's revelations and vision,
it's also the cracking narrative of one man armed only with a strong moral
compass; a man murdered by his own state for searching out the truth. - Pepe
Escobar (Jul 22, '11)
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Dispelling
the myths of humanitarian aid
International Organizations and Civilian Protection by Sreeram
Chaulia
Demolishing notions that humanitarian organizations from the United Nations and
elsewhere risk all to protect civilians, the author draws on extensive
experience in Sri Lanka and the Philippines to illustrate how donor and
host-state pressures - as well as internal struggles - leave these
organizations passively "building databases" and providing blankets while local
activists fight to protect the innocent. - Sudha Ramachandran
(Jul 15, '11)
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Fallacy
of American cosmopolitan power
Cosmopolitan Power in International Relations by Giulio M
Gallarotti
The notion of a world led by United States "cosmopolitanism" is undermined by
the superpower's use of colossal hard and soft power to manufacture consensus.
Far from holding a worldly, trans-national outlook, the US employs military and
economic strength to safeguard its geopolitical interests and promote its
ideology of expansionism. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi
(Jul 8, '11)
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Asia
on expressway to disaster
Consumptionomics: Asia's Role in Reshaping Capitalism and Saving the Planet
by Chandran Nair
For the author, capitalism's deficiency remains its inability to acknowledge
the natural resource limitations that confront most of the developing world.
His solutions, like "economic activity being subservient to the vitality of
resources" - will deeply trouble many in the West. However, questioning
capitalism's longer-term implications makes sense for an Asian audience. - Benjamin
A Shobert (Jul 1, '11)
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A
black man from Kenya and
a white woman from Kansas
A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother by Janny
Scott
The Obamas: The Untold Story of an African Family by Peter
Firstbrook
While Barack Obama's Kansas-born mother was a trail-blazing globalist whose
idealism gave the United States president access to the progressive soul of
America, his intelligence, resourcefulness and ambition can be traced back
several generations in his economist father's African bloodline. Obama's own
books openly discuss his roots, but these works paint a clearer picture of his
two guiding lights. - Dinesh Sharma (Jun 24,
'11)
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Pomp
and porn during the Qing Dynasty
Decadence Mandchoue. by Sir Edmund Trelawny Backhouse
In an erotic romp through the twilight years of the Qing Dynasty, these memoirs
recount among other trysts the Victorian Orientalist author's subservient
servicing of the Empress Dowager Cixi, then 69, and adventures with the eunuchs
and catamites of Peking's bathhouses. Intermingled with fantastical imperial
palace intrigue, the work has faced charges of fraudulence and obscenity; this
belies its charm and historical significance. - Kent Ewing
(Jun 17, '11)
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Moral
war compass fails to point West
Moral Combat: A History of World War II by Michael Burleigh
This books succeeds perhaps too well in detailing just how repugnant the German
and Japanese regimes were in World War II, and is especially strong on the
Pacific theater, an area one-volume histories tend to neglect. Where it fails
is in its resort to slippery tactics to avoid confronting the dirt that was on
the Allies' hands. - Jim Ash (Jun 10, '11)
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Crisis
of American international thought
Liberal Leviathan: The Origins, Crisis, and Transformation of the American World
Order by G John Ikenberry
A liberal pro-United States bias permeating the book sees the US's
resource-oriented military gambits and imperial behavior conveniently papered
over and rising states dismissed as challengers to the global order. By
presenting US power as benign, with no nefarious core-periphery or hegemonic
dimensions, the author undermines his own views on the rapidly changing state
of world affairs. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi (May
27, '11)
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War
and taxes
Development Disparities in Northeast India by Rakhee Bhattacharya
In insurgent-run areas of northeast India the penalty for not paying "tax" is
final: death. But as this book reveals, revenue collections systems put in
place by rebels there are surprisingly sophisticated. By investigating exactly
how the "taxation" takes place, the author offers an excellent glimpse into how
other shadow insurgent economies are likely run elsewhere in Asia. - Bertil
Lintner (May 20, '11)
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Wages
of peace
Cambodia's Curse: The modern history of a troubled land by Joel
Brinkley
This searingly accurate depiction of how Western aid in post-Khmer Rouge
Cambodia helped create the corrupt, impoverished and lawless state of today is
undermined by its premise: that Cambodians will never rise up against bad
leadership due to a "curse" of feudal subservience. History suggests internal
rebellion is more likely to spark change than the weak-kneed efforts of foreign
donors. - Sebastian Strangio (May 12, '11)
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When
Attlee met Mao
Passport to Peking, A very British mission to Mao's China by Patrick
Wright
This colorful account of British delegations sent to communist China in the
1950s intersperses valuable insights into the early Cold War period with a
humorous culture clash as a typically eccentric English band led by prime
minister Clement Attlee meets a rapidly transforming China. Beyond the gayety
lies a fascinating account of a forgotten era. - Michael Rank
(May 6, '11)
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Obama's
hidden radical past
Radical-in-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism,
by Stanley Kurtz
Detailed organizational charts, histories, and smoking-gun documentation about
the world of left-wing organizations in which Barack Obama circulated early in
his career make this book required reading for anyone who wants to pierce the
veil of a self-constructed enigma. It also shows the US president is not the
man he claimed to be in the 2008 campaign. - Spengler
(May 2, '11)
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Conservative
reappraisal of the Afghan war
The Wrong War: Grit, Strategy, and the Way Out of Afghanistan by Bing
West
The United States war effort in Afghanistan is failing, says this authoritative
- and usually supportive - voice on US military affairs. While implacable
Afghan resentment of foreigners is undermining the counter-insurgency,
inter-ethnic divisions are killing "Afghanization". Throw in the financial
crisis, an apathetic American public and the vague objectives of Washington's
revolving-door leadership, and you have a recipe for quagmire - Brian M Downing
(Apr 29, '11)
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The
president as a public intellectual
Reading Obama by James Kloppenberg
James Kloppenberg's intellectual biography of Barack Obama finds the United
States President 's political philosophy and style of politics owes a lot to
the pragmatic tradition in American philosophy. That will disappoint those on
the right who paint him as an extreme leftist radical. Missing from this
otherwise outstanding analysis are the ideas the younger Obama acquired from
his global travels. - Dinesh Sharma (Apr 21,
'11)
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Seeing
the forest for the leaves
Family of Fallen Leaves by Charles Waugh and Huy Lien
The Invention of Ecocide by David Zierler
These books take separate approaches to the United States' defoliation campaign
in the Vietnam War. One focuses on US scientists who realized there were
horrendous implications to using chemicals such as Agent Orange; the other
tells heart-rending tales of birth defects, sickness and death inflicted on the
Vietnamese. Neither fully captures the horrific impact of "ecocide" on an
agrarian society. - Nick Turse (Apr 15, '11)
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The
good old days
Reporter Forty Years Covering Asia by John McBeth
An absorbingly detailed account of the major stories that shook Southeast Asia
during the 40 years the author was a reporter, from Thailand's five coups to
the "secret war" in Laos and Cambodia's Khmer Rouge massacres. Evoking an era
when journalists were cut from a different cloth, the book also recounts the
death of one of Asia's most influential news magazines. - Robert Tilley
(Apr 8, '11)
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Asians
can't have it all
Consumptionomics: Asia's Role in Reshaping Capitalism and Saving the Planet
by Chandran Nair
Western consumerism in the developing East will have an irreversible climate
impact, according to Nair, who observes that climate change is an example of
massive market failure, so the world can't rely on markets to fix it -
authoritarianism is his preferred alternative. The challenge is finding an
appealing alternative to steak and SUVs. - Muhammad Cohen
(Apr 6, '11)
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Asians
can't have it all
Consumptionomics: Asia's Role in Reshaping Capitalism and Saving the Planet
by Chandran Nair
Western consumerism in the developing East will have an irreversible climate
impact, according to Nair, who observes that climate change is an example of
massive market failure, so the world can't rely on markets to fix it -
authoritarianism is his preferred alternative. The challenge is finding an
appealing alternative to steak and SUVs. - Muhammad Cohen
(Apr 6, '11)
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The
trouble with China's brands
The Brutal Truth About Asian Branding: And How to Break the Vicious Cycle
by Joseph Baladi
China has failed to nurture compelling consumer brands and largely remains a
factory for the West. Blaming the rigid confines of Confucian leadership and a
lack of awareness that "brands fundamentally define people", this book argues
that if China can't make the transition to home-grown brands, the process of
globalization will falter. - Benjamin A Shobert
(Apr 1, '11)
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The
privatization of US foreign policy
Outsourcing War and Peace: Preserving Public Values in a World of Privatized
Foreign Affairs by Laura A Dickinson
Since the Vietnam War, the United States has steadily shunted foreign policy
responsibilities onto private contractors, with no hope now of closing the
Pandora's box. This legal look into how privatization has seeped into the
Pentagon and why serious abuses take place outlines how a flawed organizational
and monitoring structure can be reformed to not threaten human rights and
democratic accountability. - David Isenberg (Mar 25,
'11)
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Davids
in a world of Goliaths
Small Acts of Resistance: How Courage, Tenacity, and a Bit of Ingenuity Can
Change the World by Steve Crawshaw and John Jackson
These heroic tales of non-violent, game-changing defiance by individuals or
small groups in repressive states like Iran, Myanmar and communist Poland are a
reminder that all authority, even at its very worst, exists only with the
consent of those it commands. By illustrating the bravery of those facing
imprisonment without trial, torture or extra-judicial murder just to enact
change, the book makes a mockery of political apathy in the West. - Jim Ash
(Mar 18, '11)
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Smoking
out Vietnam War truths
Search and Destroy: The Story of an Armored Cavalry Squadron in Viet Namby
Keith Nolan
As the United States marks 50 years since the start of the Vietnam War,
revisionism is as rife as ever. This one-year account of an armored cavalry
squadron, however, offers a clear-eyed appraisal of atrocities inflicted on the
Vietnamese people as well as a three-dimensional, sensitive portrayal of the
American troops that suffered bravely in the conflict. - Nick Turse
(Mar 11, '11)
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Islam
and democracy debate revisited
Democracy in Modern Iran: Islam, Culture, and Political Change by Ali
Mirsepassi
This critique of political Islam's evolution in Iran attempts laboriously to
apply Western philosophical and political perspectives to the issue, with an
uncritical embrace of the opposition "Green" movement also apparent from the
start. While there are useful chapters on Iranian intellectuals, the
generalizations and borrowed terminologies undermine any serious exploration of
Iran's part-theocratic, part-republican system. - Kaveh L Afrasiabi
(Mar 4, '11)
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Oil
poisoning humankind
Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil by Peter Maass
For the author, oil is a curse - from the moment it is extracted until the
moment it is poured into the oversized gas tanks of sports utility vehicles.
The book takes no pot-shots at companies, nations or people, instead using
snapshots of badly affected counties to show that Peak Oil will be a blessing.
- Jim Ash (Feb 25, '11)
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The
lighter side of the Tibet issue
Waiting for the Dalai Lama: Stories from all sides of the Tibetan Debate
by Annelie Rozeboom
Not a run-of-the-mill portrayal of the Free Tibet love camp, this book draws on
an eclectic cast of characters to flesh out the debate, including a former serf
and a nomad, a state oracle and a Tibetan Mao Zedong impersonator. While the
author's ability to highlight the funny and bizarre ensures an easy read, this
limits analysis of meaningful subjects such as evolving views towards the
Chinese. - Dinah Gardner (Feb 18, '11)
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Unmasking
British intelligence
MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909-1949 by Keith
Jeffery
Tracing the history of the British Secret Intelligence Service (now known as
MI6) from its birth in 1909 until the post-World War II years, this book
focuses on the spy service's trailblazing founder, its emergence and early
triumphs, and political battles the organization faced for its survival.
Replete with detail, the work rehabilitates the SIS's contribution to the
British war effort. - Mahan Abedin (Feb 11,
'11)
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One
man's Korean war
Yin Yang Tattoo by Ron McMillan
This novel follows the sexual and drunken exploits of Scottish photojournalist
Alec Brodie as he is sucked into the shady attempt of a bankrupt South Korean chaebol
to save itself through a corporate scam involving the Hermit Kingdom. As a work
of expatriate escapism, the book is a great success. But as a cautionary tale
it may fall a little short. - David Simmons (Feb
4, '11)
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The
party principle
Red Capitalism: The Fragile Financial Foundation of China's Extraordinary Rise
by Carl E Walter and Fraser J T Howie
Is China headed for a fall? Can it cope with the crises its rapid growth and
uneven development might spark? Walter and Howie attempt to answer these
questions by focusing exclusively on the country's financial system. They
conclude that China’s embrace of the free market is merely a ploy to keep the
Communist Party predominant, and question whether this approach can work in the
long term. - Reviewed by Benjamin A Shobert (Jan
28, '11)
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The
neo-Renaissance man
How to Run the World: Charting a Course to the Next Renaissance by
Parag Khanna
Khanna tells us that an informal network of committed individuals can end the
new feudal age we toil in, and usher in the next Renaissance. The book bristles
with good ideas, and Khanna's heart is in the right place. But he fails to
explain how his vision will survive the plutocrats and Pentagonistas who
currently run the world. - Pepe Escobar (Jan
21, '11)
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Not
so special
The Eurasian Face by Kirsteen Zimmern
This photographic exploration of the Eurasian experience treads too lightly on
a tumultuous history of discrimination, violence and stigma, dismissing the
identity crisis many Eurasians still feel as an amusing reminiscence. While its
subjects are young and old, and drawn from all walks of life, their shallow
portraits make the reconciling of ethnicities sound far too easy. - Kent Ewing
(Jan 14, '11)
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The
last American Caesars
Dismantling the Empire: America's Last Best Hope by Chalmers
Johnson
The late author's last book encapsulates his previous themes of how America's
empire-building since World War II, epitomized by base-building sprees,
stage-managed coup d'etats and illegal killings and torture, has filled a "pond
of hatred" set to cause pernicious "blowback" and financial ruin. It offers
little hope for the empire's future, predicting a hubris-fueled demise similar
to that of Rome. - Jim Ash (Jan 7, '11)
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Reconfiguring
the Middle East
Reset: Iran, Turkey and America's Future by Stephen Kinzer
The book argues the United States' morass in the Middle East could be improved
by "reseting" relations with Turkey and Iran, who with their histories of
popular democratic struggle are an ideal US "soul mate", while inching away
from traditional ties with Saudi Arabia and Israel - relationships built on
"dirty war" contracts and "Biblical traditions" that have hurt US interests. - Sreeram
Chaulia (Dec 22, '10)
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The
driving force behind empires
When Empire Meets Nationalism by Didier Chaudet, Florent
Parmentier and Benoit Pelopidas
When Empire Meets Nationalism by Didier Chaudet, Florent Parmentier and Benoit
Pelopidas The authors attempt to deconstruct the ideologies that inform foreign
policy and the creation of empires, particularly in relation to the United
States and Russia. This is an informative exercise, but overlooked are other
important factors, such as economic policies. - Dmitry Shlapentokh
(Dec 17, '10)
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Eastern
promise
The Chinese Dream: The Rise of the World's Largest Middle Class and What It Means
to You by Helen Wang
The author argues that the mainland's rising middle class is essential to the
economic health of both China and the United States, as well as to China's
future political liberalization. Underneath all this, her book also strikes a
poignant note about America's lost optimism. - Benjamin A Shobert
(Dec 10, '10)
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Myanmar's
ageless ethnic question
The Shan of Burma: Memoirs of a Shan Exile by Chao Tzang Yawnghwe
The intensifying clashes between Karen rebels and government forces along
Myanmar's border with Thailand make the re-release of this seminal account and
overview of the Shan resistance all the more timely. Written by a late Shan
activist and prince, the two-decade-old book's plea for a solution to the
state's deadly ethnic divisions is equally powerful and relevant today. - Bertil
Lintner (Dec 3, '10)
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Book Reviews Archive
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