New Books Network
National Security
History June 24, 2021

The Road Less Traveled

The Secret Battle to End the Great War, 1916-1917

Philip Zelikow

Hosted by Charles Coutinho
During a pivotal few months in the middle of the First World War all sides-Germany, Britain, and America-believed the war could be concluded. Peace at the end of 1916 would …

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History June 23, 2021

Stalin's War

A New History of World War II

Sean McMeekin

Hosted by Charles Coutinho
World War II endures in the popular imagination as a heroic struggle between good and evil, with villainous Hitler driving its events. But Hitler was not in power when the …
Nordic Asia Podcast June 21, 2021

In China’s Shadow: China and Southeast Asia

A Discussion with Sebastian Strangio and Murray Hiebert

Sebastian Strangio and Murray Hiebert

Hosted by Duncan McCargo
Does Southeast Asia face a stark choice between aligning with China or the United States? Can we understand domestic developments in the region as driven by wider geopolitics? Can the …
Russian and Eurasian Studies June 14, 2021

Russia and America

The Asymmetric Rivalry

Andrei P. Tsygankov

Hosted by Daniel Peris
In recent times, US-Russia relations have deteriorated to what both sides acknowledge is an “all time low.” Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election and Putin’s continued support for …
Economics June 11, 2021

Playing by the Informal Rules

Why the Chinese Regime Remains Stable despite Rising Protests

Yao Li

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
In the developing world, political turmoil often brings an end to promising economic growth stories. During its period of rapid economic growth in the 1990s and 2000s, China experienced a …
Critical Theory June 7, 2021

Violent Ignorance

Confronting Racism and Migration Control

Hannah Jones

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
Why does ignorance matter? In Violent Ignorance: Confronting Racism and Migration Control (Zed Books, 2021), Hannah Jones, an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick, thinks through …
Political Science June 7, 2021

Discrimination and Delegation

Explaining State Responses to Refugees

Lamis Elmy Abdelaaty

Hosted by Susan Liebell
States face choices when people forced to leave their states due to persecution or violence seek refuge. They may assert their sovereignty by either granting or denying entry or they …
History June 2, 2021

To Lose an Empire

British Strategy and Foreign Policy, 1758-90

Jeremy Black

Hosted by Charles Coutinho
Bringing strategy, foreign policy, domestic and imperial politics together, this book challenges the conventional understanding as to why the British Empire, at perhaps the height of its power, lost control …
Political Science May 27, 2021

Herodotus in the Anthropocene

Joel Alden Schlosser

Hosted by Lilly Goren
Political Theorist Joel Alden Schlosser has turned his attention to Herodotus, an historian and political thinker from classical Greece, to learn how we might better think about and consider solutions …
History May 24, 2021

Restricted Data

The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

Alex Wellerstein

Hosted by Mark Klobas
Given the obsession with information and secrecy in today’s world, it can be difficult to imagine a time when governments held few secrets and worried little about what information …
History May 21, 2021

Fighting Terror after Napoleon

How Europe Became Secure after 1815

Beatrice de Graaf

Hosted by George Giannakopoulos
After twenty-six years of unprecedented revolutionary upheavals and endless fighting, the victorious powers craved stability after Napoleon's defeat in 1815. With the threat of war and revolutionary terror still looming …
South Asian Studies May 19, 2021

A Genealogy of Terrorism

Colonial Law and the Origins of an Idea

Joseph McQuade

Hosted by Samee Siddiqui
Today I talked to Joseph McQuade about his book A Genealogy of Terrorism: Colonial Law and the Origins of an Idea (Cambridge University Press, 2020).  Using India as a case study …
National Security May 18, 2021

On Resilience

Genealogy, Logics, and World Politics

Philippe Bourbeau

Hosted by Kyle Beadle
What does it mean to be resilient in a societal or in an international context? Where does resilience come from? From which discipline was it 'imported' into international relations? If …
National Security May 17, 2021

War Time

Temporality and the Decline of Western Military Power

Sten Rynning, Olivier Schmitt, and Amelie Theussen

Hosted by Kyle Beadle
The "decline of the West" is once again a frequent topic of speculation. Often cited as one element of the alleged decline is the succession of prolonged and unsuccessful wars--most …
Genocide Studies May 14, 2021

The Problems of Genocide

Permanent Security and the Language of Transgression

A. Dirk Moses

Hosted by Jeff Bachman
Genocide is not only a problem of mass death, but also of how, as a relatively new idea and law, it organizes and distorts thinking about civilian destruction. Taking the …
National Security May 13, 2021

Bullets Not Ballots

Success in Counterinsurgency Warfare

Jacqueline L. Hazelton

Hosted by John Sakellariadis
Why do liberal great powers like the United States struggle to defeat insurgencies across the globe? In her new book, Bullets Not Ballots: Success in Counterinsurgency Warfare (Cornell University Press …
Kurdish Studies May 7, 2021

Insurgent Women

Female Combatants in Civil Wars

Jessica Trisko Darden, Alexis Henshaw, and Ora Szekely

Hosted by Dilan Okcuoglu
Today I talked to Ora Szekely about Insurgent Women: Female Combatants in Civil Wars (Georgetown UP, 2019), which she co-edited with Jessica Trisko Darden and Alexis Henshaw. Why do women go to war in …
East Asian Studies May 7, 2021

Empire and Righteous Nation

600 Years of China-Korea Relations

Odd Arne Westad

Hosted by Ed Pulford
Being arguably each side’s most enduring international bond, the China-Korea relationship has long been of great practical and symbolic importance to both. Moreover, as Odd Arne Westad observes in his …
European Studies May 7, 2021

European Studies

Past, Present, and Future

Erik Jones

Hosted by Tim Jones
“It is no secret that European studies has suffered a setback in the academy”, write William Collins Donahue and Martin Kagel in their contribution to European Studies: Past, Present and …
National Security May 6, 2021

The Frontlines of Peace

An Insider's Guide to Changing the World

Séverine Autesserre

Hosted by Beth Windisch
The word "peacebuilding" evokes a story we've all heard over and over: violence breaks out, foreign nations are scandalized, peacekeepers and million-dollar donors come rushing in, warring parties sign a …