New Books Network
National Security
General History January 24, 2022

A Short History of War

Jeremy Black

Hosted by Charles Coutinho
Throughout history, warfare has transformed social, political, cultural, and religious aspects of our lives. We tell tales of wars--past, present, and future--to create and reinforce a common purpose. In A …

National Security

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Interviews with scholars of national security about their new books.

General History January 19, 2022

Quagmire in Civil War

Jonah Schulhofer-Wohl

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
In Quagmire in Civil War (Cambridge University Press, 2020), Dr. Jonah Schulhofer-Wohl provides the first treatment of quagmire in civil war, moving beyond the notion that quagmire is intrinsic to …
Asian Review of Books January 6, 2022

Middle Class Shanghai

Reshaping U.S.-China Engagement

Cheng Li

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
In mid-November, Washington and Beijing mutually agreed to start granting journalist visas again, putting an end to months of reciprocal visa rejections and denials. A perhaps minor, yet still important …
Literary Studies December 20, 2021

Infrastructures of Apocalypse

American Literature and the Nuclear Complex

Jessica Hurley

Hosted by Christian Long
Since 1945, America has spent more resources on nuclear technology than any other national project. Although it requires a massive infrastructure that touches society on myriad levels, nuclear technology has …
Eastern European Studies December 17, 2021

International Intervention and the Problem of Legitimacy

Encounters in Postwar Bosnia-Herzegovina

Andrew Gilbert

Hosted by Christian Nielsen
In International Intervention and the Problem of Legitimacy (Cornell UP, 2020) Andrew C. Gilbert, who is assistant professor in anthropology at the University of Toronto-Mississauga, argues for an ethnographic analysis of international …
National Security December 9, 2021

The Politics of Cybersecurity in the Middle East

James Shires

Hosted by John Sakellariadis
How has “cybersecurity” become a catch-all for everything that touches our digital world? In his new book, The Politics of Cybersecurity in the Middle East (Hurst, 2021), Dr. James Shires …
Islamic Studies December 3, 2021

Suspect Communities

Anti-Muslim Racism and the Domestic War on Terror

Nicole Nguyen

Hosted by Kristian Petersen
Suspect Communities: Anti-Muslim Racism and the Domestic War on Terror (University of Minnesota Press, 2019) is a powerful reassessment of the U.S. government’s “countering violent extremism” (CVE) program that has …
General History December 23, 2021

The Deportation Express

A History of America Through Forced Removal

Ethan Blue

Hosted by Catriona Gold
The Deportation Express: A History of America Through Forced Removal (University of California Press, 2021) details the history of the United States' systematic expulsion of "undesirables" and immigrants, told through the lives of the …
Law December 14, 2021

The War Lawyers

The United States, Israel, and Juridical Warfare

Craig Jones

Hosted by Zalman Newfield
Over the last 20 years the world's most advanced militaries have invited a small number of military legal professionals into the heart of their targeting operations, spaces which had previously …
Political Science December 14, 2021

Divided Armies

Inequality and Battlefield Performance in Modern War

Jason Lyall

Hosted by Lamis Abdelaaty
Why do some armies fare better than others on the battlefield? In Divided Armies: Inequality and Battlefield Performance in Modern War (Princeton UP, 2020), Jason Lyall argues that a state's prewar treatment …
Medicine December 8, 2021

Risk

A User's Guide

Stanley McChrystal and Anna Butrico

Hosted by Colin Miller
Today's guest is former US Army general, Stanley McChrystal. A retired four-star general with 34 years of service, Stanley was the commander of all US and coalition forces in Afghanistan …
Geography December 2, 2021

Transecting Securityscapes

Dispatches from Cambodia, Iraq, and Mozambique

Till F. Paasche and James Derrick Sidaway

Hosted by Catriona Gold
In this interview, I speak with Till F. Paasche and James D. Sidaway about their new book, Transecting Securityscapes: Dispatches from Cambodia, Iraq, and Mozambique (University of Georgia Press, 2021) …
Science Fiction November 26, 2021

2034

A Novel of the Next World War

Elliot Ackerman and James Stavridis

Hosted by Rob Wolf
The next world war is 13 years away—that is, if you live in the world envisioned by Elliot Ackerman and James Stavridis, 2034: A Novel of the Next World War (Penguin, 2021) …
National Security November 22, 2021

Cyber Threats and Nuclear Weapons

Herbert Lin

Hosted by John Sakellariadis
What does America’s growing dependence on modern information technology systems mean for the management of its nuclear weapons? In his new book, Cyber Threats and Nuclear Weapons (Stanford University Press …
General History November 22, 2021

State Surveillance, Political Policing and Counter-Terrorism in Britain, 1880-1914

Vlad Solomon

Hosted by Mark Klobas
In 1850 Charles Dickens wrote that Great Britain had “no political police,” adding that “the most rabid demagogue” could speak out “without the terror of an organised spy system.” In …
General History November 10, 2021

Humane

How the United States Abandoned Peace and Reinvented War

Samuel Moyn

Hosted by Dexter Fergie
Geographic and temporal limits have typically contained modern wars—rulers can ask their populace to risk lives and treasure only for so long before losing legitimacy. But modern wars have also …
Science November 10, 2021

What's the Worst That Could Happen?

Existential Risk and Extreme Politics

Andrew Leigh

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
Did you know that you're more likely to die from a catastrophe than in a car crash? The odds that a typical US resident will die from a catastrophic event—for …
Science October 19, 2021

Unmanning

How Humans, Machines and Media Perform Drone Warfare

Katherine Chandler

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
Katherine Chandler's Unmanning: How Humans, Machines and Media Perform Drone Warfare (Rutgers UP, 2020) studies the conditions that create unmanned platforms in the United States through a genealogy of experimental, pilotless …
Interpretive Political and Social Science October 14, 2021

Interpreting International Politics

Cecelia Lynch

Hosted by Nick Cheesman
Interpreting International Politics (Routledge, 2014) is a short and lively account of how international relations was founded and developed as an interpretivist discipline, and why it matters that it was …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery October 8, 2021

Mexican Drug Violence

Hybrid Warfare, Predatory Capitalism and the Logic of Cruelty

Teun Voeten

Hosted by Geert Slabbekoorn
With an estimated 250,000 people killed in 15 years, the Mexican drug war is the most violent conflict in the Western world. It shows no sign of abating. In Mexican …