Help Support H-Net! | Visit New Books Network en Español!

New Books Network
National Security
The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones January 28, 2023

The Future of Computer Chips

A Discussion with Julian Kamasa

Julian Kamasa

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones
Microchips are both important and in short supply. So how important? And what can be done to make them more plentiful? Also, what are the geopolitical implications of having the …

National Security

Subscribe:

Interviews with scholars of national security about their new books.

Critical Theory January 18, 2023

Sorting Machines

The Reinvention of the Border in the 21st Century

Steffen Mau

Hosted by Catriona Gold
It is commonly thought that, thanks to globalization, nation-state borders are becoming increasingly porous. In Sorting Machines: The Reinvention of the Border in the 21st Century (Polity, 2022) Steffen Mau shows that this view is …
Diplomatic History January 8, 2023

Unofficial Peace Diplomacy

Private Peace Entrepreneurs in Conflict Resolution Processes

Lior Lehrs

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Unofficial Peace Diplomacy: Private Peace Entrepreneurs in Conflict Resolution Processes (Manchester University Press, 2022) by Dr. Lior Lehrs analyses the international phenomenon of private peace entrepreneurs. These are private citizens …
African Studies January 4, 2023

Salafism and Political Order in Africa

Sebastian Elischer

Hosted by Sally Sharif
Violent Islamic extremism is affecting a growing number of countries in sub-Saharan Africa. In some, jihadi Salafi organizations have established home bases and turned into permanent security challengers. However, other …
Russian and Eurasian Studies December 24, 2022

The Palgrave Handbook of Digital Russia Studies

Daria Gritsenko, Mariëlle Wijermars, and Mikhail Kopotev

Hosted by Joanne Kuai
How has digitalisation changed Russian politics? How has Russia’s invasion of Ukraine changed Russia studies? What is special about Russia’s approach to algorithmic governance and internet control? Assistant Professor in …
The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones December 17, 2022

The Future of the Arms Industry

A Discussion with Pieter D. Wezeman

Pieter D. Wezeman

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones
If you read the business pages of most newspapers, they are filled with stories about the sort of companies that people do business with – airlines, retail outlets, football clubs …
Political Science December 12, 2022

Ascending Order

Rising Powers and the Politics of Status in International Institutions

Rohan Mukherjee

Hosted by Lamis Abdelaaty
Why do rising powers sometimes challenge an international order that enables their growth, and at other times support an order that constrains them? Ascending Order: Rising Powers and the Politics …
Military History December 4, 2022

Agents of Subversion

The Fate of John T. Downey and the CIA's Covert War in China

John Delury

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Agents of Subversion: The Fate of John T. Downey and the CIA's Covert War in China (Cornell University Press, 2022) by Dr. John Delury reconstructs the remarkable story of a …
World Affairs November 29, 2022

Backfire

How Sanctions Reshape the World Against U.S. Interests

Agathe Demarais

Hosted by Mathias Fuelling
Sanctions have become the go-to foreign policy tool for the United States. Coercive economic measures such as trade tariffs, financial penalties, and export controls affect large numbers of companies and …
World Affairs November 29, 2022

Planet in Peril

Humanity's Four Greatest Challenges and How We Can Overcome Them

Michael Bess

Hosted by Vladislav Lilic
Michael Bess is the Chancellor's Professor of History at Vanderbilt University. His fifth and most recent book is Planet in Peril: Humanity’s Four Greatest Challenges and How We Can Overcome Them …
International Horizons November 29, 2022

What will be the Role of Europe in the Changing World Order?

A Discussion with Sigmar Gabriel

Sigmar Gabriel

Hosted by International Horizons
The transatlantic relationship, arguably the bedrock of the world’s post-World War II international security architecture, came under significant threat during Donald Trump’s tenure in office, as Trump complained about European …
European Politics November 25, 2022

Governing the EU in an Age of Division

Dalibor Roháč

Hosted by Tim Jones
"An important distinction exists between the politics of rules at which the EU is quite adept and the politics driven by events - which requires improvisation, risk-taking and alertness to …
Economics November 22, 2022

Trafficking Data

How China Is Winning the Battle for Digital Sovereignty

Aynne Kokas

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
On August 6, 2020, the Trump Administration issued a ban on TikTok in the United States, requiring that the owner, Beijing-based Bytedance, sell the company to American investors or shut …
Military History November 16, 2022

Dying to Learn

Wartime Lessons from the Western Front

Michael A. Hunzeker

Hosted by Samuel Canter
In Dying to Learn: Wartime Lessons from the Western Front (Cornell UP, 2021), Michael Hunzeker develops a novel theory to explain how wartime militaries learn. He focuses on the Western …
Anthropology November 14, 2022

Can Big Bird Fight Terrorism?

Children's Television and Globalized Multicultural Education

Naomi A. Moland

Hosted by Sharonee Dasgupta
Sesame Street has taught generations of Americans their letters and numbers, and also how to better understand and get along with people of different races, faiths, ethnicities, and temperaments. But …
Women's History November 11, 2022

Not the Camilla We Knew

One Woman's Life from Small-Town America to the Symbionese Liberation Army

Rachael Hanel

Hosted by Rebecca Turkington
How could an artist and former social worker from small-town Minnesota become one of the most wanted domestic terrorists in the United States? Camilla Hall was a pastor's daughter who …
Economics November 11, 2022

Divided Environments

An International Political Ecology of Climate Change, Water and Security

Jan Selby, Gabrielle Daoust, and Clemens Hoffmann

Hosted by Sidney Michelini
What are the implications of climate change for twenty-first-century conflict and security? Rising temperatures, it is often said, will bring increased drought, more famine, heightened social vulnerability, and large-scale political …
Critical Theory November 4, 2022

Red List

MI5 and British Intellectuals in the Twentieth Century

David Caute

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
In the popular imagination MI5, or the Security Service, is know chiefly as the branch of the British state responsible for chasing down those who pose a threat to the …
Lies Agreed Upon November 2, 2022

Shaken and Stirred

On "From Russia With Love" (1963), "For Your Eyes Only" (1981), "Goldeneye" (1995), and "Skyfall" (2012)

Hosted by Lia Paradis and Brian Crim
We couldn’t do a season on the Cold War without talking about Bond . . . James Bond. He was there from the beginning and has of course survived into …
Early Modern History October 26, 2022

Anatomy of Torture

Ron E. Hassner

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Does torture "work?" Can controversial techniques such as waterboarding extract crucial and reliable intelligence? Since 9/11, this question has been angrily debated in the halls of power and the court …