New Books Network

About Beth Windisch

Beth Windisch is a national security practitioner.

Beth's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Beth:

National Security August 27, 2021

Your Sons Are at Your Service

Tunisia's Missionaries of Jihad

Aaron Y. Zelin

Hosted by Beth Windisch
Tunisia became one of the largest sources of foreign fighters for the Islamic State—even though the country stands out as a democratic bright spot of the Arab uprisings and despite …
National Security July 26, 2021

Pastels and Pedophiles

Inside the Mind of QAnon

Mia Bloom and Sophia Moskalenko

Hosted by Beth Windisch
Two experts of extremist radicalization take us down the QAnon rabbit hole, exposing how the conspiracy theory ensnared countless Americans, and show us a way back to sanity. In January …
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 …
National Security April 2, 2021

Avoiding the Terrorist Trap

Why Respect for Human Rights is the Key to Defeating Terrorism

Thomas David Parker

Hosted by Beth Windisch
Faced with a major terrorist threat, states seem to reach instinctively for the most coercive tools in their arsenal and, in doing so, risk exacerbating the situation. This policy …
National Security January 6, 2021

American Zealots

Inside Right-Wing Domestic Terrorism

Arie Perliger

Hosted by Beth Windisch
In an unsettling time in American history, the outbreak of right-wing violence is among the most disturbing developments. In recent years, attacks originating from the far right of American politics …
National Security December 2, 2020

Hate in the Homeland

The New Global Far Right

Cynthia Miller-Idriss

Hosted by Beth Windisch
Hate crimes. Misinformation and conspiracy theories. Foiled white-supremacist plots. The signs of growing far-right extremism are all around us, and communities across America and around the globe are struggling to …
National Security September 23, 2020

Muslims in a Post-9/11 America

A Survey of Attitudes and Beliefs and Their Implications for U.S. National Security Policy

Rachel M. Gillum

Hosted by Beth Windisch
Muslims in a Post-9/11 America (University of Michigan Press, 2018) examines how public fears about Muslims in the United States compare with the reality of American Muslims’ attitudes on a …
National Security September 9, 2020

America’s Other Muslims

Imam W.D. Mohammed, Islamic Reform, and the Making of American Islam

Muhammed Fraser-Rahim

Hosted by Beth Windisch
America's Other Muslims: Imam W.D. Mohammed, Islamic Reform, and the Making of American Islam explores the oldest and perhaps the most important Muslim community in America, whose story has received …
National Security September 1, 2020

Breaking Protocol

America's First Female Ambassadors, 1933-1964

Philip Nash

Hosted by Beth Windisch
"It used to be," soon-to-be secretary of state Madeleine K. Albright said in 1996, "that the only way a woman could truly make her foreign policy views felt was by …
National Security August 25, 2020

Incitement

Anwar al-Awlaki’s Western Jihad

A. Meleagrou-Hitchens

Hosted by Beth Windisch
Anwar al-Awlaki was, according to one of his followers, “the main man who translated jihad into English.” By the time he was killed by an American drone strike in 2011 …
National Security August 12, 2020

Disordered Violence

How Gender, Race and Heteronormativity Structure Terrorism

Caron Gentry

Hosted by Beth Windisch
In Disordered Violence: How Gender, Race and Heteronormativity Structure Terrorism (Edinburgh University Press, 2020), Caron Gentry looks at how gender, race, and heteronormative expectations of public life shape Western understandings …
National Security August 5, 2020

Black Wave

How Networks and Governance Shaped Japan’s 3/11 Disasters

Daniel P. Aldrich

Hosted by Beth Windisch
Despite the devastation caused by the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and 60-foot tsunami that struck Japan in 2011, some 96% of those living and working in the most disaster-stricken region of …
National Security July 7, 2020

Becoming Bulletproof

Protect Yourself, Read People, Influence Situations, and Live Fearlessly

Evy Poumpouras

Hosted by Beth Windisch
Former Secret Service agent and star of Bravo’s Spy Games, Evy Poumpouras, shares lessons learned from protecting presidents, as well insights and skills from the oldest and most elite security …
National Security July 6, 2020

Radicalization to Terrorism

What Everyone Needs to Know

Sophia Moskalenko and Clark McCauley

Hosted by Beth Windisch
Terrorism and radicalization came to the forefront of news and politics in the US after the unforgettable attacks of September 11th, 2001. When George W. Bush famously asked "Why do …
National Security June 9, 2020

Weaponized Words

The Strategic Role of Persuasion in Violent Radicalization and Counter-Radicalization

Kurt Braddock

Hosted by Beth Windisch
Kurt Braddock's new book Weaponized Words: The Strategic Role of Persuasion in Violent Radicalization and Counter-Radicalization (Cambridge University Press, 2020) applies existing theories of persuasion to domains unique to this …
National Security May 27, 2020

Widen the Window

Training Your Brain and Body to Thrive During Stress and Recover from Trauma

Elizabeth A. Stanley

Hosted by Beth Windisch
Stress is our internal response to an experience that our brain perceives as threatening or challenging. Trauma is our response to an experience in which we feel powerless or lacking …
National Security April 1, 2020

The First Political Order

How Sex Shapes Governance and National Security Worldwide

Valerie M. Hudson, Donna Lee Bowen, and Perpetua Lynne Nielsen

Hosted by Beth Windisch
Global history records an astonishing variety of forms of social organization. Yet almost universally, males subordinate females. How does the relationship between men and women shape the wider political order …
National Security March 24, 2020

A Woman's Place

US Counterterrorism Since 9/11

Joana Cook

Hosted by Beth Windisch
The 9/11 attacks fundamentally transformed how the US approached terrorism, and led to the unprecedented expansion of counterterrorism strategies, policies, and practices. While the analysis of these developments is rich …
National Security March 2, 2020

Full Spectrum Dominance

Irregular Warfare and the War on Terror

Maria Ryan

Hosted by Beth Windisch
America's war on terror is widely defined by the Afghanistan and Iraq fronts. Yet, as this book demonstrates, both the international campaign and the new ways of fighting that grew …
National Security January 17, 2020

The New Battle for the Atlantic

Emerging Naval Competition with Russia in the Far North

Magnus Nordenman

Hosted by Beth Windisch
In The New Battle for the Atlantic: Emerging Naval Competition with Russia in the Far North (Naval Institute Press, 2019), Magnus Nordenman explores the emerging competition between the United States …
National Security January 10, 2020

Building a Resilient Tomorrow

How to Prepare for the Coming Climate Disruption

Alice C. Hill

Hosted by Beth Windisch
Climate change impacts-more heat, drought, extreme rainfall, and stronger storms-have already harmed communities around the globe. Even if the world could cut its carbon emissions to zero tomorrow, further significant …
National Security January 8, 2020

Leadership Decapitation

Strategic Targeting of Terrorist Organizations

Jenna Jordan

Hosted by Beth Windisch
One of the central pillars of US counterterrorism policy is that capturing or killing a terrorist group's leader is effective. Yet this pillar rests more on a foundation of faith …
National Security December 31, 2019

Empire's Mobius Strip

Historical Echoes in Italy's Crisis of Migration and Detention

Stephanie Malia Hom

Hosted by Beth Windisch
Italy's current crisis of Mediterranean migration and detention has its roots in early twentieth century imperial ambitions. Stephanie Malia Hom's new book Empire's Mobius Strip: Historical Echoes in Italy's Crisis …
National Security December 13, 2019

The Media World of ISIS

Michael Krona and Rosemary Pennington

Hosted by Beth Windisch
From efficient instructions on how to kill civilians to horrifying videos of beheadings, no terrorist organization has more comprehensively weaponized social media than ISIS. Its strategic, multi-platformed campaign is so …