Political Science

In the wake of the Taliban's military defeat in 2001, foreign fighters played a critical role in assisting the Taliban to launch an insurgency against Coalition forces. Ten years later, by al-Qaida's own admission, the Taliban "almost didn't need" al-Qaida's non-Afghan fighters. Over time the Taliban grew sufficiently in strength that its need for foreign fighters—and foreign fighters' influence—virtually disappeared. Somalia shows a similar pattern. Foreign fighters initially played a prominent role in al-Shabaab, helping the group to launch an insurgency against Ethiopian forces, but their influence also declined as al-Shabaab became the dominant insurgent organization and built ties within Somali society. This is the first book to examine how foreign fighters gain and lose influence during insurgencies. Understanding foreign fighters' impact on conflicts is of increasing importance as the number of foreign fighters who have mobilized has grown in recent years, both in absolute numbers and in terms of the proportion of conflicts in which they are involved. In examining the conditions that contribute to the changes in their effect over time, Bacon explains how and why foreign fighter influence evolves within a conflict and which factors enable and constrain foreign fighter influence throughout an insurgency. Knowing how foreign fighters are situated vis-à-vis local insurgents, specifically the type of relationships they forge, should shape every aspect of counterinsurgency strategies to avoid counterproductive tactics, more effectively counter insurgent movements, and better protect civilians.

The Thread: Within the Deliberative Democracy Labyrinth brings together the pioneering work of Alexander N. Christakis, the recent contributions of Maria Kakoulaki, and collaborative projects spanning five decades. It showcases the critical need for inclusive democratic processes to tackle complex issues in human systems. Through these writings, readers will understand how our pluralistic cultures and interdependent networks extend beyond familiar horizons and times. The book reflects on historical moments, like the post-World War II era, when visionary leaders foresaw the challenges of industrial consumption, planetary limits, and the rise of unaccountable regimes. Dr. Christakis and his colleagues have drawn from various disciplines to synthesize a dialogic approach for sustainable democracy.

Democracy, akin to a delicate flower, thrives only through the goodwill of those who recognize our interconnectedness. This fragile bloom faces threats from argumentative debates, autocratic power brokers, and information overload. While goodwill is essential for democracy's survival, it is insufficient on its own. The 21st century demands innovative approaches to civic dialogue. In response, Dr. Christakis founded the Institute for 21st Century Agoras, developing the Structured Democratic Dialogue (Structured Dialogic Design) to restore and enhance democratic practices.

This volume is a treasure trove of landmark essays, case studies, scholarly reflections, and methodological insights. It serves as a metaphorical life raft for navigating an uncertain future. For those who believe that changing the world requires transforming our dialogue, The Thread: Within the Deliberative Democracy Labyrinth offers a gateway to our shared future.

Green energy and renewables are heralded as the only way to mitigate our ever-worsening ecological crisis. But that’s not the whole story. 

In Bad Energy, award-winning journalist Joshua Frank argues that the green energy transition is driven not by an effort to save the planet but by profit incentives. We must stop burning fossil fuels if we have any hope of saving the planet, but the significant, haphazard expansion of green energy in recent years—from large solar projects to wind energy to mining for renewables—has destroyed communities and ecosystems. And worse, renewables simply cannot match our ever-expanding demand for energy, driven in no small part by the rapid proliferation of data centers in the world’s wealthiest nations.

Taking readers from copper mines in Montana and Bolivia to wind farms in Wyoming to the geopolitical battle over deep-sea mining in the South Pacific, Bad Energy offers a stark assessment of the costs of the rush for renewables and the demand for endless growth. As Frank makes clear, we cannot consume our way out of climate chaos. What we need instead is rejection of the capitalist interests driving planetary collapse and a radical vision for a truly sustainable future.

A captivating account of the most corrupt and blood-soaked chapters in Chicago law enforcement history

In December 1969, the FBI, the Chicago Police Department, and the office of States Attorney, led by rising political star Edward V. Hanrahan, conspired to assassinate Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, and then flagrantly covered up their misconduct. Thirteen years later, Jackie Wilson was tortured by the same police department and wrongfully incarcerated for thirty-six years.

Drawing on unique insights from his role as a leading opposition lawyer in both cases, award-winning author Flint Taylor details the vast political corruption uncovered in the Hampton case and the twists and turns of Wilson's forty-year effort to win his freedom. 

With blistering clarity and righteous indignation, The Conviction Machine shines a penetrating light on the sordid world of prosecutorial misconduct and police violence.

Public Administration, Civic Engagement, and Spanish-Speaking Communities builds on the first bilingual (Spanish–English) special session at the National Academy of Public Administration’s 2022 Social Equity Leadership Conference. Expanding on the themes of that groundbreaking conversation, this interdisciplinary volume addresses the urgent need to center multilingual voices in the pursuit of social equity in public administration. It examines the lived experiences and systemic challenges faced by Spanish-speaking communities in the United States—from language and cultural barriers to generational divides and unequal access to technology—while also highlighting innovative approaches to inclusive service delivery and democratic participation.

With 31 contributors representing diverse identities and disciplines, this volume models walking the social equity talk. Most chapters are coauthored by teams of scholars, students, and practitioners at different career levels, bringing forward the voices of Spanish-speaking communities alongside allies and social equity champions.

Designed for faculty, students, researchers, and practitioners alike, the book offers both breadth and depth: each chapter can be read on its own, yet together they create a comprehensive portrait of civic engagement, governance, and social equity in Spanish-speaking contexts.

«Советско-американская культурная дипломатия. Американский дебют Большого театра» — первое масштабное исследование гастролей Большого балета в США в 1959 году как инструмента внешней политики СССР. После подписания соглашения о культурном обмене Советский Союз стремился произвести впечатление на американскую публику мощью своей хореографии и исполнительского мастерства, превратив сцену в арену культурного соперничества.

Кадра Петерсон Макдэниэл исследует, как формировался репертуар, сочетавший коммунистические идеи и переработанную классику, и как турне было воспринято с обеих сторон «железного занавеса». Работа показывает, что культурный обмен стал формой «изящной войны» и подчеркивает: роль искусства в политике времен холодной войны остается актуальной и в наши дни.

Das Lehr- und Handbuch vermittelt unter politikwissenschaftlichen Gesichtspunkten einen kompakten Überblick über die wichtigsten konzeptionellen Entwürfe und Ausarbeitungen der Kritischen Theorie der "Frankfurter Schule".

Das Buch ist nach dem Vorbild amerikanischer Textbooks konzipiert, ein Genre, das auf dem deutschen Büchermarkt nach wie vor viel zu selten angeboten wird. Vorgestellt werden empirisch-analytische Theorien "mittlerer Reichweite" als Originaltexte. Eine theoriegeschichtliche Kontextualisierung, Erschließungsfragen und Literaturhinweise ergänzen die Primärquellen.

Der Autor analysiert die modernen Begriffe von "Nation", "Volk" und "Rasse". Indem er untersucht, in welcher Weise die Metaphern des Todes in den Glauben an das Kollektiv integriert sind, findet er eine Antwort auf die Frage, was das Sterben und Töten für Volk, Nation und Rasse als attraktiv erscheinen läßt.

As the world pursues the UN’s Agenda 2030, nations face challenges in balancing economic growth, social equity, and sustainability. South Africa, a symbol of democracy since 1994, grapples with political instability, economic inequality, and environmental concerns. Assessing its progress in achieving Agenda 2030 offers insights into the broader challenges faced by developing democracies.

In South Africa and Agenda 2030: Critical Perspectives on Delivering Sustainable Democracy and Development, editor Daniel Silander brings together a comprehensive collection of analyses examining South Africa’s commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This volume explores key dimensions of sustainable democracy and development, with a particular focus on SDG 16, which emphasizes peace, justice, and strong institutions. Authors in this collected work delve into critical aspects of political governance, judicial integrity, media freedom, and public accountability; all factors essential for fostering a stable and democratic society. Additionally, the analyses extend beyond governance, addressing economic and environmental sustainability through chapters on industrial policy, labour rights, poverty reduction, and climate change. By integrating theoretical perspectives with empirical findings, this work provides a nuanced assessment of South Africa’s successes and persistent challenges in meeting the Agenda 2030 targets.

Providing a multidimensional analysis of South Africa’s sustainable development, this volume is invaluable for academics, students, policymakers, and anyone invested in democracy, governance, and global development. Offering critical perspectives and policy recommendations, it serves as both a reference and a call to action for fostering a more sustainable and equitable future.

Child Labour in the Global Human Rights Regime is about children’s rights, child labour and child slavery in modern and modernizing societies in the context of what has been summarized as a well-established and increasingly sophisticated framework of treaties, institutions, networks and ambitious standards with respect to human rights.

The main focus is on the implications of children’s forced labour within compulsory systems of formal education, or schooling, that have been spreading around the world as an integral feature of economic, political and cultural globalization towards a single global-reach social space. It is argued that children’s forced educational labour appears to qualify as slave labour in terms of prevailing notions of ‘slavery’ in international human rights and humanitarian law, social policy frameworks, theoretical discourses, and widely held everyday, common sense perspectives.

A Leader's Guide to Executing Change and Delivering Results.

Governor Charlie Baker, one of the most popular governors in the United States, with a reputation for getting things done, wants to put the service back into public service: "Wedge issues may be great for making headlines," he writes, "but they do not move us forward. Success is measured by what we accomplish together. Our obligation to the people we serve is too important to place politics and partisanship before progress and results."

For the Governor and his longtime associate Steve Kadish, these words are much more than political platitudes. They are at the heart of a method for delivering results—and getting past politics—the two developed while working together in top leadership positions in the public and private sectors.

Distilled into a four-step framework, Results is the much-needed implementation guide for anyone in public service, as well as for leaders and managers in large organizations hamstrung by bureaucracy and politics. With a broad range of examples, Baker, a Republican, and Kadish, a Democrat, show how to move from identifying problems to achieving results in a way that bridges divides instead of exacerbating them. They show how government can be an engine of positive change and an example of effective operation, not just a hopeless bureaucracy.

Results is not only about getting things done, but about renewing people's faith in public service. Empty promises feed disengagement when instead we need confidence in our government and the services it delivers. When a mob attacked the US Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, the very core of our democracy and our sense of government were threatened. Demonstrating that government can work—the goal of this book—is vital to ensuring the future of our democracy.

Leading political innovation activist Katherine Gehl and world-renowned business strategist Michael Porter bring fresh perspective, deep scholarship, and a real and actionable solution, Final Five Voting, to the grand challenge of our broken political and democratic system. Final Five Voting has already been adopted in Alaska and is being advanced in states across the country.

The truth is, the American political system is working exactly how it is designed to work, and it isn't designed or optimized today to work for us—for ordinary citizens.

Most people believe that our political system is a public institution with high-minded principles and impartial rules derived from the Constitution. In reality, it has become a private industry dominated by a textbook duopoly—the Democrats and the Republicans—and plagued and perverted by unhealthy competition between the players. Tragically, it has therefore become incapable of delivering solutions to America's key economic and social challenges. In fact, there's virtually no connection between our political leaders solving problems and getting reelected.

In The Politics Industry, business leader and path-breaking political innovator Katherine Gehl and world-renowned business strategist Michael Porter take a radical new approach. They ingeniously apply the tools of business analysis—and Porter's distinctive Five Forces framework—to show how the political system functions just as every other competitive industry does, and how the duopoly has led to the devastating outcomes we see today.

Using this competition lens, Gehl and Porter identify the most powerful lever for change—a strategy comprised of a clear set of choices in two key areas: how our elections work and how we make our laws. Their bracing assessment and practical recommendations cut through the endless debate about various proposed fixes, such as term limits and campaign finance reform. The result: true political innovation.

The Politics Industry is an original and completely nonpartisan guide that will open your eyes to the true dynamics and profound challenges of the American political system and provide real solutions for reshaping the system for the benefit of all.

THE INSTITUTE FOR POLITICAL INNOVATION
The authors will donate all royalties from the sale of this book to the Institute for Political Innovation.

In the face of ever more complex societal challenges, this book provides an essential new model for transforming the public sector and getting things done.

Pandemics. Climate change. Refugee resettlement. Global supply chains. We face a new generation of complex problems that stretch across the public and private sectors and flow over organizational boundaries. To meet the moment, we need a fresh, new approach that strengthens institutions and government agencies by breaking free from organizational boxes and rigid, top-down leadership.

As William D. Eggers, executive director of Deloitte's Center for Government Insights, and Donald F. Kettl, public management scholar, show in this indispensable book, we need a government of bridgebuilders who collaborate with partners—inside and outside government—to get the job done. These leaders manage horizontally instead of vertically; they see their role as connectors; and they identify which players have the assets needed to solve the unprecedented problems at hand.

Each chapter examines one of the ten core principles of bridgebuilding and features practical tips and dynamic cases of how effective leaders have put each bridgebuilding principle to work. The book also includes a special section that helps government leaders create a hundred-day bridgebuilding plan.

Throughout, Eggers and Kettl tell fascinating and instructive stories about some of today's bridgebuilders—federal, state, and local government leaders who transcend boundaries, partner across sectors, and get stuff done.

Trusted and effective government has never been more important than today. Bridgebuilders provides a new model that current government decision makers—as well as young leaders who aspire to public service—can learn from and apply right now to transform government and restore public trust.

In the 2016 CBC Massey Lectures, former Special Advisor to the UN Secretary-General and international relations specialist Jennifer Welsh delivers a timely, intelligent, and fascinating analysis of twenty-first-century geopolitics.

In 1989, as the Berlin Wall crumbled and the Cold War dissipated, the American political commentator Francis Fukuyama wrote a famous essay, entitled “The End of History,” which argued that the demise of confrontation between Communism and capitalism, and the expansion of Western liberal democracy, signalled the endpoint of humanity’s sociocultural and political evolution, and the path toward a more peaceful world. But a quarter of a century after Fukuyama’s bold prediction, history has returned: arbitrary executions, attempts to annihilate ethnic and religious minorities, the starvation of besieged populations, invasion and annexation of territory, and the mass movement of refugees and displaced persons. It has also witnessed cracks and cleavages within Western liberal democracies as a result of deepening economic inequality.

The Return of History argues that our own liberal democratic society was not inevitable, but that we must all, as individual citizens, take a more active role in its preservation and growth.

Demokratie zeigte auf Länderebene oft ein anderes Gesicht als in der Reichs- bzw. Bundeshauptstadt. Dies belegt Bernhard Gottos Studie über das bayerische Finanzministerium. Er untersucht, wie sich die Regimewechsel von 1918, 1933 und 1945 auf die Verwaltungskultur auswirkten, welche Kontinuitäten das Verwaltungshandeln prägten und wie politische und gesellschaftliche Wandlungsprozesse administrative Routinen veränderten. Seine Studie macht deutlich, dass die Leitungsbeamten die Weimarer Demokratie auch als Chance begriffen. In der NS-Diktatur wurden Ministerialbeamte hingegen zu Tätern, obwohl sie nur geringen Anteil an der fiskalischen Judenverfolgung hatten. Nach 1945 prägte der Statusverlust durch die Entnazifizierung das Demokratieverständnis der Beamten, sodass diese eine autoritäre und misogyne Auffassung von Staatsdienst konservierten. Dagegen manifestierte sich im Kerngeschäft des Staatshaushalts, in der Öffentlichkeitsarbeit und in der Binnenstruktur des Ministeriums bereits in den 1950er Jahren ein substanzieller Demokratisierungsschub, während die partizipatorischen Aufbrüche der 1960er und 1970er Jahre kaum Spuren hinterließen.

The De Gruyter Handbook of Political Parties in the Global South provides a survey of the literature that illuminates a worrying blind spot in current research. While our knowledge of parties and parliamentary democracies in the West is rich and nuanced, the same cannot be said about parties in the Global South.

This handbook defines what constitutes a party in practice beyond the borders of the West and the confines of Western academia, particular in non-democratic states. It analyzes parties’ way of organizing and their relationship with society. With contributions by leading scholars in the field as well as up-and-coming scholars, this volume examines parties in the Global South from various perspectives and in the eyes of both the citizenry and the state.

In Equity at the End, authors Staci M. Zavattaro and Jennifer L. Wright-Berryman explore the intricate and often confusing landscape of deathcare in the United States. This complex system of public, private, and nonprofit institutions often leaves individuals perplexed as they navigate their final arrangements, revealing significant inequities.

Combining comprehensive research from public administration and social work to examine policy design and deathcare bureaucracy, Zavattaro and Wright-Berryman scrutinize the governance of the deathcare system, the policies shaping it, and the economic and personal biases influencing its implementation. They begin by defining the concept of death equity, exploring disparities in access to resources like eco-friendly burials, identity-aligned services, and affordable body disposition. Through their extensive research, including interviews with over 70 deathcare professionals from both the public and private sectors, the authors provide readers with tools to navigate these inequities, addressing the reluctance to discuss and prepare for death.

Equity at the End offers practical tools and insights to reduce inequities and improve transparency in the deathcare system. Promoting death literacy and equitable practices, this work is essential reading for social scientists, public policy experts, healthcare professionals, and educators.

Is the Canadian government contributing to its own underperformance? An insider’s guide to steering our nation toward greater efficiency

Canada is struggling. Our growth is anemic, our standard of living is stagnant, our housing is unaffordable, and our health care system is nearing a breaking point. To make matters worse, the government fails to deliver core services and avoid management fiascos like the ArriveCan and Phoenix scandals.

These failures are systemic and interconnected. What connects them is a fatal flaw in how the federal government operates, makes decisions, and takes action. Power has shifted from Cabinet to the Prime Minister and Prime Minister’s Office, with political staff taking on a larger role relative to the Public Service, and parliament has lost its ability to call the elected government to account.

With 50 years of combined experience in leadership positions in government, authors Lynch and Mitchell offer an expert’s perspective
on how to restore accountability and rebuild a culture of excellence by proposing a new blueprint for reshaping government. As Canadians face uncertainties at home and abroad, these practical and straightforward recommendations offer a path forward to ensure our nation’s prosperity.

Develops a new ethical framework for understanding nonviolence through Dostoevsky’s “Legend of the Grand Inquisitor,” bridging literature, philosophy, and activism with insights from thinkers like Gandhi, Žižek, and Judith Butler

In recent years, several high-profile academic outputs related to theory and ethics of nonviolence have emerged. This book adds to theoretical literature on nonviolence through developing a new framework based on concepts drawn from Dostoevsky’s “Legend of the Grand Inquisitor” (LGI) which was originally articulated in the novel The Brothers Karamazov (1880). In doing so, this book accounts for a previously undetected ethical dimension of nonviolence. It repositions Dostoevsky as a vital contributor to theory on nonviolence and uncovers a philosophical stance that defines violence not through political revolution, but by spiritual resistance and self-reproach. This book accounts for principal findings that have been identified in empirical scholarship on nonviolence, and while doing so, it engages with classical political theorists and scholars on nonviolence, including Tolstoy, Gandhi, and Gene Sharp along with contemporary works including Žižek, Atack, Christoyannopoulos, and Butler.This book contributes a new framework to assess the ethical motivations behind nonviolence and its empirical efficacy based on concepts drawn from Dostoevsky’s parable. The analysis of LGI offers an innovative explanation of the historical role of nonviolence and presents new implications for interpreting the efficacy of nonviolence in the contemporary world. Scholars have described the Grand Inquisitor as being representative of an evolution toward a totalitarian state, and it has even been acknowledged that the Grand Inquisitor was an inspiration for several key dystopian works that came afterwards such as Zamiatin’s We (1921), Huxley’s Brave New World (1932), and Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). Yet with great scholarly and literary emphasis having been placed on the authoritarian symbols of this parable, the LGI contains an under-studied component of nonviolence which, to date, is yet to be identified and theorized.

Drawing on rich archival sources from Europe, Nigeria and the United States, this book retraces the international responses to the Nigeria-Biafra war (1967-1970). It brings to life the organizations on the ground and the individuals who shaped their missions, while examining their often complex relations with governments.
From the dramatic images of starving children to the heated debates about the perverse effects of aid and the emergence of sans-frontiérisme, the Nigeria-Biafra war marked a turning point in the history of humanitarian aid. Colonial practices and representations were adapted to a postcolonial world, and humanitarian aid became a central element in the West’s relationship with Africa.
By revisiting the Biafra moment, this book sheds new light on the contradictions and enduring dilemmas of today’s humanitarian system.

Bringing together leading scholars and activists, this edited collection calls for a return to the ‘mode of production debate’ to address often-overlooked dimensions: gender, race, and Eurocentrism.

The concept of mode of production is placed in dialogue with Marxist debates on domestic labour, racial capitalism and the ways in which Eurocentrism has shaped the historiographies of capitalism. In doing so, the book offers novel approaches to studying the origins, modalities and contradictions of capitalism.

Advancing an integrated framework that incorporates class, gender, race and ethnicity, the book opens pathways to new research for better understanding, resisting and transcending capitalism.

At a time when terms like restoration, religion, authority, obligations, and natural law—once the rallying cries of the most emancipatory movements—are increasingly coopted by conservative forces, Revolution and Restoration offers a thought-provoking account of how “outdated” concepts can ignite radical energy and collective action. Through both historical and contemporary examples, the book elaborates the concrete possibilities for reimagining politics and society that emerge out of the clash between incompatible legal and economic structures.

At its core, Tomba’s book confronts the very foundations of the modern state and its three pillars: property, democracy, and citizenship. These pillars, long celebrated in the Western canon, are nevertheless mechanisms of exclusion: property is the denial of communal access, representative democracy the marginalization of the demos from decision-making, and citizenship the exclusion of the foreigner. Revolution and Restoration critiques these pillars to show how new concepts and political possibilities that emerge from political and social conflicts hold the potential to transcend and remake democracies in crisis.

Revolution and Restoration: The Politics of Anachronism is available from the Knowledge Unlatched on an open-access basis.

Nullpunkt der Ordnung widmet sich der bislang wenig erforschten Ideengeschichte des Bürgerkriegs. Der Fokus liegt auf der Entstehung des modernen Bürgerkriegsbegriffs sowie den Wandlungen im Nachdenken über den Bürgerkrieg seit dem 16. Jahrhundert.
Dazu wird zunächst gezeigt, dass der Bürgerkrieg seit den Konfessionskriegen, die Europa im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert heimsuchten, zum Gegenbegriff jenes Ordnungsmodells avancierte, das für die Moderne entscheidend wurde: dem Staat. Ausgehend von dieser Geburtsstunde werden die Veränderungen im modernen Bürgerkriegsdiskurs nachgezeichnet. An Denkern wie Thomas Hobbes, Lenin, Carl Schmitt oder Hans Magnus Enzensberger werden verschiedene Modelle, den Bürgerkrieg zu denken, entwickelt und in ihrem historischen Kontext verortet. Deutlich wird, dass der Bürgerkrieg dabei auf unterschiedlichste Weise – als totales Chaos, Kraftquelle oder Modus von Staatlichkeit – erscheinen kann.
Die Studie fasst den Bürgerkrieg als eine ordnungs- und polittheoretische Kategorie. Sie zeigt, dass der Bürgerkriegsbegriff keineswegs nur ein Gegenstand für die empirische Konfliktforschung ist. Vielmehr stellt er in seiner spannungsreichen Beziehung zum Staatsbegriff einen zentralen Bestandteil modernen Ordnungsdenkens dar.

In recent years, the Constitution has become a source of political controversy between conservatives and progressives. While the right defends our founding document, the left argues that it’s an antiquated plan of government that goes against basic principles of democratic sovereignty.

What’s missing from this debate is an appreciation for the Constitution’s purpose. What kind of government were the founders trying to achieve?

In his new book, Democracy or Republic? The People and the Constitution, Jay Cost provides insight into that question. He argues that the founders’ vision was for a republic, not a democracy.

In both types of government, the citizens have the power to rule, but republics go further than this. A republic, as Abraham Lincoln put it, is a government “of the people, by the people, for the people.” But in a simple democracy, the majority can rule for the good of themselves, rather than the whole community. How do you place the people in charge without creating a democratic tyranny? By the time of the American Revolution, nobody in the history of the world had yet answered this question.

But America’s Founding Fathers did just that, and the Constitution reflects their ingenious solution—the idea of consensus. They created a government that would take action not because a narrow and fleeting majority demands it, but because a large, broad, and considered coalition of the people has found common cause with one another. This reflects the true opinion of the people, not just a faction that is temporarily in power. That is how government of the people becomes government for the people.

America, then, is not merely a democracy. It is something greater. It is a republic, built on the ideal of consensus. And while our country today has many problems, consensus remains the best way to solve them. Far from being a liability for the United States, the Constitution is still its greatest asset.

"This elegantly written book is an incisive chronicle of contemporary Russian history. . . . Leon Aron has the firsthand observer’s keen eye for the twists of fate and the skilled analyst’s deep knowledge of the interplay of events that brought Putin to, and then well-beyond, the point of no return."

—Fiona Hill, distinguished senior fellow, Brookings Institution; senior director for European and Russian affairs, National Security Council

In Riding the Tiger: Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the Uses of War, Leon Aron, an acclaimed Russian studies scholar, American Enterprise Institute senior fellow, and Moscow native who was sanctioned by President Vladimir Putin’s regime, chronicles the transformation of Russian politics and society under Putin. Through hundreds of Russian-language sources, Aron shows how Putin uses militarist propaganda and sanitized revisionist images of World War II, Stalin, and the Soviet Union to forge a nationalist and loyal core of his regime’s support.

And the “new Russia” suddenly looks a lot like the old USSR.

Dr. Aron’s bold, expert analysis of Russian political culture helps us better understand Russia’s revanchist tendencies, its invasion of Ukraine, and the perilous road ahead. Aron argues that Putin’s actions are driven by the Russian president’s need to ensure his regime’s survival, avenge the fall of the Soviet Union, combat the “America-led West,” and make Russia a superpower again. Putin is now stuck in a vast and savage war that he can neither win nor walk away from. He hopes America and its allies undergo “Ukraine fatigue,” but what if he decides he cannot outwait the West? Aron concludes the book with a detailed scenario of another war in which Putin would bring Russia and the US to the brink of nuclear conflict to scare the West into a “settlement” in Ukraine.

In Iran Unveiled, Middle East expert Ali Alfoneh describes the coming revolt of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and the implications this would have on regional and international politics. 

As Iran experiences the most important change in its history since the revolution of 1979 and the establishment of the Islamic Republic, the regime in Tehran, traditionally ruled by the Shia clergy, is transforming into a military dictatorship dominated by the officers of the IRGC. This transformation is changing not only the economy and society in Iran, but also the Islamic Republic’s relations with the United States and its allies. 

This book provides the legal, historical, ideological and military frameworks for what Alfoneh believes to be an escalating and inevitable revolution in Iran. Iran Unveiled informs and educates anyone with an interest in Iran-US relations and the future of Middle eastern politics at a time at a time of growing tension in one of the world's most unstable but indispensable political zones.

When Donald Trump won the 2024 American Presidential Election, the nation—and world—was shocked. In this critical examination of the events leading up to and following the election, political advisor Scott Ferson goes straight to the source—the American people—to understand how this happened and where we go from here.

In November 2024, the Democrats didn't just lose the election—they lost the voters themselves. In the years and months leading up to the election, a lot of average Joes—enough Joes to swing an election and tilt history’s trajectory—were left looking for confidence and answers in uncertain times. These were the voters who've never chosen a party, who work full-time or overtime just to make ends meet, and who simply want to be able to live the American dream that they were promised. A generation ago, these average Joes would have been a Democrat, by tradition or community or through union organizing. Now, these voters are lost to the Democrats, and, for those in disbelief over the 2024 election, the hard lesson is the Democrats never even tried to win them over.

How the Democrats Lost America explains not only why Kamala Harris and the Democrats lost the 2024 election but the larger disconnect the party has with voters in general, particularly those who don’t hug both coasts or live in select big cities in between.

Through thousands of interviews over the past eight years, Scott Ferson exposes a larger problem facing our democracy: A profound disconnect with the people. By listening to people and understanding their real concerns, Democrats can find the way forward and take the steps to reconnect the people with the American promise of democracy. Democrats have a choice. These everyday voters can be lost and forgotten, or lost and found.

During his first term in office, Donald Trump failed to implement his revolutionary foreign policy agenda. To provide a plausible explanation for the multifaceted nature of Trump’s foreign policy achievements and shortcomings, this book brings together leadership trait analysis and bureaucratic politics to develop a model that frames their interactions and mutual influence.

This book explores the intersection of social equity-related issues with concerns within the field of public administration in Canada. Shifts in public sector governance, populist discourse and political extremism, democratic instability, and super-wicked challenges such as climate change and environmental disasters, demographic transformations (aging society along with increased migration), financial crises, terrorism, housing crises, religious conflicts and racial inequities, dominate the landscape. This book challenges scholars from schools of public administration to use a social equity lens to reimagine and rethink the ways in which public administration is currently practiced, with the goal of abandoning colonial logics that betray social equity. The chapters in this volume include contributions from a diversity of authors, each contributing their unique perspectives on social equity as they relate broadly to their areas of expertise. The authors share a common interest in critically exploring how social equity intersects with their areas of public administration research or practice including concerns with environmental justice, Indigenous rights, education and decolonization.
This book is intended for three audiences: (1) scholars who are also involved in teaching public administration; (2) students of public administration who want to learn more about what they are learning, and why social equity matters to their field of study; and (3) public administrators who are managing public institutions and who may also be involved in training public administrators.

In Civic Synergy: Leading and Managing the Evolution of Smart Cities, readers are invited to explore the transformative journey of urban spaces into dynamic, interconnected smart cities. This comprehensive publication addresses the pressing need for innovative approaches to urban management in the digital age. With technology rapidly reshaping the urban landscape, there is a critical demand for strategic leadership and effective management to navigate this evolution successfully.

This collected edition provides a holistic understanding of the complexities involved in leading and managing smart city initiatives. Authors offer practical insights, theoretical frameworks, and real-world case studies to equip stakeholders with the knowledge and tools necessary to drive sustainable urban development. At its core, Civic Synergy makes a significant contribution to the field of urban management by synthesizing interdisciplinary perspectives and showcasing best practices in smart city governance. By examining the intersection of technology, governance, and urban planning, this collected work offers a fresh perspective on how cities can harness innovation to address pressing challenges and seize opportunities for growth.

This edited collection stands out for its emphasis on civic synergy, highlighting the importance of collaboration and partnership among various stakeholders, including government agencies, businesses, communities, and academia. It underscores the need for collective action and shared responsibility in shaping the future of cities.

What does it mean to trust in a world shaped by violence and inequality? This book investigates the fraught pursuit of democratic policing in Brazil, where trust is both a necessity and a precarious gamble. Marta-Laura Haynes follows police officers and favela residents through patrols, crime scenes, fishing trips, drumming circles, and neighborhood gatherings to reveal how trust is not simply given or earned—but actively performed, negotiated, and also refused. These stories show how trust intersects with local ideas of citizenship, legitimacy, race, and power while also exposing the pervasive and often generative role of mistrust.

Far from being a stable foundation for democracy, trust in this context is a high-stakes wager, shaped by local hierarchies of race, gender, and class. In response, communities develop what Haynes calls “untrusting”: a mode of engagement that refuses blind faith in the state and instead turns mistrust into a form of care, resistance, and survival. By illuminating the contradictions and complexities of trust in Brazil, Untrusting challenges reductive narratives of policing and offers a nuanced perspective on how democratic ideals are contested and reimagined by people on the ground. Challenging the idea that distrust is merely a barrier to progress, Haynes shows how it can be a resource for agency, dignity, and alternative visions of justice.

Examines how artificial intelligence is transforming global influence, offering theoretical insights and practical perspectives on diplomacy, culture, conflict, and governance

Soft Power and Public Diplomacy in the Age of AI brings together leading voices and fresh perspectives to explore how AI is reshaping the landscape of influence in global affairs. Long described as “conjoined twins,” soft power and public diplomacy find new meaning and urgency in a world transformed by digital technologies and generative AI. This timely volume addresses the theoretical gaps that have long challenged public diplomacy scholarship, offering a unique, interdisciplinary lens that connects the superordinate concept of influence with emerging AI capabilities. From bioelectronic measurement of soft power’s impact to AI’s role in narrative warfare and counter-disinformation, the book covers critical terrain for scholars, students, policymakers, and practitioners alike.
The chapters span theory, narratives, culture, governance, and conflict. Readers will find thought-provoking analyses of celebrity influence in elections, generative AI’s role in cultural projection at global events, the network society’s impact on diplomacy, cyber power in conflict zones, and the balancing act between digital diplomacy, transparency, and security.
Featuring contributions from eminent international scholars alongside new voices, the volume pushes the field’s boundaries, offering essential insights for anyone interested in how attraction, persuasion, and power operate in the age of AI. Whether you are a researcher, practitioner, or policymaker, Soft Power and Public Diplomacy in the Age of AI will deepen your understanding of how influence is made, measured, and contested in our rapidly evolving world.

Across the world, nationalistic populism is on the rise, reshaping economic and political landscapes and creating opposition to existing “establishments” and immigration. In both the United States and Europe, populist leaders exploit economic anxiety and manufacture cultural divisions, directing public resentment toward immigrants and other marginalized communities. Meanwhile, developing countries grapple with poverty, conflict, and climate crises, often created or heightened by the policies of the developed world. These forces drive migration and, in turn, fuel the rhetoric of nationalistic populism. As these dynamics intensify, understanding the intersection between these forces becomes more urgent than ever.

In The Global Intersection of Nationalistic Populism and Immigration, Dr. Jacqueline Murray Brux offers a sweeping examination of how nationalistic populism shapes, and is shaped by, global migration patterns. This compelling study explores the ideological foundations of populism and nationalism, their impact on immigration policies, and the often-overlooked role of developing nations as both sources of migration and victims of global power structures. With in-depth analysis spanning the U.S., Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America, Brux unpacks the circular relationship between populist movements and migration crises, shedding light on how misinformation, xenophobia, and economic myths sustain this feedback loop. Based in rigorous research, this volume presents a necessary critique of the forces threatening democracy and human rights worldwide.

Bringing together political analysis, economic research, and firsthand narratives, this study is essential reading for scholars, policymakers, and anyone seeking to understand the global forces driving populism and migration today.

Many social policy texts examine specific social policy debates at a point in time and offer mostly technical interpretations of why existing or amended policies and programs have worked or not worked. In contrast, this text presents a comprehensive historical and political analysis of four policy areas where reform was achieved after many years of neglect.

Using a rich corpus of primary and secondary data, this is the first ever time that these four cases – covering discrete policy debates around young people transitioning from out-of-home care, medically supervised injecting facilities, social security payments for the unemployed, and compulsory income management – have been compared within an organized framework. For each of these policy areas, author Philip Mendes presents the long-term chronology of the public policy debates, the key arguments and evidence presented by researchers and advocacy groups in favour of policy reform, the strategies used by policy advocates, and the contrary arguments presented by governments and other bodies, as well as other factors which may have hindered or enabled policy change. Chronicling these cases where long-standing research evidence in favour of practice and policy reform suddenly achieved implementation and political impact when evidence finally trumped ideology, author Philip Mendes also describes the improved outcomes for disadvantaged groups and the wider community.

Arguing that governments should introduce policy development processes and networks that include active engagement with knowledge from domestic and global research studies, this is critical reading for scholars and policymakers internationally on the dynamics of policy initiatives, outcomes and reform.

Robert Jervis (1940–2021) was a titan in the field of international relations. Part political scientist, part psychologist, part historian, and part policy analyst, he drew on a vast array of theoretical approaches and empirical methods to develop keen and distinctive insights on a wide range of topics. From academic political science to the policy world, the scope of Jervis’s influence is astonishing.

Bringing together top scholars in political science, international relations, and history, this book offers a deep dive into Jervis’s pathbreaking scholarship and its legacy across disciplines. The authors consider how his work reshaped subjects such as nuclear strategy, arms control, deterrence theory, structural realism, diplomatic history, intelligence analysis, and the causes of war. They further discuss Jervis’s leadership on the CIA’s declassification board, which provided a bridge between academics and the intelligence community, and his influence as a public intellectual. The contributors also pay tribute to Jervis as a mentor, colleague, and friend who worked to build and sustain a broad intellectual community. Offering a wide-ranging overview of Jervis’s most important contributions to many fields, this book provides a deep understanding of Jervis’s scholarly work, which continues to inspire new generations of scholars who seek to follow in his footsteps.

Recent years have seen a striking resurgence of anti-imperial and anticolonial rhetoric on the international stage, from Global South to Global North and from the Left to the Right. Why do states deploy these forms of rhetoric in global politics? How do practitioners from the so-called non-Western world differ in their use and performance of rhetoric, and in what ways do they shape international order?

Sasikumar Sundaram provides a bold new theory of rhetoric as power politics, demonstrating how non-Western states challenge their silencing within the Western-led international order. He argues that, in the deeply hierarchical international system, states in the lower rungs resort to rhetorical performances in order to be heard. Through anti-imperial and anticolonial rhetorical statecraft, states such as India, Brazil, and China seek to expose and exploit the contradictions in the legitimating principles, norms, and rules of the international system—and, in so doing, pursue and exercise power. Today, as Russia, Europe, and even the United States engage in anti-imperial and anticolonial rhetoric, Sundaram shows why lessons from the non-Western world are crucial to recognizing the dynamics of power politics and global disorder. A bracing challenge to established theories of power in international relations, Rhetorical Powers underscores the need to address enduring forms of silencing within the international order.

Turkey has always had a complicated relationship with the West and the Liberal International Order, owing to its geographic and historical position that straddles geographic divides.


This book explores Turkey’s relationship with the Liberal International Order and its economic, security and political ties. While Turkey’s position within the Liberal International Order has always been challenged internally and externally, events in recent years have resulted in further questioning of its position. This book provides a long-term view of Turkey’s relation to liberal internationalism, demonstrating how the republic emerged simultaneously with the emergence of the first post-First World War version of liberal international order. It demonstrates both the challenges and the opportunities that Turkey’s position within and outside liberal internationalism poses to the future of such forms of liberal internationalism. Crucially, it demonstrates how Turkey’s foreign policy stances are and will likely continue to be closely linked to political developments within the country.

The resurgence of nationalism is one of the most significant developments in European politics over the past 25 years. Few countries have avoided it, with most experiencing a surge in support for parties that espouse anti-immigrant, anti-European Union and anti-globalization views. Led by populist-style leaders, their rhetoric has pervaded political discourse influencing mainstream parties and even, in some countries, gaining power and forming governments.


This book brings together experts to analyse nine countries that contribute specific aspects to the study of nationalism in Europe. While the parties and movements considered in the chapters demonstrate significant variation, what binds them is a view that the nation, however defined, must be reasserted and that core policy issues and challenges should all be seen primarily through the lens of national sovereignty and solidarity. Together the essays offer fresh insights into nationalism’s resurgence and the nature of populist politics.

Even before Boris Johnson’s rollercoaster ride (2019–22), and the ensuing “blink and you missed it” premiership of Liz Truss, the high wastage-rate among Britain’s prime ministers was becoming a cause for concern. Between 1979 and 2007 Britain had just three heads of government: Margaret Thatcher (1979–90), John Major (1990–97) and Tony Blair (1997–2007). Over the next 17 years six politicians followed them in and out of Downing Street.


This book, which straddles more than 30 years of prime ministerial misadventures, poses questions about the underlying factors as well as the specific circumstances for individual departures. Is the role of prime minister just becoming too difficult to perform successfully? If so, why? Has there been a decline in calibre in the candidates holding office? In exploring how the famous entrance to number 10 Downing Street has become a revolving door, the book shines a fresh light on the nature of politics and political office in the UK today.

Socialisme ou Barbarie (1948–67) was a revolutionary group whose members included such major figures such as Cornelius Castoriadis, Claude Lefort and Jean-François Lyotard. Its journal of the same name helped inspire France’s May ’68 student-worker rebellion and influenced generations of radicals worldwide. This Anthology, for the first time in print in the English language, restores the collective nature of the group’s adventure, where manual and intellectual workers creatively, and not without profound disagreements, reflected and acted together in anticipation of a non-hierarchical, self-governing society.

The group radically reoriented critical revolutionary theory by affirming how social change emerges through ordinary people’s everyday lives and struggles. In a world divided into two competing bureaucratic-capitalist camps, the autonomous grassroots response to rationalized forms of outside control (State-corporation-trade union-political party) would be workers’ management—a conclusion stunningly confirmed, against traditional Left expectations, by the workers’ revolts of 1953 and 1956 in the East, and by increasingly widespread challenges to established organizational forms in the 1960s in the West.

These texts not only examine the overall crisis of systems of domination, but explore their creative contestation in the workplace, in changing relations between the sexes and between generations, and in movements for national liberation (China, Algeria), to bring out “the positive content of socialism” while remaining clear-eyed about how bureaucratization may be reintroduced into emancipatory struggles.

Denouncing racism and celebrating diversity have become central to progressive politics. For many on the left, it seems, social justice would consist of an equitable distribution of wealth, power and esteem among racial groups. But as Adolph Reed Jr. and Walter Benn Michaels argue in this incisive collection of essays, the emphasis here is tragically misplaced. Not only can a fixation with racial disparities distract from the pervasive influence of class, it can actually end up legitimising economic inequality. As Reed and Michaels put it, “racism is real and anti-racism is both admirable and necessary, but extant racism isn’t what principally produces our inequality and anti-racism won’t eliminate it”.

No Politics but Class Politics gathers together Reed and Michaels’s recent essays on inequality, along with a newly commissioned interview with the authors and an illuminating foreword by Daniel Zamora and Anton Jäger. These writings eschew the sloppy thinking and moral posturing that too often characterise discussions of race and class in favour of clear-eyed social, cultural and historical analysis. Reed and Michaels make the case here for a genuinely radical politics: a politics which aspires not to the establishment of a demographically representative social elite, but instead to economic justice for everyone.

Foreign Policies of Illiberal States examines how the Russian war on Ukraine affects the functioning of different models of international society. Focusing on the two spheres of governance and security, it analyses the effects of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has significantly reframed many issues of global politics, including the feasibility of multilateralism under war conditions.

The academic debate around the issue as it pertains to the two countries is shaped by a number of arguments. Indonesia’s position is one of logic and the effective functioning of global organisations, symbolised by President Widodo’s peacemaking efforts in visits to Kyiv and Moscow. Russia's approach is overwhelmingly defined by security considerations, framing the military intervention against Ukraine as part of a broader confrontation with the Euro-Atlantic West. The hyper-securitisation of Ukraine by Russia was paralleled by efforts to de-securitise relations with the global South by shifting their fulcrum from the war to generalised and routinised socio-economic issues. Based on these positions, it could be said that a multi-order world is taking shape, where multilateralism is unlikely to be controlled only by the major powers.

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Socialism is a yearning for justice, community, and the greater realization of human potential. Cornel West calls it “the best accessible and reliable treatment we have of what socialism is, was, and should be.”

Understanding Socialism is a plainspoken text that disarms false narratives, confronts past failures, and offers a path to a fresh and modern understanding of socialism, by outlining what democracy in the workplace could look like.

Wolff not only explains what socialism is and has meant to its various proponents, he also looks at the transition from feudalism to capitalism as a model to help us visualize an evolution from our current socioeconomic state.

Understanding Socialism explores how socialist theory was used and applied to help shape the histories of countries such as Russia and China, and beyond. Wolff also analyzes the successes and defeats of those countries, the world's reactions to them, and how they offer important lessons for the building of a democratic, worker-controlled 21st-century socialism.

A powerful collection of testimonies from Palestinians facing genocide and displacement in Gaza with hope and resistance.

Displaced in Gaza aims to raise global awareness of how violent displacement has impacted the lives of Palestinians—students, mothers, fathers, grandparents, children, educators, and those who already survived the Nakba of 1948. In Gaza, 2.3 million Palestinians have been subjected to starvation, mass destruction, and targeted killing. Yet they endure.

This book is a commitment to the longstanding Palestinian tradition of storytelling, documenting both the horror of the genocide and the resilience of the Palestinian people. The stories in this collection are not merely accounts of suffering, they are assertions of humanity, resistance, hope, and the unbreakable bond that ties Palestinians to their homeland.

Displaced in Gaza is a collaboration between the American Friends Service Committee and the Hashim Sani Center for Palestine Studies at Universiti Malaya.

We live in an age of disinformation, misinformation, and outright lies. The modern world blasts us with information, talking points, spin, advertising, and attempts to persuade. But what are we to believe and whom should we trust?

Examining the history of propaganda and disinformation in war, politics, polling, media, entertainment, cults, advertising, science, medicine, today’s media landscape, and even in our personal interactions, Disinformation and You: Identify Propaganda and Manipulation helps you spot and counter the seductive and deceptive tactics to influence individual behavior. It provides helpful suggestions and tips for identifying disinformation and fighting back against manipulation and censorship.

Engaging and useful, this book’s helpful topics include …

We are in an era marked by rapid geopolitical shifts and evolving security challenges, the need for a comprehensive understanding of intelligence failures and strategic surprises has never been more critical. In this important work, Frederic Lemieux analyzes intelligence failures and strategic surprises in geopolitical contexts, offering historical and contemporary case studies, exploring causes and consequences, and providing insights into improving intelligence practices and understanding future geopolitical challenges.

Bridging the gap between academic theory and practical intelligence analysis in the context of modern geopolitical instability, Lemieux features in-depth case studies spanning over eight decades, from the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 to the recent Hamas Attack in 2023. Recounting not only the events but also dissecting the types and sources of intelligence failures and their broader geopolitical implications, this historical breadth provides readers with a diverse range of scenarios to understand the evolution and recurring patterns of intelligence oversights. By exploring how technological advancements such as artificial intelligence can mitigate human cognitive biases, Lemieux presents a forward-looking perspective on intelligence practices. Operating under the premise that understanding past failures is crucial for improving future intelligence operations, this study demonstrates how we can re-shape international relations and emphasizes the importance of adapting intelligence analysis to the changing nature of global threats.

A timely work which integrates insights from political science, psychology, history, and technology, this text provides intelligence professionals, policymakers, scholars, and students with a nuanced understanding of the complex interplay between intelligence, decision-making, and geopolitical dynamics.

We have all experienced the benefits of dialogue when we openly and thoughtfully confront issues. We have also experienced the frustration of interminable discussion that does not lead to progress. Co-Laboratories of Democracy enable large, diverse groups to dialogue and generate positive results. Many group processes engender enthusiasm and good feeling as people share their concerns and hopes with each other. Co-Laboratories go beyond this initial euphoria to:

Discover root causes; Adopt consensual action plans; Develop teams dedicated to implementing those plans; and Generate lasting bonds of respect, trust, and cooperation.Co-Laboratories achieve these results by respecting the autonomy of all participants, and utilizing an array of consensus tools including discipline, technology and graphics that allow the stakeholders to control the discussion. These are explained in depth in a book authored by Alexander N. Christakis with Kenneth C. Bausch: Co-Laboratories of Democracy: How People Harness Their Collective Wisdom to Create the Future (Information Age, 2006).Co-Laboratories are a refinement of Interactive Management, a decision and design methodology developed over the past 30 years to deal with very complex situations involving diverse stakeholders. It has been successfully employed all over the world in situations of uncertainty and conflict. On Cyprus, for example, it has been used to bridge the divide between the Turkish and Greek factions on the island. It is currently being employed on that island to help Palestinian authorities organize their government.Co-Laboratories in one day can draw together a diverse group of people on an issue, elicit authentic feelings and respectful listening, generate agreed upon language, and identify leverage points for effective action. Participants will be able to generate a consensual action plan. Co-Laboratories generate real respect, understanding, and cooperation among participants and do it rapidly.

This book is a timely and systematic analysis of Russian hybrid warfare with a particular focus on Russian cyberespionage and cyberwarfare. It especially analyzes Russian policy from the election of President Vladmir Putin in 2000 to date.

It takes a long term, long lens, view of Russian policies and actions internationally and domestically, fundamentally questioning the relationship and boundaries between active measures, espionage, cyberespionage, and hybrid warfare.

Riling up the Base argues that stereotypes (especially those relating to immigration, race/ethnicity, and gender), not policies, secured Trump’s election win and the ongoing support he enjoys.

From his 2015 campaign announcement through his presidential term and in his time out of office, Donald Trump has used stereotypes as a routine feature in his rhetoric. This book defines them as a crucially important strategy for attracting, retaining, and energizing voters. Covering topics like persuasion, agenda setting, critical race theory, and semiotics, the authors use a holistic and interdisciplinary approach to unpack how Trump motivates his base.

This book provides a full aggregate explanation of the seemingly mesmerizing attachment and adoration his core supporters feel by explaining the way seemingly disparate theories work both alone and together to expose the mechanisms at play.

The definitive history of the US labor movement’s complicity in Zionist settler colonialism, and a call for today’s labor militants to organize in solidarity with Palestinians.

US trade unionists are often told to keep quiet and remain neutral on Palestine because “Palestine has nothing to do with unions” and “weighing in” only distracts from struggles for better working conditions. 

No Neutrals There makes a timely and critical intervention against that pervasive sentiment by recounting the history of the US labor movement’s century-long involvement in the struggle for Palestine. Scholar Jeff Schuhrke convincingly demonstrates that unions in the United States have never been silent or neutral on the question of Palestine. In fact, they have played a key role—in the initial Zionist colonization of Palestine, the foundation of the Israeli state in 1948, supporting US foreign policy commitments to Israel, and the ongoing suppression of the Palestinian liberation movement.

In his compelling telling of this history, Schuhrke conclusively shows that US unions helped build and maintain the state of Israel, and also shines a light on important exceptions to this rule: instances of US labor solidarity with the Palestinian freedom struggle that point the way forward for today’s labor movement.

A provocative analysis of the deadly Cold War conflicts that devastated countries and communities far from Moscow and Washington

Transforming battlegrounds in Africa, Asia, and Latin America into veritable hellscapes, the surrogate wars of the Cold War era left behind a legacy of collective trauma and social conflict that have persisted into the present. In this ambitious work, Alfred W. McCoy uses a bottom-up, outside-in approach to offer an unexpected new perspective on the longest, most consequential conflict in modern history.

McCoy renders an intimate portrait of both embattled covert operatives and committed antiwar protesters, thus humanizing the history of the Cold War—a history that has too often been told in impersonal terms of economic growth, nuclear arsenals, or diplomatic ententes.

As today’s great powers devote humanity’s scarce resources toward ratcheting up a “new cold war” in the face of a worsening climate crisis, McCoy’s history is an important reminder that otherwise- ordinary individuals once helped end a global conflict that threatened nuclear holocaust.

Climate Assemblies are capturing the imagination of people interested in how citizens can participate in decision-making to address the climate and ecological crisis. Traditional institutions are struggling to cope with the challenges of a climate-changed world.

Climate Assemblies are new civic institutions that include a cross-section of the public in deliberation to influence environmental policy, governance, public discourse and collective action. With the rapid spread of this approach to public engagement, practice has developed well in advance of research. This book addresses that gap by analysing the internal and external dimensions of climate assemblies and how they interact.

It brings together 25 authors to offer novel perspectives, critical insights and practical reflections based on original research about paradigmatic cases at local, national, transnational and global levels. The book investigates the state of the field, reflects on the hope and hype about this growing phenomenon, and proposes ways to improve climate assemblies so that they can make a difference in a climate-changed world.

Richard D. Wolff masterfully explains why Karl Marx’s analysis of class struggle is fundamental to a proper understanding of capitalism and explores how to build a more sustainable democratic society.

Class struggle is everywhere, and it influences everything and everyone in our society. Marx is the person who first explained this struggle systematically. For Marx, capitalism signified not the end of history, but rather the latest phase of human development that leads ordinary people to rid themselves of “all the muck of ages and become fitted to found society anew."

Marx’s theories are deeply prescient and relevant in our efforts to understand and cope with the crises of our time. Every day, we see more evidence that the capitalist system is both undermining itself and those whose labor it depends on, as Marx predicted.

Understanding Marxism is an essential resource for looking at the power and usefulness of Marx’s criticism of the capitalist economic system—and how we can move beyond it to a truly sustainable and democratic society based on workers’ self-management.

“Why does capitalism fail us?” Richard D. Wolff walks readers through this pressing question in a brilliant takedown of an economic system that benefits the few at the great expense of the many.

Understanding Capitalism explores the different definitions of what capitalism is and is not, and dissolves the many myths that, Wolff argues, are designed to confuse and disorient us. Wolff doesn’t simply identify the crises and harms manufactured by capitalism, he details a path forward by outlining alternative economic models that combat the exploitation and oppression inherent in capitalism.

Capitalism oftentimes feels as permanent as the sky above. Understanding Capitalism shows that our current economic system is only as strong as the ordinary people who enable its existence, and that capitalism’s demise requires an organized, collective effort by those who can identify its vulnerabilities and limitations, but also understand that another world is indeed possible.

Remember the pots hammered by spoons from high Manhattan windows, and parades of cars and pick-up trucks holding dear the medical professionals responding to covid-19. This book is part of that chorus, that march, to express appreciation for the giving of care. And beyond doctors and nurses, bless their hearts, to mothers caring for their babies, for captains for their teams, for the soon-to-be widowers for their wives and teachers for their students, but also for the ranchers for their cattle and the contemplative world for our environment. This is a book to think more closely of the support for care, individual as it so often will be, to be woven more closely together in a paradigm of care.

Care is always prominent. Care for others, of the family, care for those of the tribe, care for animals and homes and gardens and properties, self-care. And the purse. Even without teaching, compensation, or legislation, care survives, but even with these helpings, it falls short of the need. We live in a crisis of care. Thinking explicitly and beyond health care. There is no mechanism of state and conscience that delivers care to all the venues of need, and seldom in the amounts needed. The reservoirs of care are far from empty, but at a mark that needs topping up. There is need for care advocacy, a care ethic, a paradigm. This book is about that paradigm.

A care paradigm may bring comfort and recovery more fully to the people and organic creations of the world. The paradigm hears the moan of indifference. It draws upon the eyes of the heart. The paradigm is about how we see the need for care. The care paradigm, the grand beholding, is manifest in how we provide for others, how we nurture them, give succor, how we are disposed, and are not, to sacrifice to relieve their hurt. It is not only caring for those visibly needing care, unable to care for themselves, but caring for all. It is having a disposition that the hurts, large and small, that all of us carry, arouse concern and appreciation from and for each individual, the community and the world.

Written during a genocide, After Savagery reveals the ethical bankruptcy of “Western philosophy” and how it undergirds the erasure of the colonized.

The death toll in Gaza continues to rise―a cold, lifeless number representing entire communities crushed under the weight of settler colonialism.

What remains of the theories we use to understand our world? With lyrical and lucid fury, Hamid Dabashi exposes the racist roots of Western philosophy, demanding that readers overcome its pernicious phantom of relevance. Rather than perceiving “the West” as giving carte blanche to Israel, Dabashi insists that Israel must be understood as its quintessence.

If Israel is the West and the West is Israel, then Palestine is the world and the world is Palestine. Holding to glimmers from revolutionary works of literature and film, Dabashi argues, in grief and love, that the wretched of the earth need poetry after barbarism—and that Palestine is the site of a liberated imagination.

Challenging the notion that populism is an anomaly in European politics, this book argues that the main threat to democracy is the exclusionary nature of European democratic traditions.

Drawing on decolonial studies, feminist theory, psychoanalysis, and democratic theory, the book reveals how liberal democracy in Europe promotes a fantasy of equality while its politics enacts the exact opposite. By exposing these injustices, the book makes a bold case: populism is not our main problem (or solution), but simply another facet of the ills of liberalism. The book is essential reading for understanding the future of democracy in Europe.

What is it? The Public Administration Genome Project (PAGP) is a grand attempt to digitally “map” and then usefully employ the full set of topics, variables, and interrelationships that comprise and involve all of the “genes” that make up public administration. It is based on the highly regarded and useful Human Genome Project.

Why do it? Like the world in general, the P. A. world is becoming more diverse and complicated. Hence, few administrators can be expected to know, much less remember, the many relevant strategies, external forces and related impacts that might be part of a particular situation. There thus is a need for a comprehensive, logic-based, readily accessible system (called “COMPASS”) to help in finding and elaborating on such topics, variables, and interrelationships.

What is in the book? It starts with a broad overview of the whole PAGP. It then turns to an elaboration of both the basic and then the more comprehensive analogies with the human genome; the Human Genome Project; and other related concepts (like catalysis and evolution).

These are followed by a set of new and seemingly unconnected subjects: (a) norms for citizens and public administrators, and (b) semantic and syntactic analyses. Then come some interesting and diverse case studies, and comparisons of such to theories.

All these set the scene for development of procedures for contributing to and using COMPASS, the information and guidance system which is the central product of the PAGP. The whole concept of the PAGP subsequently is revisited through an example that encompasses all of its major elements and processes.

The last part of the book focuses on future directions, asking questions like “Is the PAGP (and COMPASS) an impossible dream or a much needed reality?”