Books & Reviews

Review Essays

Review Essay,
Nov/Dec
2009
Philip D. Zelikow

Twenty years after the revolutions of 1989 brought down communism in Eastern Europe, a fresh crop of books attempts to unpack this epic story. The story these books tell is more of a civil war within the elite than of a revolt from below.

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Review Essay,
Sep/Oct
2009
Charles Tripp

The notion of political Islam may be a more complicated bargain than many realize, and Muslims who seek to shape the world according to their religious values often confront an obdurate reality.

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Review Essay,
Sep/Oct
2009
Stephen Kotkin

The Chinese-Russian relationship is more opportunistic than strategic, Bobo Lo argues. The United States is stuck watching from the sidelines and may be pushing Moscow further into Beijing's pocket.

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Capsule Reviews

Capsule Review,
Nov/Dec
2009
Pierre Englebert
Reviewed by Nicolas van de Walle

Africa is home to several states that have either collapsed entirely or become so weak that they are unable to undertake most of the tasks associated with statehood. And yet, rather strikingly, these states endure. This resilience is the puzzle that Englebert tackles with great theoretical verve and erudition. His key insight is that controlling the central state is valuable -- and literally, too -- to political actors, because they can parlay it into the right to regulate and tax.

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Capsule Review,
Nov/Dec
2009
Edited by Robert I. Rotberg
Reviewed by Nicolas van de Walle

China's evolving relationship with Africa has generated a great deal of hyperbole. This collection of essays separates the facts from the myths. Several chapters remind the reader that China is nowhere close to supplanting Africa's traditional diplomatic, aid, and trading partners in the West, despite its rapidly growing interests in the region. A sober chapter by Deborah Brautigam, for instance, calculates that total Chinese aid to the region in 2006 was only around half a billion dollars, compared to $30 billion from members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

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Capsule Review,
Nov/Dec
2009
Edited by Jennifer G. Cooke and J. Stephen Morrison
Reviewed by Nicolas van de Walle

The ten contributions in this collection assess different dimensions of George W. Bush's Africa policy and offer advice to Barack Obama. The contributors give a useful glimpse into discussions about current U.S. foreign policy toward Africa; even though they are Washington insiders, their approach is not particularly partisan. They all agree that the increased attention that Washington has been paying to Africa in the last eight years has netted several significant breakthroughs. Foreign aid has shot up substantially, for instance, and AIDS programs are generally viewed as having worked.

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Foreign Affairs Books

Foreign Affairs Books are collections of important essays that have appeared in the pages of Foreign Affairs. Whether policy analysis, reportage or review essay each piece offers lasting value. Collectively these articles frame current debates over crucial issues in American foreign policy and world politics. To order Foreign Affairs Books for your courses, your bookstore can contact our distributor at W.W. Norton & Company at (800) 233-4830.

On the morning of September 11, 2001, the United States awoke to find itself at war. If that much was clear, many other things were not — including the identity and nature of the enemy, the location of the battleground, and the strategy and tactics necessary for victory. This collection brings today's most authoritative thinking to bear on these and other issues at the heart of the nation's preeminent security challenge.

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World politics is entering a new phase, in which the great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of international conflict will be cultural. Civilizations-the highest cultural groupings of people-are differentiated from each other by religion, history, language and tradition. These divisions are deep and increasing in importance.

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The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union ushered in a new era of international politics, one that people have been trying to get a handle on ever since. This collection is a record of the best attempts at that task over the last dozen years. It brings together many powerful and well-stocked minds, all trying to figure out what forces are driving world events and how Americans should respond. What is more important, ideology, culture, or power? What lies ahead, order or chaos? What is democracy? How strong is the United States, and for what purposes should it use its strength? How vulnerable is it, and what must it do for protection? The authors gathered here address these and many other questions, often directly engaging each others' arguments and educating the rest of us in the process. Originally published in Foreign Affairs and eight other leading journals and magazines, the articles constitute an essential reading list for anyone interested in contemporary international relations.

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