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6+1 Questions about From the Ashes of History: Collective Trauma and the Making of International Politics

6+1 Questions about From the Ashes of History: Collective Trauma and the Making of International Politics

by | Jun 23, 2022 |

What's the Title? Lerner, Adam B., 2022. From the Ashes of History: Collective Trauma and the Making of International Politics. Oxford University Press. It argues that? Collective trauma, especially when generated by instances of mass violence, is a foundational force in international politics – one that shapes politics within and between states for generations. Tell us why it matters. Some of the most potent forces in contemporary international politics pivot around collective trauma....

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6+1 Questions about China’s Western Frontier and Eurasia: The Politics of State and Region-Building

6+1 Questions about China’s Western Frontier and Eurasia: The Politics of State and Region-Building

by | Jan 26, 2022 | , ,

Name of the Book Zenel Garcia. 2021. China’s Western Frontier and Eurasia: The Politics of State and Region-Building (New York: Routledge) What’s the argument? The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) originated in provincial-level efforts that sought to simultaneously integrate interior and frontier provinces to the rest of China as well as neighboring countries during the 1990s. In fact, the six overland corridors that make up the BRI are a product of these early efforts. For example, Xinjiang’s “double-opening” strategy during the 1990s set the foundations for three of the current BRI...

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6+1 Questions about Armed Guests: Territorial Sovereignty and Foreign Military Basing

6+1 Questions about Armed Guests: Territorial Sovereignty and Foreign Military Basing

by | Dec 10, 2021 | , ,

What's the book? Sebastian Schmidt. 2020. Armed Guests: Territorial Sovereignty and Foreign Military Basing (New York, Oxford University Press). The argument? The United States maintains a massive global military footprint. Some of its overseas military bases are located in dependencies like Puerto Rico and Guam. The vast majority of base hosts are sovereign states. The practice of maintaining a long-term, peacetime military presence in another state (or “sovereign basing”) only developed in the last century. Before World War II, a foreign military presence usually meant one of three things:...

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6+1 Questions about “Why NATO survived Trump: the neglected role of Secretary-General Stoltenberg””

6+1 Questions about “Why NATO survived Trump: the neglected role of Secretary-General Stoltenberg””

by | Nov 4, 2021 | , , , ,

Not many know that Trump was on the verge of publicly announcing U.S. withdrawal from the alliance at the 2018 summit. Congress would have prevented a formal end to U.S. membership, but Trump’s announcement itself would have caused irreparable damage. Why then did Trump change his position on NATO in 2019? And why was NATO, at least in military terms, in better state when Trump left office than when he began his term?

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6+1 Questions about The Origins of Overthrow: How Emotional Frustration Shapes US Regime Change Interventions

6+1 Questions about The Origins of Overthrow: How Emotional Frustration Shapes US Regime Change Interventions

by | Oct 30, 2021 | , , ,

The United States has repeatedly used its military to overthrow foreign regimes – at least sixteen times from 1906 to 2011 – but these interventions seldom work out particularly well. So why does Washington continue to engage in violent regime change? The answer is that US leaders forcibly overthrow regimes to relieve emotional frustration.

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6+1 Questions about A research agenda for political demography

6+1 Questions about A research agenda for political demography

by | Oct 25, 2021 | , , ,

Name Of The Book… And Its Coordinates?  Jennifer D. Sciubba, ed. 2021. A Research Agenda for Political Demography (Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, Massachusetts, USA: Edward Elgar) What’s the Argument? We cannot understand contemporary international relations without understanding the demographic shifts going on around the world. Demographics – the characteristics of populations, such as age and location – are not just a backdrop for other, supposedly more important, forces. Population plays a key role in the outcomes of armed conflict, economic development, and political reform....

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6+1 Questions about From Malaise to Meltdown

6+1 Questions about From Malaise to Meltdown

by | Oct 21, 2021 | , ,

What is the name of the book? Michael Lee. 2020. From Malaise to Meltdown: The International Origins of Financial Folly, 1844-. (Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press). What’s the argument?  Great-power competition over financial primacy is responsible for a number of severe financial crises, including, the Long Depression of 1873-1896, the Great Depression of 1929-1939, and the financial crises of the late 90s and 2000s). Why is this the case? Financial hegemony brings with it substantial benefits, most notably reserve currency status. In order to successfully compete, rising...

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6+1 Questions about Finding Faith in Foreign Policy

6+1 Questions about Finding Faith in Foreign Policy

by | Oct 20, 2021 | , ,

WHAT’S THE NAME OF THE BOOK? Gregorio Bettiza. 2019. Finding Faith in Foreign Policy: Religion and American Diplomacy in a Postsecular World (New York, Oxford University Press) WHAT’S THE ARGUMENT?  Since the end of the Cold War, American foreign policy has increasingly “desecularized,” such that it is now deeply intertwined with religious agendas, interests, and organizations. We see this trend in efforts to advance international religious freedom, mobilize faith-based actors for humanitarian and development purposes, fight global terrorism by promoting ‘moderate Islam,' and solve...

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