The spread of emerging technologies, such as additive manufacturing (AM, aka 3-D printing), artificial intelligence (AI), and remote sensing (RS, including surveillance drones and imaging satellites), could have significant implications for both the proliferation of nuclear weapons and nonproliferation efforts to stop them. These technologies could diffuse more easily due to their dual-use nature and…
H-Diplo | RJISSF Review Essay 134: Parker on Evron and Kowner, eds., Israel-Asia Relations in the Twentieth-First Century
Israel and the Asian states have developed contacts for some time, but the details remain vague.[1] Israel has commercial ties with China, but what about military ties? Prime ministers Benjamin Netanyahu and Narendra Modi met in 2017, but what did they talk about?[2]
H-Diplo | RJISSF Review Essay 133: Middleton on Hanson, _The End of Everything_
The twenty-first century promises to be a bloody one; there have been violent conflicts across the world, with atrocities, ethnic cleansing, genocide, violence against civilians, disease and famine and the displacement of millions of people. With bitter wars now raging in Africa, Europe and the Middle East, Victor Davis Hanson’s The End of Everything: How…
H-Diplo | RJISSF Roundtable 16-48 on Pham, Architects of Dignity
Kevin Pham’s The Architects of Dignity: Vietnamese Visions of Decolonization is a work of political theory. The book’s audience is, first and foremost, scholars of political theory employed in North American and European political science departments. The six portraitures which comprise the book’s heart—of thinkers Phan Bội Châu, Phan Chu Trinh, Nguyễn An Ninh, Phạm…
H-Diplo | RJISSF Roundtable 16-47 on Copeland, A World Safe for Commerce
To say that A World Safe for Commerce is an ambitious book is an understatement; it is also no overstatement that this book is breathtaking in scope and objectives. Dale Copeland aims for a reinterpretation of the entire history of the United States’ foreign relations within a context of the drive to protect and expand…
H-Diplo | RJISSF Review Essay 132: Jenne on Tesser, Rethinking the End of Empire
In her highly engaging, historically grounded, and well-written book, Rethinking the End of Empire: Nationalism, State Formation and Great Power Politics, Lynn Tesser leverages a large body of secondary work to argue that the literature on nationalism has largely ignored the role of great-power politics and contingent local interests in accounting for the emergence of…
H-Diplo | RJISSF Review Essay 131: Friedman on Bakich, The Gulf War
Spencer Bakich’s The Gulf War: George H.W. Bush and American Grand Strategy in the Post-Cold War Era shows that President George H.W. Bush’s handling of Operation Desert Storm should be understood and evaluated in the context of his broader grand strategy. Bakich explains that Bush viewed the Gulf War as crucial for establishing a “New…
H-Diplo | RJISSF Review Essay 130: Paranzino on Houghton Driggs, Covert City
When thinking about the Cold War, the cities that come to mind are places like Washington, Moscow, and Berlin. In Latin America, perhaps the more obvious cities are Havana or Managua, the capitals of two countries that witnessed revolutions that brought Marxist-Leninist governments to power, or maybe Santiago de Chile, where a violent coup toppled…
H-Diplo | RJISSF Review Essay 129: Fitzgerald on Bessner and Brenes, eds., Rethinking US World Power
On the eve of the 2024 US presidential election, France’s Minister for European Affairs Benjamin Haddad voiced his frustrations about European dependence on the United States during an interview with the French news channel LCI, warning that “we cannot leave the security of Europe in the hands of Wisconsin voters every four years.”[1] Haddad’s cri…
H-Diplo | RJISSF Roundtable 16-46 on Shinn and Eisenman, China’s Relations with Africa
David H. Shinn and Joshua Eisenman’s latest book, China’s Relations with Africa: A New Era of Strategic Engagement, is an essential resource for students and researchers seeking to understand the dynamic and multilayered nature of China’s involvement in Africa. The book expands on the authors’ previous work[1] and examines China’s political and security engagement across…