I am still in the process of embracing the idea that I am a scholar. That is why I was surprised at first when I received the kind invitation to share this essay for H-Diplo’s essay series on “Learning the Scholars’ Craft.” From my perspective, when others recount their lives and careers, they often seem…
H-Diplo | RJISSF Roundtable 16-20 on Cox, Agonies of Empire
Agonies of Empire is the product of years of thinking about the United States. Michael Cox reflects on the recent past—the decades of what we still refer to as the “post–Cold War”—to understand the difficulties and limits of US global power.
H-Diplo | RJISSF Roundtable 16-19 on Demarais, Backfire
It is hard to browse the news without seeing reports on yet another wielding of economic sanctions. The United States currently has various forms of sanctions against over 30 countries as well as over 15,000 “specially designated” companies and individuals. The European Union has its own list, not as long as the US but longer…
H-Diplo | RJISSF Roundtable 16-18 on Mundy, The Sisterhood
As many women scholars can and do attest, the path to academia can be full of discrimination, both open and institutional. I am part of that cohort, as one of the few female historians, in Canada or the United States, doing the history of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Even today, this field continues to…
H-Diplo | RJISSF Essay 602: Dijn on Learning the Scholar’s Craft
I grew up in Western Europe in the 1990s, during a time proclaimed to be the “end of history.”[1] One of my early memories is of seeing the Berlin Wall come down on TV. I was twelve. When I went to university in 1995, the economy was booming, and liberal democracy went unquestioned. Indeed, so…
H-Diplo | RJISSF Roundtable 16-17 on Lonergan and Lonergan, Escalation Dynamics in Cyberspace
Although for over a quarter century an increasing number of states have acquired and used cyber capabilities, and cyberspace has become an increasingly important arena for international security interaction, far too many national intelligence and defense scholars, practitioners, and policymakers have sidestepped its vital role, either claiming that the technical barriers to entry are too…
H-Diplo | RJISSF Roundtable 16-16 on Walton, Spies
Spies! What a great title! I could feel the ground shift within the first few pages of Calder Walton’s blockbuster accounting of the twentieth century “epic intelligence war between east and west.” Cold War historiography is again on the move and Walton, who is the assistant director of the Belfer Center’s Applied History Project, at…
H-Diplo | RJISSF Review Essay 111: Yaacob on Guan, Reassessing Lee Kuan Yew’s Strategic Thought
Singapore’s first prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, was one of Asia’s strategic thinkers.[1] He was a prominent political leader and statesman who played a crucial role in transforming Singapore into a prosperous modern nation-state. Washington elites often sought the views and advice of this statesman and global strategist on strategic issues relating to Asia. When…
H-Diplo | RJISSF Roundtable 16-15 on Kassenova, Atomic Steppe
An academic book editor once said to me that it usually means no good when a history book becomes timely. While publishers certainly hope that their books are widely read, unfortunately it is often an international crisis that makes the media, and a general audience, turn to history books for advice. In Europe, a new…
H-Diplo | RJISSF Roundtable 16-14 on Edwards, Prisoner of their Premises
George C. Edwards’s Prisoners of their Premises: How Unexamined Assumptions Lead to War and Other Policy Debacles tackles a central question in the study of foreign policy making: how do we explain decisions that have observably catastrophic outcomes? Edwards’s argument is that a vital step in the making process–problem identification–provides significant purchase on this question….