Descent into chaos : the United States and the failure of nation building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid

"His book Taliban first introduced American readers to the brutal regime that hijacked Afghanistan and harbored the terrorist group responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Now, Rashid examines the region and the corridors of power in Washington and Europe to see how the promised nation building in these countries has pro-gressed. His conclusions are devastating: An unstable and nuclear-armed Pakistan, a renewed al’ Qaeda profiting from a booming opium trade, and a Taliban resurgence and reconquest." - Editorial Reviews

Fixing fragile states : a new paradigm for development by Seth D Kaplan

"Fragile states are a menace. Their lawless environments spread instability across borders, provide havens for terrorists, threaten access to natural resources, and consign millions of people to poverty. But Western attempts to reform these benighted places have rarely made things better. Kaplan argues that to avoid revisiting the carnage and catastrophes seen in places like Iraq, Bosnia, and the Congo, the West needs to rethink its ideas on fragile states and start helping their peoples build governments and states that actually fit the local landscape." - Editorial Reviews

The limits of power : the end of American Exceptionalism by A J Bacevich

"In this caustic critique of the growing American penchant for empire and sense of entitlement, Bacevich (The New American Militarism) examines the citizenry's complicity in the current economic, political, and military crisis. A retired army colonel, the author efficiently pillories the recent performance of the armed forces, decrying it as an expression of domestic dysfunction, with leaders and misguided strategies ushering the nation into a global war of no exits and no deadlines. " - Editorial Reviews

China's Tibet? : autonomy or assimilation by Warren W Smith

"This groundbreaking book explores China's efforts to assimilate Tibet, in the process rewriting Tibetan history to conform to its own goals. Warren W. Smith argues that Beijing fears that any genuine autonomy or dialogue with the Dalai Lama will fuel renewed nationalism in China's Tibet, as the leadership calls its possession. Highlighting China's past and current propaganda on Tibet, the book demonstrates China's sensitivity regarding the legitimacy of its rule. " - Editorial Reviews

The shackled continent : power, corruption, and African lives by Robert Guest

"The Shackled Continent provides a persuasive look into the persistent problems of modern Africa and offers some possible solutions. What Africa needs is peace, the rule of law, and greater freedom for individuals to pursue prosperity without hindrance from their rulers. The prescription may sound simple, but it is tough to administer, as Guest's investigations from Angola to Zimbabwe reveal. " - Editorial Reviews

The future of political Islam by Graham E Fuller

"September 11; vitriolic rhetoric against the United States by prominent Muslims; the war against terrorism shifts from Afghanistan to the Philippines and Indonesia. It is easy to believe Islam and Muslims are enemies of the West; it is also wrong. This sweeping survey of trends in the Muslim world contends that the issue is not whether Islam plays a central role in politics, but what Muslims want. To focus on radicalism and extremism blinds us from another trend: liberal political Islam.Proponents of liberal political Islam emphasize human rights and democracy, tolerance and cooperation. " - Editorial Reviews

Political corruption in America : an encyclopedia of scandals, power, and greed by Mark Grossman

"Illustrated with black-and-white cartoons that mocked political corruption in newspapers throughout the years, Political Corruption In America is an excellent reference resource and a highly recommended acquisition for school and community library American History and Political Science collections. " - Midwest Book Review

Barack Obama and the future of American politics by Paul Louis Street

"This book offers the broadest and best-informed understanding on the meaning of the Obama phenomenon to date. Paul Street was on the ground throughout the Iowa campaign, and his stories of the rising Obama phenomenon are poignant. Yet the author s background in American political history allows him to explore the deeper meanings of Obama's remarkable political career. He looks at Obama in relation to contemporary issues of class, race, war, and empire. He considers Obama in the context of our nation s political history, with comparisons to FDR, JFK, Bill Clinton, and other leaders. Street finds that the Obama persona, crafted by campaign consultants and filtered through dominant media trends, masks the change candidate's adherence to long-prevailing power structures and party doctrines." - Editorial Reviews

Base politics : democratic change and the U.S. military overseas by Alexander Cooley

"In Base Politics, Alexander Cooley examines how domestic politics in different host countries, especially in periods of democratic transition, affect the status of U.S. bases and the degree to which the U.S. military has become a part of their local and national landscapes. Drawing on exhaustive field research in different host nations across East Asia and Southern Europe, as well as the new postcommunist base hosts in the Black Sea and Central Asia, Cooley offers an original and provocative account of how and why politicians in host countries contest or accept the presence of the U.S. military on their territory." - Editorial Reviews

Conquest : how societies overwhelm others by David Day

"Historian Day (Claiming a Continent) surveys the justifications that nations have offered for conquering other peoples, and lays out the process of claiming a territory by a symbolic act like planting a flag, then by mapping the land and naming it. Many of his examples are familiar—the Spanish in Central and South America, the Germans in Eastern Europe. But he includes less familiar instances, such as Japan's 18th-century takeover of the Ainu culture on the island of Hokkaido and the contest between the Dutch, French and English to claim Australia. As interesting as Day's stories are, he comes up short on interpretation and analysis. " - Editorial Reviews

The temptations of tyranny in Central Asia by David Lewis

"David Lewis's provocative book investigates why the U.S. alliance with Uzbekistan failed to produce reform and instead ended with the massacre of hundreds of civilians in Andijan. It provides the first detailed account of the 2005 revolution in Kyrgyzstan, explores political transition in Turkmenistan following the death of its eccentric former leader, Saparmurat Niyazov, and examines the Islamic militant groups that are believed to be threatening stability in the Ferghana Basin." - Editorial Reviews

The politics of anti-Westernism in Asia : visions of world order in pan-Islamic and pan-Asian thought by Cemil Aydin

"The Politics of Anti-Westernism in Asia offers a rare, global perspective on how religious tradition and the experience of European colonialism interacted with Muslim and non-Muslim discontent with globalization, the international order, and modernization. Aydin's approach reveals the epistemological limitations of Orientalist knowledge categories, especially the idea of Eastern and Western civilizations, and the way in which these limitations have shaped not only the contradictions and political complicities of anti-Western discourses but also contemporary interpretations of anti-Western trends." - Editorial Reviews

The Kurds ascending : the evolving solution to the Kurdish problem in Iraq and Turkey by Michael M Gunter

"Professor Gunter, in his characteristic lucid style, shows how federalism in Iraq, as well as EU-mandated and AK Party reforms in Turkey are cautiously helping lead to a solution to the long-running Kurdish problem in these two important states. This provides a most welcomed insight into their future."- M. Hakan Yavuz

Sobral Pinto : the conscience of Brazil : leading the attack against Vargas (1930-1945) by John W F Dulles

"This book is the first of a projected two-volume biography of Sobral Pinto. Drawing on Sobral's vast correspondence, which was not previously available to researchers, John W. F. Dulles confirms that Sobral Pinto was a true reformer, who had no equal in demonstrating courage and vehemence when facing judges, tribunals, and men in power. He traces the leading role that Sobral played in opposing the Vargas regime from 1930 to 1945 and sheds light on the personalities and activities of powerful figures in the National Security Tribunal, the police, the censorship bureau, and the Catholic Church. " - Editorial Reviews

Resisting Brazil's military regime : an account of the battles of Sobral Pinto by John W F Dulles

"Drawing on Sobral's vast correspondence, Dulles offers an extensive account of Sobral's opposition to the military regime that ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985. He describes how Sobral Pinto defended those who had been politically influential before April, 1964, as well as other victims of the regime, including Communists, once-powerful labor leaders, priests, militant journalists, and students. " - Editorial Reviews

After Iraq : anarchy and renewal in the Middle East by Gwynne Dyer

"As Gwynne Dyer argues in After Iraq, the Middle East is about to change fundamentally, and everything is now up for grabs: regimes, ethnic pecking orders within states, even national borders themselves are liable to change without notice. Five years from now there could be an Islamic Republic of Arabia, an independent Kurdistan, a Muslim cold war between Sunnis and Shias, almost anything you care to imagine." - Editorial Reviews

Angler the Cheney vice presidency by Barton Gellman

"Gellman explores the behind-the- scenes story of Cheney’s tremendous influence on foreign policy, exposing how he misled the four ranking members of Congress with faulty intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, how he derailed Bush from venturing into Israeli- Palestinian peace talks for nearly five years, and how his policy left North Korea and Iran free to make major advances in their nuclear programs." - Editorial Reviews

Free ride : John McCain and the media by David Brock

"David Brock and Paul Waldman show how the media has enabled McCain's rise from the Keating Five scandal to the underdog hero of the 2000 primaries to his roller-coaster run for the 2008 nomination. They illuminate how the press falls for McCain's “straight talk” and how the Arizona senator gets away with inconsistencies and misrepresentations for which the media skewers other politicians. This is a fascinating study of how the media shape the political debate, and an essential book for every political junkie. " - Editorial Reviews

Triumph of self-determination operation stabilise and United Nations peacemaking in East Timor by John R Ballard

"Based on first-person accounts, interviews, declassified documents, and secondary background sources, this book gives readers insight into the significant actions and innovative techniques of the struggle for East Timorese independence from 1999 to 2006. The book begins with a two-chapter historical overview of the circumstances that caused the United Nations to intervene in East Timor in 1999, and then continues with a detailed account of the referendum on independence and the military operations required to restore order after the Timorese people decided upon freedom from Indonesia. " - Editorial Reviews

The second world : empires and influence in the new global order by Parag Khanna

"This contest is hottest and most decisive in the Second World: pivotal regions in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and East Asia. Khanna explores the evolution of geopolitics through the recent histories of such underreported, fascinating, and complicated countries as Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Colombia, Libya, Vietnam, and Malaysia–nations whose resources will ultimately determine the fate of the three superpowers, but whose futures are perennially uncertain as they struggle to rise into the first world or avoid falling into the third." - Editorial Reviews