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e-IR publishes a number of regular features including book reviews, interviews and research news on a diverse range of issues in international politics
e-IR Publication – The Sacred and the Sovereign
Religion has frequently shaped and reshaped state and interstate systems in various degrees. It will continue to be a valuable subject of academic debate among political scientists. In this downloadable collection, you will find seven articles, written by academics who tackle the subject of religion in international politics with diverse approaches.
Review – No Exit: North Korea, Nuclear Weapons and International Security
North Korea is of perennial security concern to both its neighbors and the United States. North Korea is the only state that has ever withdrawn from the Nonproliferation Treaty and reneged on every denuclearization agreement it had ever signed. In late 2010, satellite data indicated that North Korea possessed a uranium enrichment facility, and now a potential third nuclear test is underway.
Review – Pakistan: A Hard Country
Using an approach that is as much anthropological as it is historical or political, Anatol Lieven’s ‘Pakistan: A Hard Country’ provides a more intimate portrait of the country than other recent publications. It also lends a fresh perspective on a country that is often misunderstood by Western observers. The book’s central message is that Pakistan is cohesive and dysfunctional all at once.
Review – America’s Allies and War
The most outstanding aspect of ‘America’s Allies and War’ is the systematic and even-handed manner in which it demolishes popular notions of alliance politics, such as the depiction of European NATO allies as free-riding pacifists, whilst making an important theoretical contribution to the burden-sharing literature and International Relations scholarship in general.
Review – China, the USA, and Global Order
China and the US will be faced with a responsibility to play a role in an emerging international order that is not based on narrow strategic rivalries. Whether both powers can overcome a tendency towards a zero sum disposition and embrace change in a progressive way, remains to be seen.
Review – Brzezinski’s Technetronic Era
Brzezinski’s Technetronic Era is an obscure, yet fascinating book. The candid nature of the book’s prose, the statements it makes throughout, and the fact that it has been out of print since 1981, despite the popularity of the author, have led to internet conspiracies galore, usually due to the promise that the book yields insights into shadowy-elite planning for a dystopic world order.
Review – Russian Foreign Policy: From Nation State to Global Risk Sharing
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia endured a difficult rebirth into a unipolar world order where it struggled to find a place. Dr. Nicolai Petro traces the journey the nation’s governments have made since this painful transition and looks to the continuing evolution of Russia’s diplomatic identity.
Review – The Good War: NATO and the Liberal Conscience in Afghanistan
One of the challenges facing anyone who wishes to write on the war in Afghanistan is to squeeze this fiendishly difficult topic into an appropriate framework. It is not easy to find an approach that avoids oversimplifying the issues, or bamboozling the reader into boredom, confusion, deep cynicism, or a combination of all three.
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