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New Books in World Affairs is an author-interview podcast channel that showcases recently-published books in World Affairs (broadly conceived).

It has a library of over 280 podcast episodes. New Books in World Affairs is part of the New Books Network author-interview podcast consortium (http://www.newbooksnetwork.com)

09/07/2022

In her new book, PROMOTING JUSTICE ACROSS BORDERS: The Ethics of Reform Intervention (Oxford University Press) political scientist Lucia M. Rafanelli develops an ethical theory of global reform intervention, arguing that new theories are necessary as increasing global interconnection continues and expands around the world. Rafanelli classifies global reform intervention as any attempt to promote justice in a society other than one’s own. This loose definition means that there are several variations of these actions: the degree of control held by the interveners; how interveners interact with recipients; existing political institutions; the context surrounding the action, and the risks intervention poses to the recipients of that intervention. Promoting Justice Across Borders argues that there are components within these dimensions that pollute the moral permissibility of reform intervention. Once the malleability of these actions becomes evident, it also becomes clear that there are ethical ways to go about (and not go about) such an action. When studying examples of reform interventions, it is clear that there are some interveners who disrespect and essentially ignore the recipients and treat them with intolerance. But not all interveners treat recipients this way, many treat the recipients of intervention with respect for the legitimate political institutions, working to establish collective self-determination, thus providing a blueprint for moral action. It is through these particular examples that Rafanelli creates an ethical framework through which reform intervention is analyzed with the goal of global justice.

PROMOTING JUSTICE ACROSS BOARDERS combines philosophical analysis of justice and morality with a case-by-case investigation of real-life events, in an attempt to identify which kinds of reform intervention are not subject to ethical objection. Check out the author-interview podcast ⤵️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/promoting-justice-across-borders

01/07/2022

Vanessa Walker's PRINCIPLES in POWER: Latin America and the Politics of U. S. Human Rights Diplomacy (Cornell University Press) explores the relationship between policy makers and nongovernment advocates in Latin America and the United States government in order to explain the rise of anti-interventionist human rights policies uniquely critical of U.S. power during the Cold War. Walker shows that the new human rights policies of the 1970s were based on a complex dynamic of domestic and foreign considerations that was rife with tensions between the seats of power in the United States and Latin America, and the growing activist movement that sought to reform them. By addressing the development of U.S. diplomacy and politics alongside that of activist networks, especially in Chile and Argentina, Walker shows that Latin America was central to the policy assumptions that shaped the Carter administration's foreign policy agenda. PRINCIPLES in POWER tells the complicated story of the potentials and limits of partnership between government and nongovernment actors. Analyzing how different groups deployed human rights language to reform domestic and international power, Walker explores the multiple and often conflicting purposes of U.S. human rights policy. Learn more on the podcast ⤵️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/principles-in-power

30/06/2022

In the Pulitzer Prize finalist book, HOME, LAND, SECURITY: Deradicalisation and the Journey Back from Extremism (One World), Carla Power explores the roots of radicalism.

Power begins her journey by talking to the mothers of young men who’d joined ISIS in the UK and Canada; from there, she travels around the world in search of societies that are finding new and innovative ways to rehabilitate former extremists. We meet an American judge who has staked his career on finding new ways to handle terrorist suspects, a Pakistani woman running a game-changing school for former child soldiers, a radicalized Somali American who learns through literature to see beyond his Manichean beliefs, and a former neo-Nazi who now helps disarm white supremacists. Along the way Power gleans lessons that get her closer to answering the true question at the heart of her pursuit: Can we find a way to live together?

An eye-opening, page-turning investigation, HOME, LAND, SECURITY speaks to the rise of division and radicalization in all forms, both at home and abroad. In this richly reported and deeply human account, Carla Power offers new ways to overcome the rising tides of extremism, one human at a time. Learn more on the podcast ⤵️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/home-land-security

16/06/2022

In THE ATLANTIC REALISTS: Empire and International Political Thought Between Germany and the United States (Stanford University Press), intellectual historian Matthew Specter offers a boldly revisionist interpretation of "realism," a prevalent stance in post-WWII US foreign policy and public discourse and the dominant international relations theory during the Cold War. Challenging the common view of realism as a set of universally binding truths about international affairs, Specter argues that its major features emerged from a century-long dialogue between American and German intellectuals beginning in the late nineteenth century. Specter uncovers an "Atlantic realist" tradition of reflection on the prerogatives of empire and the nature of power politics conditioned by fin de siècle imperial competition, two world wars, the Holocaust, and the Cold War. Focusing on key figures in the evolution of realist thought, including Carl Schmitt, Hans Morgenthau, and Wilhelm Grewe, this book traces the development of the realist worldview over a century, dismantling myths about the national interest, Realpolitik, and the "art" of statesmanship. Hear Specter on the podcast ↙️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-atlantic-realists

09/06/2022

Most humans are significantly richer than their ancestors. Humanity gained nearly all of its wealth in the last two centuries. How did this come to pass?

In HOW THE WORLD BECAME RICH: The Historical Origins of Economic Growth (Polity), Mark Koyama and Jared Rubin dive into the many theories of why modern economic growth happened when and where it did. They discuss recently-advanced theories rooted in geography, politics, culture, demography, and colonialism. Pieces of each of these theories help explain key events on the path to modern riches. Why did the Industrial Revolution begin in 18th-century Britain? Why did some European countries, the USA, Canada, and Japan catch up in the 19th century? Why did it take until the late 20th and 21st centuries for other countries? Why have some still not caught up? Koyama and Rubin show that the past can provide a guide for how countries can escape poverty. There are certain prerequisites that all successful economies seem to have. But there is also no panacea. A society’s past and its institutions and culture play a key role in shaping how it may—or may not—develop. PODCAST LINK 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/how-the-world-became-rich

09/06/2022

Argentina lies at the heart of the American hemisphere's history of global migration booms of the mid-19th to early 20th century: by 1910, one of every 3 Argentine residents was an immigrant—twice the demographic impact that the United States experienced in the boom period. In this context, some one hundred and forty thousand Ottoman Syrians came to Argentina prior to World War I, and over the following decades Middle Eastern communities, institutions, and businesses dotted the landscape of Argentina from bustling Buenos Aires to Argentina's most remote frontiers.

Lily Pearl Balloffet's ARGENTINA in the GLOBAL MIDDLE EAST (Stanford University Press) connects modern Latin American and Middle Eastern history through their shared links to global migration systems. By following the mobile lives of individuals with roots in the Levantine Middle East, Lily Pearl Balloffet sheds light on the intersections of ethnicity, migrant–homeland ties, and international relations. Learn more on the podcast ⤵️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/argentina-in-the-global-middle-east

08/06/2022

In MILITARIZED GLOBAL APARTHEID (Duke University Press), Catherine Besteman offers a sweeping theorization of the ways in which countries from the global north are reproducing South Africa's apartheid system on a worldwide scale to control the mobility and labor of people from the global south. Exploring the different manifestations of global apartheid, Besteman traces how militarization and securitization reconfigure older forms of white supremacy and deploy them in new contexts to maintain this racialized global order. Whether using the language of security, military intervention, surveillance technologies, or detention centers and other forms of incarceration, these projects reinforce and consolidate the global north's political and economic interests at the expense of the poor, migrants, refugees, Indigenous populations, and people of color. By drawing out how this new form of apartheid functions and pointing to areas of resistance, Besteman opens up new space to theorize potential sources of liberatory politics. Check out the podcast ⤵️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/militarized-global-apartheid

08/06/2022

Peer Schouten's new book is ROADBLOCK POLITICS: The Origins of Violence in Central Africa (Cambridge University Press). Schouten mapped more than 1000 roadblocks in both the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In so doing, he illuminates the relationship between road blocks and what he calls “frictions of terrain." These frictions demonstrate how rebels, locals and state security forces interact in the making, or unmaking, of state authority and legitimacy. Looking at roadblocks as a kind of infrastructural empire that existed before the Europeans first arrived in Africa, Schouten develops a new framework to understand the ways in which supply chain capitalism thrives in places of non-conventional logistical capacity, to reframe how state theory fails to capture the nature of statehood and local authority in Central Africa. Learn more as Schouten joins us on the podcast ⬇️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/roadblock-politics

01/06/2022

Andrew Leon Hanna's book 25 MILLION SPARKS: The Untold Story of Refugee Entrepreneurs (Cambridge University Press) takes readers inside the Za'atari refugee camp to follow the stories of 3 courageous Syrian women entrepreneurs: Yasmina, a wedding shop and salon owner creating moments of celebration; Malak, a young artist infusing color and beauty throughout the camp; and Asma, a social entrepreneur leading a storytelling initiative to enrich children's lives. Anchored by these inspiring stories, as well as accompanying artwork and poetry by Malak and Asma, the narrative expands beyond Za'atari to explore the broader refugee entrepreneurship phenomenon in more than twenty camps and cities across the globe. What emerges is a tale of power, determination, and dignity - of igniting the brightest sparks of joy, even when the rest of the world sees only the darkness. A significant portion of the author's proceeds from this book is being contributed to support refugee entrepreneurs in Za'atari and around the world. Learn more on Exchanges: A Cambridge University Press Podcast ⤵️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/25-million-sparks

23/05/2022

Recent years have seen out-of-control wildfires rage across remote Brazilian rainforests, densely populated California coastlines, and major cities in Australia. What connects these separate events is more than immediate devastation and human loss of life. In GLOBAL BURNING: Rising Antidemocracy and the Climate Crisis (Stanford University Press), Eve Darian-Smith contends that using fire as a symbolic and literal thread connecting different places around the world allows us to better understand the parallel, and related, trends of the growth of authoritarian politics and climate crises and their interconnected global consequences. Tune in as Darian-Smith joins us on the podcast 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/global-burning

23/05/2022

In CHINA and the INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS REGIME, 1982-2017 (Cambridge University Press), Rana Siu Inboden examines the evolution of China’s posture towards the U.N. human rights system since the early 1980s. The book examines in unprecedented details China’s role and impact on the complex negotiations between U.N. members over the International Covenant Against Torture; the establishment of the U.N. Human Rights Council; and the monitoring powers of the International labour Organization. Inboden shows how China, through subtle yet persistent efforts, largely but not entirely successfully managed to constrain the U.N. human rights system. Based on a range of documentary and archival research, as well as extensive interview data, Inboden provides fresh insights into the motivations and influences driving China's conduct and explores China's rising position as a global power. In this interview, Inboden discusses her findings as well as more recent developments under the leadership of President Xi Jinping. Listen in ↙️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/china-and-the-international-human-rights-regime

11/05/2022

When and why does international order change? The largest peaceful transfer of wealth across borders in all of human history began with the oil crisis of 1973. OPEC countries turned the tables on the most powerful businesses on the planet, quadrupling the price of oil and shifting the global distribution of profits. It represented a huge shift in international order. Yet, the textbook explanation for how world politics works--that the most powerful country sets up and sustains the rules of international order after winning a major war-doesn't fit these events, or plenty of others.

Instead of thinking of the international order as a single thing, Jeff Colgan explains how it operates in parts, and often changes in peacetime. Tune in as Colgan discusses PARTIAL HEGEMONY: Oil Politics and International Order (Oxford University Press) on the podcast 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/partial-hegemony

06/05/2022

In 1914, seven million Jews across Eastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean were caught in the crossfire of warring empires in a disaster of stupendous, unprecedented proportions. In response, American Jews developed a new model of humanitarian relief for their suffering brethren abroad, wandering into American foreign policy as they navigated a wartime political landscape. The effort continued into peacetime, touching every interwar Jewish community in these troubled regions through long-term refugee, child welfare, public health, and poverty alleviation projects. Against the backdrop of war, revolution, and reconstruction, this is the story of American Jews who went abroad in solidarity to rescue and rebuild Jewish lives in Jewish homelands. As they constructed a new form of humanitarianism and re-drew the map of modern philanthropy, they rebuilt the Jewish Diaspora itself in the image of the modern social welfare state.

Our guest for this episode is Jaclyn Granick, author of INTERNATIONAL JEWISH HUMANITARIANISM in the AGE of the GREAT WAR (Cambridge University Press - History, Classics and Archaeology). Listen in 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/international-jewish-humanitarianism-in-the-age-of-the-great-war

06/05/2022

In THE SEVENTH MEMBER STATE: Algeria, France, and the European Community (Harvard University Press), Megan Brown details the surprising story of how Algeria joined and then left the postwar European Economic Community and what its past inclusion means for extracontinental membership in today’s European Union.

Listen in as Brown discusses this new book that combats understandings of Europe’s “natural” borders by emphasizing the extracontinental contours of the early union. PODCAST LINK 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-seventh-member-state

04/05/2022

The land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan Valley has been one of the most disputed territories in history. Since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, Palestinians and Israelis have each sought to claim the national identity of the land through various martial, social, and scientific tactics, but no method has offered as much legitimacy and national controversy as that of the map.

In THE POLITICS of MAPS: Cartographic Constructions of Israel/Palestine (Oxford University Press), Christine Leuenberger and Izhak Schnell delve beneath the battlefield to unearth the cartographic strife behind the Israel/Palestine conflict. Blending science and technology studies, sociology, and geography with a host of archival material, in-depth interviews and ethnographies, this book explores how the geographical sciences came to be entangled with the politics, territorial claim-making, and nation-state building of Israel/Palestine. Learn more on the podcast ↙️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-politics-of-maps

03/05/2022

Ban Wang's book, CHINA in the WORLD: Culture, Politics, and World Vision (Duke University Press), traces the evolution of modern China from the late 19th century to the present. With a focus on tensions and connections between national formation and international outlooks, Wang shows how ancient visions persist even as China has adopted and revised the Western nation-state form. The concept of tianxia, meaning “all under heaven,” has constantly been updated into modern outlooks that value unity, equality, and reciprocity as key to overcoming interstate conflict, social fragmentation, and ethnic divides. Instead of geopolitical dominance, China’s worldviews stem as much from the age-old desire for world unity as from absorbing the Western ideas of the Enlightenment, humanism, and socialism. Examining political writings, literature, and film, Wang presents a narrative of the country’s pursuits of decolonization, national independence, notions of national form, socialist internationalism, alternative development, and solidarity with Third World nations. Learn more on the podcast ⤵️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/china-in-the-world-2

22/04/2022

When the dust settled after World War II, the United States stood as the world’s unquestionably pre-eminent military and economic power. In the decades that followed, the country exerted its dominant force in less visible but equally powerful ways, too, spreading its trade protocols, its media, and—perhaps most importantly—its alleged values.

Sam Lebovic’s A RIGHTEOUS SMOKESCREEN: Postwar America and the Politics of Cultural Globalization (University of Chicago Press) is an examination of how the postwar United States twisted its ideal of “the free flow of information” into a one-sided export of values and a tool with global consequences. Give the author's NBN interview a listen 👇

https://newbooksnetwork.com/a-righteous-smokescreen

21/04/2022

AMERICANS IN CHINA: Encounters with the People’s Republic (Oxford University Press) tells the stories of men and women who have lived and worked in China from before the Communist era to the present. Their experiences provide unique insights and deeply human perspectives on issues that have shaped US engagement with the PRC: politics, diplomacy, education, science, business, art, law, journalism, and human rights. Looming over their narratives is the quandary of whether divergent Chinese and Western worldviews could find common ground. Listen in as author Terry Lautz discusses the book on the podcast ↙️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/americans-in-china

08/04/2022

Well into its third decade, the military conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been dubbed a "forever war"--a perpetual cycle of war, civil unrest, and local feuds over power and identity. Millions have died in one of the worst humanitarian calamities of our time. THE WAR THAT DOESN'T SAY ITS NAME: The Unending Conflict in the Congo (Princeton University Press) investigates the most recent phase of this conflict, asking why the peace deal of 2003--accompanied by the largest United Nations peacekeeping mission in the world and tens of billions in international aid--has failed to stop the violence. Jason Stearns argues that the fighting has become an end in itself, carried forward in substantial part through the apathy and complicity of local and international actors. Hear his NBN interview ↙️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/jason-k-stearns-the-war-that-doesnt-say-its-name-the-unending-conflict-in-the-congo-princeton-up-2022

07/04/2022

Although there is often opposition to individual wars, most people continue to believe that the arms industry is necessary in some form: to safeguard our security, provide jobs and stimulate the economy. Not only conservatives, but many progressives and liberals, support it for these reasons.

INDEFENSIBLE: Seven Myths that Sustain the Global Arms Trade (Zed Books) is the essential handbook for those who want to debunk the arguments of the industry and its supporters. Deploying case studies, statistics and irrefutable evidence to demonstrate they are fundamentally flawed, both factually and logically. Far from protecting us, the book shows how the arms trade undermines our security by fanning the flames of war, terrorism and global instability. PODCAST LINK ⤵️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/indefensible

21/02/2022

Economic sanctions dominate the landscape of world politics today. First developed in the early 20th century as a way of exploiting the flows of globalization to defend liberal internationalism, their appeal is that they function as an alternative to war. This view, however, ignores the dark paradox at their core: designed to prevent war, economic sanctions are modeled on devastating techniques of warfare. THE ECONOMIC WEAPON: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War (Yale University Press) casts an overdue light on why sanctions are widely considered a form of war, and why their unintended consequences are so tremendous. Nicholas Mulder joins us on the podcast ↙️

https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-economic-weapon

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