Book Reviews

  • Terrorism in Cyberspace: The Next Generation

    Gabriel Weimann
    Woodrow Wilson Center Press and Columbia University Press, 2015
    ISBN:978-0-231-70449-6

    Cyberspace is a leading arena for battling extremism, argues Gabriel Weimann, professor of communications at the University Haifa and author of Terrorism in Cyberspace: The Next Generation. He was a fellow at the Wilson Center in 2013-2014. Extremists are adept at communicating over social media to attract recruits. Weimann’s book analyzes trends in cyberterrorism and demonstrates how “the war on terrorism is being played in the realm of narratives.” Governments struggle to present counter-narratives. Susan Froetschel reviews the book, pointing out that the failure of governments to acknowledge legitimate grievances and entrenched inequality risks provoking anger that leads to extremism.  

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  • The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective, Fifth Edition

    Roger Hood and Carolyn Hoyle
    Oxford University Press, 2015
    ISBN: 978-0-19-870174-3

    The world is divided over the death penalty: 140 nations are abolitionist in law or practice while 39 nations, including the world’s two largest economies – China and the US - still rely on the penalty to deter serious crimes. But nations also disagree about methods and which crimes are serious enough to warrant death. Executions of foreign nationals in particular can expose inconsistent policies. The Death Penalty by Oxford professors Roger Hood and Carolyn Hoyle argues for the penalty’s worldwide abolition. Leila Toiviainen in her review describes the book as “scholarly but readable and compassionate.”     

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  • Ukraine: What Went Wrong and How to Fix It?

    Anders Åslund
    Peterson Institute for International Economic, 2015
    ISBN: 978-0881327014

    In transitioning away from communism to independence since 1991, Ukraine struggled more than its neighbors, including Poland or Hungary. For more than two decades, Ukraine wavered between loyalty to Russia and stronger ties with the European Union.  Discontent and protests, Russia’s annexation of Crimea, and intervention in the country’s east have exacerbated struggles with inequality, high debt and corruption. Anders Åslund, an economist with the Peterson Institute for International Economics, served as an economic advisor to Ukraine’s President Leonid Kuchma from 1994 to 1997. He urges immediate reforms and austerity measures. In her review, Julia Sinitsky praises Åslund’s analysis, but questions the wisdom of austerity during a sensitive period. She also expresses doubt on his optimistic outlook but expresses hope that the book may inspire agents of change for Ukraine.

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  • Extreme: Why Some People Thrive at the Limits

    Emma Barrett and Paul Martin
    Oxford University Press, 2014
    ISBN: 978-0-19-966858-8

    Exploring extreme and dangerous environments – the ocean depths, space, caves or disaster zones – requires courage, resilience, focus, self-discipline in addition to meticulous planning. Extreme: Why Some People Thrive at the Limits by Emma Barrett and Paul Martin examines the characteristics required to embrace and manage the risks. The authors argue that such skills and attitudes can be developed, taught and practiced. In her review, Susan Froetschel suggests that the skill set will come in handy as the globe experiences more extreme weather patterns, a result of climate change, and she concludes, “The world has a need for people willing to step into harm’s way, and how they manage risks should be understood and appreciated.” 

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  • The South China Sea: The Struggle for Power in Asia

    Bill Hayton
    New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014
    ISBN: 978-0300186833

    China’s fast rise disrupts global order and tests regional ties, too The South China Sea: The Struggle for Power in Asia details the history and disputes, analyzing the potential for conflict as China manages a tightrope between making broad claims and shaping a role as Asia’s benevolent leader. The book is written by Bill Hayton, BBC correspondent who has covered Southeast Asia since 2006, and reviewed by Nayan Chanda, editor in chief of YaleGlobal Online who reported from Vietnam and Cambodia during the 1970s. In the review originally published by GlobalAsia.org, Chanda suggests the book dispels misconceptions, details the South China Sea’s essential role in modern trade and regional divisions, and analyzes the potential for rivalries turning into war.

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  • Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War

    Robert M. Gates
    Knopf, 2014
    ISBN: 978-0307959478

    Robert M. Gates has vast national security experience as lieutenant in the US Air Force, analyst and later director of the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Council staffer, university president as well as secretary of defense who served two presidents from different parties while wars as wars were waged in Afghanistan and Iraq. So military analysts around the globe anticipated Gates’ book – Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War – published 30 months after he left his post as secretary of defense. In his review, Marc A. Sorel expresses some skepticism about Gates’ rhetorical comparisons of actual war with the bitter partisanship that divides Washington, though in the end, looks forward to more analysis from Gates in the years to come. 

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  • Indians in a Globalizing World: Their Skewed Rise

    Dilip Hiro
    HarperCollins Publishers India, 2014
    ISBN: 978-93-5136-266-1

    Journalist and historian Dilip Hiro starts his book Indians in a Globalizing World: Their Skewed Rise with its purpose – analyzing the impact of India’s 1991 New Economic Policy and globalization on Indians at home and abroad.  India is a place of inequality, with troubling levels of corruption and poverty. The book offers personal tales of fortune and woe, which in turn give insights into the complex challenges of inequality in fast-developing India. Education offers the most reliable path to comfort and affluence, Susan Froetschel writes in her review. According to various rankings, India is not the most unequal place, yet is destined to become the world’s most populous nation over the next decade. India’s experiences hold lessons for the rest of the world on the dangers of skewed opportunities.

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  • China’s Second Continent: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa

    Howard W. French
    Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2014
    ISBN: 0307956989

    From 1990 to 2008, Howard French reported for The New York Times as bureau chief for Central America and the Caribbean, West Africa, Japan and the Koreas, and China in Shanghai. French builds on those experiences to describe how Chinese migrants contribute to Africa’s development in his book China’s Second Continent: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa. The influence can run both ways, notes veteran journalist and editor of YaleGlobal Online Nayan Chanda in his review, which was first published by Global Asia: “A common theme that emerges from French’s inter­views with these Chinese migrants is that most lacked opportunity at home and resented omni­present corruption, pollution and lack of freedom….”  

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  • Global Capitalism and the Crisis of Humanity

    William I. Robinson
    New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014
    ISBN: 978-1-107-69111-7

    The world is highly integrated, and few can hope to escape the consequences of modern capitalism –inequality, debt and corporate power combined with worrisome declines in sustainability and trust in government. A mix of crises threatens world civilization, argues William I. Robinson, a sociology professor, in Global Capitalism and the Crisis of Humanity, and prospects for reform seem bleak. To ensure a comfortable way of life for future generations, Robinson urges critical thinking, political engagement and redistribution of wealth. Just as globalization has spurred processes of finance, supply chains and labor mobility, the phenomenon could speed ideas for rescue, too. 

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  • The Syria Dilemma

    Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel, Editors
    The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2013
    ISBN: 978-0-262-02683-3

    The civil war in Syria should be tough for global citizens to ignore with more than 100,000 dead, brutal fighting, and a stream of images of devastated cities and overcrowded refugee camps. The war destabilizes the region, yet the global community seems paralyzed to act. The Syria Dilemma, a collection of 21 essays, explores the war’s complexities and analyzes options for the international community, including intervention and diplomacy. In her review, Susan Froetschel points out that endless fragmentation is an enemy for good governance – and that an opposition uniting around an agenda emphasizing respect for human rights and intolerance for violence could sound the death knell for the Assad regime.

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