Under Xi Jinping, China has returned to ideology-based policies and abandoned collective leadership, according to Steve Tsang and Olivia Cheung. This has led to many mistakes like the zero-Covid policy, and thus discontent within the Chinese Communist Party. 

An interesting insight into insurgencies is that they rarely succeed. David H. Ucko’s Insurgent’s Dilemma: A Struggle to Prevail shows us how the extant state survives, and how rarely they are overthrown through the conventional use of force in the 21st century.

Kaamil Ahmed’s documentation of the Rohingya’s plight details their trauma, death, and despair. The book’s telling of their human longing for peace and a better life should enjoy a wide readership.

In his third edition of “India after Gandhi,” historian Ramachandra Guha argues that India is now in the middle of its fourth crisis since independence. While India may navigate its way through, this crisis will leave deep scars. 

In her book, Séverine Autesserre investigates the persistence of an “unlikely peace” in certain conflict-ridden areas like Idjwi in Congo and Somaliland in Somalia. She argues that locally-led grassroots peacebuilding efforts uphold a unique peace in these regions.

Australia is seemingly focused on the red centre and the wealth generated by its vast farms and mines. Ian Hoskins’ book is a useful antidote to this inland fixation by retelling Australia’s long-standing relationship with the Pacific.

As a middle power in an increasingly volatile and contested region, Geoff Heriot argues that Australian Governments need to be more strategic about their approach to international broadcasting. This is if they are to effectively tackle contemporary diplomatic and security challenges.  

For a long time, India’s academic and foreign policy circles have suffered from a “blind spot” on Myanmar, despite the country being an important neighbour for India. Finding a “Myanmar Consciousness” in Indian strategic thought and scholarship is a concept which remains the core thesis of the book.

Anthony Cooper, together with Thorsten Perl, provides a well-researched account of a British air raid on Berlin, in December 1943. They concentrate on […]

Charles Dunst, current foreign policy advisor to Colorado Democratic Senator Michael F. Bennet, offers a perspective on how democracies can combat the threat of rising authoritarianism. In suggesting such solutions as improved infrastructure spending, increased immigration, and greater social safety nets, this work is ultimately aspirational in nature, simplifying the threat and the societies supposedly imperilled by it.