Book Review: India after Gandhi Reviewed by John West — Reading room 13 February 2024In 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. Read More
Book Review: Frontlines of Peace Reviewed by Dr Anurug Chakma — Reading room 07 February 2024In 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. Read More
Book Review: Australia & the Pacific: A History Reviewed by Dr Xiang Gao — Reading room 01 February 2024Australia 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. Read More
Book Review: International Broadcasting and its Contested Role in Australian Statecraft Reviewed by Dr Melanie Brand — Reading room 30 January 2024As 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. Read More
Book Review: Irrawaddy Imperatives: Reviewing India’s Myanmar Strategy Reviewed by Inderpal Singh — Reading room 24 January 2024For 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. Read More
Book Review: Dispatch from Berlin, 1943 Reviewed by Dr Andrew G. Bonnell — Reading room 22 January 2024Anthony Cooper, together with Thorsten Perl, provides a well-researched account of a British air raid on Berlin, in December 1943. They concentrate on […] Read More
Book Review: Defeating the Dictators Reviewed by Dr Binoy Kampmark — Reading room 18 January 2024Charles 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. Read More
Book Review: A World Safe for Democracy Reviewed by John West — Reading room 11 January 2024Professor G. John Ikenberry argues that the grand project of liberal internationalism is in crisis today. But he believes there is every reason for the world’s democracies to work together to revive the liberal global order. Read More
Book Review: How States Think – The Rationality of Foreign Policy Reviewed by John West — Reading room 14 December 2023Professors John Mearsheimer and Sebastian Rosato contest the view that states frequently act irrationally, as they propose their own concept of rationality and survey a number of cases in support of their argument. Read More
Book Review: Liberal Capitalist Democracy: The God That Failed Reviewed by Ryan Walter — Reading room 01 December 2023Krishnan Nayar’s big history exemplifies our general willingness to take positions on national histories and political arrangements without bothering to study them first. This quasi-Marxist polemic brushes over history and leaves the reader unfulfilled. Read More