New Books Of Interest, September 2016.

AuthorKiehl, Bill
PositionBooks of Interest - Recommended readings

September 2016

American Diplomacy presents a variety of new books that we believe may interest you. We'll provide basic information on the books and links to more information. You will have the choice of whether, or how far, to pursue your interests in the books that follow. From time to time we will also feature an original book review or book essay of note.A

This issue marks my last as Contributing Editor for Books and we welcome our new Contributing Editor, Margaret Pearson, with the next issue.A I've enjoyed my years as Editor and later as Contributing Editor with the journal and will continue as a member of the American Diplomacy Board.A Good reading!

William P. Kiehl, Ed.D.

Contributing Editor, Books

Shaper Nations Edited by William I. Hitchcock, Melvyn P. Leffler and Jeffrey W. Legro

Making Sense of the Central African Republic Edited by Tatiana Carayannis and Louisa Lombard

Music in America's Cold War Diplomacy by Danielle Fosler-Lussier

Open Wounds by Vicken Cheterian

Nigeria by Richard Bourne

Latin America and the Rising South by Augusto de la Torre, Tatiana Didier, Alain Ize, Daniel Lederman, and Sergio L. Schmukler

The Unquiet Frontier by Jakub J. Grygiel and A. Wess Mitchell

India at War by Yasmin Khan

http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674660212

Shaper Nations provides illuminating perspectives on the national strategies of eight emerging and established countries that are shaping global politics at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The volume's authors offer a unique viewpoint: they live and work primarily in the country about which they write, bringing an insider's feel for national debates and politics.

The conventional wisdom on national strategy suggests that these states have clear central authority, coherently connect means to ends, and focus on their geopolitical environment. These essays suggest a different conclusion. In seven key countries" "Brazil, China, Germany, India, Israel, Russia, and Turkeya" "strategy is dominated by non-state threats, domestic politics, the distorting effect of history and national identity, economic development concerns, and the sheer difficulty, in the face of many powerful internal and external constraints, of pursuing an effective national strategy.

The shapers represent a new trend in the international arena with important consequences. Among them is a more uncertain world in which countries concentrate on their own development rather than on shared problems that might divert precious resources, and attend more to regional than to global order. In responding to these shaper states, the United States must understand the sources of their national strategies in determining its own role on the global stage.

William I. Hitchcock is Professor of History at the University of Virginia.A Melvyn P. Leffler is Edward Stettinius Professor of History at the University of Virginia.A Jeffrey W. Legro is Vice Provost for Global Affairs and Randolph P. Compton Professor in the Miller Center at the University of Virginia.

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/2015-12-11/making-sense-central-african-republic

This sprawling collection of essays is the first book-length English-language study of the Central African Republic. Such neglect is predictable given that the landlocked CAR is desperately...

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