Foreign Affairs articles from March 2008

Foreign Affairs archives from March 2008

America the resilient: defying terrorism and mitigating natural disasters.(Comments)(Critical essay)
March 1, 2008... When it comes to managing the hazards of the twenty-first century, it is reckless to relegate the American public to the sidelines. During the Cold War, the threat of nuclear weapons placed the fate of millions in the hands of a few. But...

Staying alive: why North Korea will not change.(Comments)(Critical essay)
March 1, 2008... Fifteen years after taking over from his father, Kim Jong II remains in full control of North Korea; he is still, at 66, the supreme ruler and "ever-victorious General." In the early 1990s, few outside observers expected him or his regime to...

Us and them: the enduring power of ethnic nationalism.(Essays)(Critical essay)
March 1, 2008... PROJECTING THEIR own experience onto the rest of the world, Americans generally belittle the role of ethnic nationalism in politics. After all, in the United States people of varying ethnic origins live cheek by jowl in relative peace. Within...

The democratic rollback: the resurgence of the predatory state.(Essays)(democracy of countries)(Critical essay)
March 1, 2008... SINCE 1974, more than 90 countries have made transitions to democracy, and by the turn of the century approximately 60 percent of the world's independent states were democratic. The democratization of Mexico and Indonesia in the late 1990s and...

Leading Europe: Portugal goes global.
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] What is the secret to running a successful presidency of the European Union? It is incomparable to leading the United States, for example, as a host nation does not hold complete power over other member states. For...

Pushinq forward the Treaty of Lisbon.(New Presidency, New Priorities)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Making international relations the main theme of its EU presidency was a natural choice for Portugal. Besides its historic ties stretching across the globe, the country's agenda for improved EU-African and EU-Brazilian ties was a prime...

Building bridges to the BRICs, Africa on the agenda.(A GLOBAL FACILITATOR: Portugal reactivates historic ties)(Brazil, Russia, India, and China)
March 1, 2008... The greatest effect of globalization is the shifting of the world's wealth centers. Former developing countries are rapidly becoming richer through their use of natural resources, labor forces, and industrialization. An essay published by...

Portuguese companies go global.(A GLOBAL FACILITATOR: Portugal reactivates historic ties)
March 1, 2008... Portugal has been going global for centuries. Enjoying a heyday in the 18th century, when it invested in overseas interests and developments, Portugal's powerful colonial empire gradually waned until the monarchy's deposition in 1910 resulted...

Cementing Portugal's global footprint.(A GLOBAL FACILITATOR: Portugal reactivates historic ties)(Cimentos de Portugal EP)(Company overview)
March 1, 2008... The solid backbone of every economy is development, and development goes hand in hand with construction. Meshed into the fabric of modern life, therefore, is cement. Casting its imprint in the industry is CIMPOR: Cimentos de Portugal. With a...

Creating a trans-atlantic knowledge network.(A GLOBAL FACILITATOR: Portugal reactivates historic ties)
March 1, 2008... Innovation may be a fashionable word in globalizing countries, but Portugal had already shifted the concept into a practical network even before the government's Piano Tecnologico initiative was drafted. During the early 1990s, just after the...

Energy companies spark new ties abroad.(PARTNERS IN POWER)
March 1, 2008... The energy you put into making a country competitive is often reflected in the energy that comes out of it. It has to be sustainable, accessible, and most importantly nowadays, renewable. Kickstarting an economy begins with energy, and for this...

Portugal goes green.(WINDS OF CHANGE)(government initiative to promote environmental consciousness)
March 1, 2008... The countries of the European Union are currently the global leaders in the development and application of renewable energy. Promoting the use of renewable energy sources is important both for the reduction of the EU's dependence on foreign...

Making it happen: Portugal innovates through technology.
March 1, 2008... "Innovation is made by taking small steps." Sergio Parriera de Campos should know. As President of Edisoft, de Campos has seen his company gradually grow from provider of local military software solutions to creator of internationally revered...

Cutting-edge research brings breakthrough solutions.(NEW VISION, BETTER HEALTH)
March 1, 2008... What is the minimum volume of bone one needs to place a bridge with twelve teeth? This is the question Dr. Paulo Malo asked himself in 1993 to find an alternative to the aggressive bone transplant surgery required in some cases of tooth...

Pushing medical research into the marketplace.(NEW VISION, BETTER HEALTH)
March 1, 2008... Portugal is making a name for itself in molecular and human genome research. The Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM) is at the forefront of this sector, attracting top Portuguese and international minds to carry out innovative research. "It...

Breathing new life into the Portuguese health sector.
March 1, 2008... As the European Union compiles a health strategy titled, "Together for Health," aimed at investing common guidelines in healthcare, Portugal has taken steps to streamline its own National Health Service. Over the past 30 years the country made...

Curing the state of health care.(Portugal's Administracao Central do Sistema de Saude)
March 1, 2008... With health care having become a hot issue of the US Presidential campaign, other nations are setting an example of how to successfully transform the Public Healthcare System. For the Portuguese Government the modernization of the healthcare...

Connecting Europe: logistic Lisbon.
March 1, 2008... For over a thousand years, Portugal's capital, Lisbon, has been a point of confluence in the world. Located at the western-most point of the European continent, Lisbon has been a port of departure since the Age of Discovery, as well as the...

The West Coast of Europe.(Portugal)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Accessibility also plays a major factor in Portugal's tourism industry. For many Europeans, Portugal is a prime tourist destination due to its warm weather, outstanding cuisine, and laid-back lifestyle. Lisbon receives around 300 cruise ships...

An empty revolution: the unfulfilled promises of Hugo Chavez.(Essays)(Critical essay)
March 1, 2008... ON DECEMBER 2, when Venezuelans delivered President Hugo Chavez his first electoral defeat in nine years, most analysts were taken by surprise. According to official results, 50.7 percent of voters rejected Chavez's proposed constitutional...

Arctic meltdown: the economic and security implications of global warming.(Essays)(Critical essay)
March 1, 2008... THE ARCTIC OCEAN is melting, and it is melting fast. This past summer, the area covered by sea ice shrank by more than one million square miles, reducing the Arctic icecap to only hall the size it was 50 years ago. For the first time, the...

The Copenhagen consensus: reading Adam Smith in Denmark.(Essays)
March 1, 2008... ADAM SMITH observed in 1776 that economies work best when governments keep their clumsy thumbs off the free market's "invisible hand." Two generations later, in 1817, the British economist David Ricardo extended Smith's insights to global...

The Philippines: looking up to the future.
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 2007 was a year of lucky numbers for the Philippines. In the first nine months of last year, the country's economy managed to post a 7.1 percent GDP growth, the highest in almost 20 years. This record was buoyed by...

Balanced blessings: zero-deficit budget adds up to credibility.
March 1, 2008... For the Philippines, the year 2008 is set to become a milestone on many levels. Not only is it heading for another year of rapid growth, it is also looking forward to a very important turning point in the country's fiscal fortunes. After 10...

Landing a sound banking system.
March 1, 2008... The true heroes of Philippine national growth are, ironically, Filipinos working abroad. Remittances sent back by overseas workers to support their families have grown substantially, to over $14 billion annually. The fact that most of these...

Zoning in on regional development: free ports and economic zones map out Philippine future.
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] By embarking on a Super Regions strategy, the Philippine National Government is targeting economic equilibrium throughout the nation. With skilled labor and natural geographic advantages available throughout the...

Cheques and the city.
March 1, 2008... Asia is big on gaming. Not only can the capital-intensive industry generate grand amounts of revenue and employment, but it also has the capacity to attract megaprojects and leisure resorts with 5-star flair. Even within the Philippines'...

Tourism's plentiful knock-on effect.(economic effects of the booming Philippine tourism industry)
March 1, 2008... There's a new destination darling in Asia, and its name is the Philippines. Tourism has become the one industry to benefit the most from the recent economic surge. Whereas 2006 saw 2.8 million visitors bring in $2.7 billion in revenues, last...

China and India go to Africa: new deals in the developing world.(Essay)
March 1, 2008... ECONOMIC ACTIVITY between Africa and Asia is booming like never before. Business between the two continents is not new: India's trade with Africa's eastern and southern regions dates back to at least the days of the Silk Road, and China has...

Diplomacy in an age of faith: religious freedom and national security.(Essay)
March 1, 2008... THE UNITED STATES is a religious nation, but neither scholars of U.S. foreign policy nor its practitioners have taken religion very seriously. From the inception of international relations as a discrete discipline, its approach has been defined...

Transforming nations: how the WTO boosts economies and opens societies.(Essays)(World Trade Organization)
March 1, 2008... No VISITOR to Phnom Penh, Beijing, or Riyadh these days can fail to sense change, optimism, and new economic dynamism. Cambodia, China, and Saudi Arabia are on the move, and mostly for the better. Why? For one thing, because all three...

Intelligent design? The unending saga of intelligence reform.(Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, Spying Blind: The CIA, the FBI, and the Origins of 9/11, Enemies of Inteligence: Knowledge and Power in American National Security)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA. BY TIM WEINER. Doubleday, 2007, 720 pp. $27.95. Spying Blind: The CIA, the FBI, and the Origins of 9/11. By AMY B. ZEGART. Princeton University Press, 2007, 336 pp. $24.95. Enemies of...

Bye bye Bush: what history will make of 43.(Daydream Believers: How a Few Grand Ideas Wrecked American Power, They Knew They Were Right: The Rise of the Neocons, The Bush Tragedy)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Daydream Believers: How a Few Grand Ideas Wrecked American Power. BY FRED KAPLAN. Wiley, 2008, 256 pp. $25.95. They Knew They Were Right." The Rise of the Neocons. BY JACOB HEILBRUNN. Doubleday, 2008, 319 pp. $26.00. The Bush Tragedy....

The New Asian Hemisphere." The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... The New Asian Hemisphere." The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East. BY KISHORE MAHBUBANI. Public Affairs, 2008, 336 pp. $26.00. Mahbubani, a retired Singaporean diplomat, has long been one of the keenest observers of Asia and...

Power and Plenty: Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Millennium.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Power and Plenty: Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Millennium. BY RONALD FINDLAY AND KEVIN H. O'ROURKE. Princeton University Press, 2007, 624 pp. $39.50. This new history of the last thousand years of world trade is...

The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies throughout the World.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World. BY LARRY DIAMOND. Times Books, 2008, 464 pp. $28.00. For 25 years, beginning in the mid-1970s, an extraordinary wave of democratic transitions swept across...

A Shattered Peace: Versailles 1919 and the Price We Pay Today.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... A Shattered Peace: Versailles 1919 and the Price We Pay Today. BY DAVID A. ANDELMAN. Wiley, 2007, 336 pp. $25-95. The failures of the peacemakers of 1919 have long been blamed for the breakdown of international order in subsequent decades....

The United States and the Security Council: Collective Security since the Cold War.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... The United States and the Security Council: Collective Security Since the Cold War. BY BRIAN FREDERKING. Routledge, 2007, 197 PP. $35.95. Can the world's leading states agree on rules about the use of force and collectively provide a...

Multicultural Odysseys: Navigating the New International Politics of Diversity.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Multicultural Odysseys: Navigating the New International Politics of Diversity. BY WILL KYMLICKA. Oxford University Press, 2007, 320 pp. $35.00. Over the last half century, governments have increasingly extended rights and protections to...

One Economics, Many Recipes: Globalization, Institutions, and Economic Growth.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... One Economics, Many Recipes: Globalization, Institutions, and Economic Growth. BY DANI RODRIK. Princeton University Press, 2007, 278 pp. $35.00. The Harvard development economist Rodrik here collects several of his recent papers into a...

How Capitalism Was Built: The Transformation of Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia.(Russia's Capitalist Revolution: Why Market Reform Succeeded and Democracy Failed)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... How Capitalism Was Built: The Transformation of Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia. BY ANDERS ASLUND. Cambridge University Press, 2007, 372 pp. $70.00. Russia's Capitalist Revolution: Why Market Reform Succeeded and...

Regional Monetary Integration.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Regional Monetary Integration. BY PETER B. KENEN AND ELLEN E. MEADE. Cambridge University Press, 2007, 248 pp. $80.00 (paper, $24.99). The successful launch of the euro has sparked interest in regional currency unions elsewhere. This short...

Bribery and Extortion: Undermining Business, Governments, and Security.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Bribery and Extortion: Undermining Business, Governments, and Security. BY ALEXANDRA ADDISON WRAGE. Praeger Security International, 2007, 176 pp. $44.95. Bribery and extortion of and by officials are almost universal in developing...

Hard Times in the Lands of Plenty: Oil Politics in Iran and Indonesia.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Hard Times in the Lands of Plenty: Oil Politics in Iran and Indonesia. BY BENJAMIN SMITH. Cornell University Press, 2007, 256 pp. $59.95 (paper, $22.95). Once upon a time, being blessed with a generous endowment of oil or other natural...

The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War. BY DAVID HALBERSTAM. Hyperion, 2007, 736 pp. $35.00. Halberstam's last book, on the Korean War, is written as an epic, and at times one wishes for a fighter narrative. Nonetheless, it is a...

Stalingrad: How the Red Army Triumphed.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Stalingrad: How the Red Army Triumphed. BY MICHAEL K. JONES. Casemate, 2007, 320 pp. $32.95. Sixty-five years on, the story of the Battle of Stalingrad still has the capacity to shock and appall. The Soviet 62nd Army was expected to buckle...

Deception: Pakistan, the United States, and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Deception: Pakistan, the United States, and the Secret Trade in Nuclear Weapons. BY ADRIAN LEVY AND CATHERINE SCOTT-CLARK. Walker & Company, 2007, 416 pp. $26.95. In light of the recent events in Pakistan, this excellent and chilling book...

Humanitarian Intervention: Ideas in Action.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Humanitarian Intervention: Ideas in Action. BY THOMAS C. WEISS. Polity, 2007, 176 pp. $49.95 (paper, $19.95). This is a useful, authoritative little book by one of the leading experts on the theory and practice of humanitarian intervention....

Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race. BY RICHARD RHODES. Knopf, 2007, 400 pp. $28.95. Following first-rate histories of the making of the atomic and hydrogen bombs, this latest in Rhodes' accounts of the nuclear age comes...

Forge of Empires, 1861-1871: Three Revolutionary Statesmen and the World They Made.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Forge of Empires, 1861-1871: Three Revolutionary Statesmen and the World They Made. BY MICHAEL KNOX BERAN. Free Press, 2007, 496 pp. $30.00. Creating an American historical narrative that integrates events and ideas into the broader global...

The American Mission and the "Evil Empire": The Crusade for a Free Russia since 1881.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... The American Mission and the "Evil Empire": The Crusade for a Free Russia Since 1881. BY DAVID FOGLESONG. Cambridge University Press, 2007, 362 pp. $35.00. This timely and trenchant book looks at the cultural and political roots of...

George H. W. Bush.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... George H. W. Bush. BY TIMOTHY NAFTALI. Times Books, 2007, 224 pp. $22.00. This balanced and thoughtful survey of the life of the first President Bush is a welcome arrival. Naftali has a clear eye for the compromises and shifts that the...

What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848. BY DANIEL WALKER HOWE. Oxford University Press, 2007, 928 pp. $35.00. This extraordinary contribution to the Oxford History of the United States series is a great...

American Transcendentalism: A History.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... American Transcendentalism: A History. BY PHILIP F. GURA. Hill and Wang, 2007, 384 pp. $28.00. What the Great Awakening was for evangelical America, the transcendentalist movement was for liberal Protestants and even secular Americans. An...

Barbarism and Civilization: A History of Europe in Our Time.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Barbarism and Civilization: A History of Europe in Our Time. BY BERNARD WASSERSTEIN. Oxford University Press, 2007, 928 pp. $45.00. Trying to write a single-volume "history of Europe in our time," Wasserstein admits at the beginning of this...

Churchill's Promised Land: Zionism and Statecraft.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Churchill's Promised Land: Zionism and Statecraft. BY MICHAEL MAKOVSKY. Yale University Press, 2007, 368 pp. $35.00. Previous studies of Winston Churchill's attitude toward "the Jewish question" have portrayed the great British leader as...

Over to You, Mr. Brown: How Labour Can Win Again.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Over to You, Mr. Brown: How Labour Can Win Again. BY ANTHONY GIDDENS. Polity, 2007, 256 pp. $54.95. In 1998, the British sociologist Giddens published The Third Way, a sort of centrist manifesto that rejected the dogmas of both the left,...

The Divided West.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... The Divided West. BY JURGEN HABERMAS. Polity, 2006, 248 pp. $59.95. To understand Habermas' analysis of "the divided West," it helps to first understand his broader worldview, which is spelled out in dense detail in the second half of this...

China-Europe Relations: Perceptions, Policies, and Prospects.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... China-Europe Relations: Perceptions, Policies, and Prospects. EDITED BY DAVID SHAMBAUGH, EBERHARD SANDSCHNEIDER, AND ZHOU HONG. Routledge, 2007, 368 pp. $43.95. Americans woke up to the growing importance of the Chinese-European...

Bounded Rationality and Policy Diffusion: Social Sector Reform in Latin America.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Bounded Rationality and Policy Diffusion: Social Sector Reform in Latin America. BY KURT WEYLAND. Princeton University Press, 2007, 312 pp. $60.00 (paper, $24.95). In this important scholarly polemic, a well-regarded political scientist...

Promoting Democracy in the Americas.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Promoting Democracy in the Americas. EDITED BY THOMAS LEGLER, SHARON F. LEAN, AND DEXTER S. BONIFACE. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007, 360 pp. $60.00 (paper, $24.95). In the 1990s, a powerful inter-American consensus emerged behind...

Greening Brazil: Environmental Activism in State and Society.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Greening Brazil: Environmental Activism in State and Society. BY KATHRYN HOCHSTETLER AND MARGARET E. KECK. Duke University Press, 2007, 304 pp. $84.95 (paper, $23.95). Two lifetime students of Brazil combine extensive participant...

Latin American Economic Outlook, 2008.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Latin American Economic Outlook, 2008. BY THE ORGANIZATION FOR ECONOMIC COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT. OECD Publishing, 2007, 188 pp. $45.00. This welcome publication of the Paris-based OECD (whose membership now includes Brazil, Chile, and...

El argumento empresarial de la RSE: 9 casos de America Latina y el Caribe.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... El argumento empresarial de la RSE: 9 casos de America Latina y el Caribe. EDITED BY JULIANO FLORES, ENRIQUE OGLIASTRI, ESTRELLA PEINADO-VARA, AND IMRE PETRY. Inter-American Development Bank and INCAE Business School, 2007, 258 pp. Free. ...

Governing the Americas: Assessing Multilateral Institutions.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Governing the Americas: Assessing Multilateral Institutions. EDITED BY GORDON MACE, JEAN-PHILIPPE THERIEN, AND PAUL HASLAM. Lynne Rienner, 2007, 317 pp. $63.00. Fourteen years ago, President Bill Clinton hosted a summit of 34 leaders of...

The Bolsheviks in Power: The First Year of Soviet Rule in Petrograd.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... The Bolsheviks in Power: The First Year of Soviet Rule in Petrograd. BY ALEXANDER RABINOWITCH. Indiana University Press, 2007, 520 pp. $34.95. As the detail of familiar objects under a microscope recasts preexisting impressions,...

The Post-Soviet Wars: Rebellion, Ethnic Conflict, and Nationhood in the Caucasus.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... The Post-Soviet Wars: Rebellion, Ethnic Conflict, and Nationhood in the Caucasus. BY CHRISTOPH ZURCHER. New York University Press, 2007, 304 pp. $48.00. This is an uncommonly well-argued and well-written explanation of the violent...

The Post-Soviet Potemkin Village: Politics and Property Rights in the Black Earth.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... The Post-Soviet Potemkin Village: Politics and Property Rights in the Black Earth. B Y JESSICA ALLINA-PISANO. Cambridge University Press, 2007, 248 pp. $75.00 (paper, $24.99). If the farmland involved is as expansive as all of Australia...

Elusive Compromise: A History of Interwar Yugoslavia.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Elusive Compromise: A History of Interwar Yugoslavia. BY DEJAN DJOKIC. Columbia University Press, 2007, 250 pp. $79.50 (paper, $32.50). Logical as the idea of a unified South Slav state seemed in the late nineteenth century, since such a...

Postcommunist Welfare States: Reform Politics in Russia and Eastern Europe.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Postcommunist Welfare States: Reform Politics in Russia and Eastern Europe. BY LINDA J. COOK. Cornell University Press, 2007, 288 pp. $39-95. The Soviet Union and its Eastern European dominions were, above all, vast welfare...

Market Dreams: Gender, Class, and Capitalism in the Czech Republic.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Market Dreams: Gender, Class, and Capitalism in the Czech Republic. BY ELAINE WEINER. University of Michigan Press, 2007, 168 pp. $60.00 (paper, $22.95). Czech women, Weiner finds, have bought into the positive mythology of the new...

Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: American Leadership in the Middle East.(The Much Too Promised Land: America's Elusive Search for Arab-Israli Peace)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: American Leadership in the Middle East. BY DANIEL C. KURTZER AND SCOTT B. LASENSKY WITH WILLIAM B. QUANDT, STEVEN L. SPIEGEL, AND SHIBLEY I. TELHAMI. U.S. Institute of Peace, 2008, 210 pp. $40.00. The Much...

The Greater Middle East and the Cold War: U.S. Foreign Policy Under Eisenhower and Kennedy.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... The Greater Middle East and the Cold War: U.S. Foreign Policy Under Eisenhower and Kennedy. BY ROBY C. BARRETT. Palgrave Macmillan, 2007, 496 pp. $95.00. Defining the Middle East to include India and Pakistan, Barrett offers an intriguing...

Negotiating Change: The New Politics of the Middle East.(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Negotiating Change: The New Politics of the Middle East. BY JEREMY JONES. I.B. Tauris, 2007, 224 pp. $24.95. Encased within a consideration of whether and how the Middle East might democratize (and how the West might do a better job of...

The Libyan Paradox.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... The Libyan Paradox. BY LUIS MARTINEZ. Columbia University Press, 2007, 192 pp. $50.00. Libya, led since 1969 by the mercurial Muammar al-Qaddafi, has long been seen as the quintessential rogue state. Slapped with UN sanctions in 1992 for...

When Asia Was the World.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... When Asia Was the World. BY STEWART GORDON. Da Capo Press, 2007, 228 pp. $26.00. With the fall of Rome, Europe entered the Dark Ages, and Asia became the center of world trade, culture, religion, and urban development. Gordon seeks to...

Accountability without Democracy: Solidary Groups and Public Goods Provision in Rural China.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Accountability Without Democracy: Solidary Groups and Public Goods Provision in Rural China. BY LILY L. TSAI. Cambridge University Press, 2007, 368 pp. $85.00 (paper, $29.99). In seeking to answer why rural communities in China generally...

Chinese Foreign Relations: Power and Policy since the Cold War.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Chinese Foreign Relations: Power and Policy Since the Cold War. BY ROBERT G. SUTTER. Rowman & Littlefield, 2007, 448 pp. $79.00 (paper, $32.95). For over three decades, Sutter worked to give the U.S. government accurate information about...

Provincial Patriots: The Hunanese and Modern China.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Provincial Patriots: The Hunanese and Modern China. BY STEPHEN R. PLATT. Harvard University Press, 2007, 286 pp. $49-95. Students of Chinese nationalism have usually treated provincial pride as a threat to a collective national identity. Platt,...

The Long Partition and the Making of Modern South Asia: Refugees, Boundaries, Histories.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... The Long Partition and the Making of Modern South Asia: Refugees, Boundaries, Histories. BY VAZIRA VAZILA-VACOOBALI ZAMINDAR. Columbia University Press, 2007, 304 pp. $50.00. Enough time has passed that it should be possible to produce...

Oil and Politics in the Gulf of Guinea.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Oil and Politics in the Gulf of Guinea. BY RICARDO M. S. SOARES DE OLIVEIRA. Columbia University Press, 2007, 400 pp. $79.50 (paper, $32.50). The eight oil states in West Africa around the Gulf of Guinea together produce some five million...

Diamonds, Gold, and War: The British, the Boers, and the Making of South Africa.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Diamonds, Gold, and War: The British, the Boers, and the Making of South Africa. BY MARTIN MEREDITH. Public Affairs, 2007, 512 pp. $35.00. This history of what is today South Africa begins with the discovery of diamonds on the banks of the...

African Counterterrorism Cooperation: Assessing Regional and Subregional Initiatives.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... African Counterterrorism Cooperation: Assessing Regional and Subregional Initiatives. EDITED BY ANDRE LE SAGE. Potomac Books, 2007, 240 pp. $40.00 (paper, $20.00). Even before 9/11, Washington was concerned about the threat of terrorism in...

Twilight Institutions: Public Authority and Local Politics in Africa.(Gouverner les villes d'Afrique: Etat, gouvernement local et acteurs prives)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Twilight Institutions: Public Authority and Local Politics in Africa. EDITED BY CHRISTIAN LUND. Wiley, 2007, 288 pp. $39.95. Gouverner les villes d'Afrique: Etat, gouvernement local et acteurs prives. EDITED BY LAURENT FOURCHARD. Karthala...