Showing 1–12 of 97 resultsSorted by latest
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£22.00
The great majority of people alive today have come of age in a world of remarkable stability, presided over by either one or two superpowers. This is not to say the world has been peaceful; but it has to an extent been predictable. As an increasing number of Great Powers now jostle for regional supremacy our world has become more fragile, unpredictable – and combustible. To understand the threats that face us in this complex new terrain, we must look to the lessons of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century – a time when Great Powers clashed and sought regional dominance, when nationalism and populism were on the rise, and many felt that globalization had failed them: a time, in other words, that carries eerie parallels with our own. ‘The Coming Storm’ is a prescient, thoughtful and chilling examination of the current state of the world.
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£30.00
What has happened to the nation-state? From a prizewinning writer, After Nations offers a sweeping history of this most unquestioned of modern structures and a bold speculation about its future.
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£12.99
An essential guide to Taiwan’s past and present, providing invaluable context at a time of escalating tension over its future.
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£22.00
One of the most highly respected and longstanding foreign correspondents in Taiwan explores the people, politics and history of the unique nation caught in a power struggle between the USA and China.
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£10.99
The first rule of nuclear war is that there are no rules. Up to now, no one outside of official circles has known exactly what would happen if a rogue state launched a nuclear missile at the Pentagon. Second by second and minute by minute, these are the real-life protocols that choreograph the end of civilisation as we know it. If a single nuclear missile is launched, it provokes two dozen in return. Frantic calls over secure lines work to confirm the worst as armoured helicopters are scrambled outside. Decisions over hundreds of millions of lives need to be made within six minutes, based on partial information, knowing that once launched, nothing is capable of halting the destruction. Because the plans for General Nuclear War are among the most classified secrets held by the United States government, this book takes the reader up to the razor’s edge of what can legally be known.
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£25.00
Henry Becquerel’s accidental discovery, in Paris in 1896, of a faint smudge on a photographic plate sparked a chain of discoveries which would unleash the atomic age. ‘Destroyer of Worlds’ is the story of how pursuit of this hidden source of nuclear power, which began innocently and collaboratively, was overwhelmed by the politics of the 1930s, and following devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki opened the way to a still more terrible possibility: a thermonuclear bomb, the so-called ‘backyard weapon’, that could destroy all life on earth – from anywhere.
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£11.99
The Middle East is in crisis. The shocking events of the war in Gaza have rocked the entire region. More than a decade ago, the Arab Spring had raised hopes of a new beginning but instead ushered in a series of civil wars, coups, and even harsher autocracies. Tensions were exacerbated by the meddling of outsiders, as regional and global powers sought to further their interests. The United States, for so long the dominant actor, had stepped back, leaving a vacuum behind it to be fought over. Christopher Phillips explores geopolitical rivalries in the region, and the major external powers vying for influence: Russia, China, the EU, and the US. Moving through ten key flashpoints, from Syria to Palestine, Phillips argues that the United States’ overextension after the Cold War, and retreat in the 2010s, has imbalanced the region.
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£10.99
Nowadays, autocracies are run not by one bad guy, but by sophisticated networks composed of kleptocratic financial structures, security services and professional propagandists. The members of these networks are connected not only within a given country, but among many countries. The corrupt, state-controlled companies in one dictatorship do business with corrupt, state-controlled companies in another. The police in one country can arm, equip, and train the police in another. The propagandists share resources – the troll farms that promote one dictator’s propaganda can also be used to promote the propaganda of another – and themes, pounding home the same messages about the weakness of democracy and the evil of America. Unlike military or political alliances from other times and places, this group doesn’t operate like a bloc, but rather like an agglomeration of companies: Autocracy, Inc.
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£30.00
An intimate and perceptive biography of Zbigniew Brzezinski – one of America’s greatest and most influential geopolitical thinkers.
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£22.00
Here is a history of the world economy over the last fifty years told through the life of a single ship. Capitalism. International law. Imperial decline. National sovereignty. Inflation. Gentrification. Mass incarceration. Busts. Racism. Greed. ‘Empty Vessel’ is the story of globalism in one boat. First built as a Swedish offshore oil rig in the 1970s, it went on to house British soldiers in the Falklands War in the 1980s, prisoners from Riker’s Island in New York’s East River in the 1990s,Volkswagen factory employees in Germany in the 2000s, and Nigerian oil workers off the coast of Africa in the 2010s. In each of its lives it arrived as an empty vessel, filled at the behest of both public and private interests, for purposes of war, incarceration, and commerce – connecting people thousands of miles apart, all shaped by the same global economic transformations.
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£16.99
In 2003 Jan van Aken almost helped stop a war. But as he was preparing to go to Baghdad to search for biological weapons, he got a message: the US was determined to avenge 9/11 and wouldn’t wait for UN inspections to take place. The invasion went ahead, and only years later, the world discovered that Iraq had had no biological weapons at that time. From this experience and the many others he has had as a weapons inspector, conflict analyst and activist, in this book van Aken shows how conflict resolution really works. From disinformation and dodgy dossiers to chemical weapons and murderous drones, he identifies why wars start and spiral. He looks at the alternatives, including civil initiatives, diplomacy, sanctions, and international interventions.
