Category: Book Reviews

Adeeb Khalid Central Asia: A New History from the Imperial Conquests to the Present (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021, ISBN: 9780691161396, 576 PP., Price: $35.00) The book opens with a captivating overview of the ancient inhabitants of the region. This quick introduction articulates an idea that some nomadic tribes became settled, resulting in the formation of the first city-states in the region. The author extends this overview, drawing parallels with and […]

Michael Cotey Morgan The Final Act: The Helsinki Accords and the Transformation of the Cold War (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021, ISBN: 9780691176062, 424 PP., Price: $35.00) A world without war is the decisive goal of humankind, but only in a hypothetical state. Starting from the groundwork that the best peace is war, the great powers are in perpetual competition and confrontation, with the precise purpose of winning and dominating. In […]

Daniel A. Bell and Wang Pei Just Hierarchy, Why Social Hierarchies Matter in China and the Rest of the World (USA: Princeton University Press, 2020, ISBN: 978-0-691-20088-0, 270 pp.) The international system is going through a period in which multi-polarity has increasingly been the main characteristic identifying the whole system. Within such a multi-polar/multi-centred world order, the Eurocentric approach to politics and socio-cultural life has increasingly come under question. Besides […]

Robert P. Inman and Daniel L. Rubinfeld Democratic Federalism: The Economics, Politics, and Law of Federal Governance Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2020, ISBN: 9780691202129, 448 pp., $45.00 hb.) In presenting an interdisciplinary approach to Democratic Federalism, Robert Inman and Daniel Rubinfeld examine different models of federalism and compare their relative effectiveness as regards economic efficiency, fostering citizen participation, and protecting individual liberties. There is a detailed analysis of the advantages […]

Sean R. Roberts The War on the Uyghurs: China’s Internal Campaign against a Muslim Minority (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2020, ISBN: 978-0-691-20218-1, 328 pp., $29.95.) The War on the Uyghurs is the first book published by Sean R. Roberts, a cultural anthropologist with some 30 years’ experience of studying the ethnolinguistic group which has recently become the focus of international media and political attention due to the Chinese communist regime’s ongoing […]

Eric D. Weitz A World Divided. The Global Struggle for Human Rights in the Age of Nation-States (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2019, ISBN: 978-0-691-14544-0, 544 pp., £ 27) There is nothing new under the sun. A World Divided, the last book by Eric D. Weitz, is a collection of histories and issues stemming from worldwide struggles for human rights. Here lies the strength of the volume: a ride […]

Erik Voeten Ideology and International Institutions (Princeton: Princeton Press University, 2021, ISBN: 978-0-691-20731-5, 239 PP., £78.00) In a post-ideological time emanated by the contested ‘end of history’ after the period of the Cold War, Erik Voeten has the merit of revitalising a debate that experts and scholars often take for granted or overlook. As the title states, Ideology and International Institutions does not simply provide two comprehensive angles of investigation […]

Seth Anziska Preventing Palestine: A Political History from Camp David to Oslo (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2018, ISBN: 9780691177397, 435 pp., $35.00) The Camp David Accords, signed in 1978 between Egypt and Israel culminating in the Egypt-Israel peace treaty in 1979, have been praised by politicians and scholars alike as a significant turning point in Arab-Israeli peacemaking. This was the first time that an Arab state has signed a peace […]

Elizabeth R. Nugent After Repression: How Polarization Derails Democratic Transition (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2020, ISBN: 978-0-691-20305-8, 256 pp., $29.95) Since the waves of protests of 2011 in the Middle East and North Africa which became known as “Arab Spring”, many commentators and scholars have discussed the errors and shortcomings that accounted for near total failures of such unprecedented revolutionary movements sweeping across the Arab World. While no […]