Although Africa has long been known to
be rich in oil, extracting it hadn't
seemed worth the effort and risk until
recently. But with the price of Middle
Eastern crude oil skyrocketing and
advancing technology making reserves
easier to tap, the region has become the
scene of a competition between major
powers that recalls the nineteenth-century
scramble for colonization there. Already
the United States imports more of its oil
from Africa than from Saudi Arabia, and
China, too, looks to the continent for its
energy security.
What does this giddy new oil boom mean
-- for America, for the world, for
Africans themselves? To find out, John
Ghazvinian traveled through twelve African
countries -- from Sudan to Congo to Angola
-- talking to warlords, industry
executives, bandits, activists, priests,
missionaries, oil-rig workers, scientists,
and ordinary people whose lives have been
transformed -- not necessarily for the
better -- by the riches beneath their
feet. The result is a high-octane
narrative that reveals the challenges,
obstacles, reasons for despair, and
reasons for hope emerging from the world's
newest energy hot spot.
The Prince
of the Marshes: And Other Occupational
Hazards of a Year in
Iraq
by Rory
Stewart
Rory Stewart's The Prince of the
Marches is a refreshing change from
the spate of simplistic Bush-bashing books
about the U.S. invasion of Iraq and its
aftermath which have appeared over the
past few years. This is not to say that
the Bush administration is not deserving
of severe criticism over its invasion of
Iraq and subsequent failure (so far at
least) to bring about a successful
"democratic regime change" in that
country. But I will say that the vast
majority of the books published thus far
that I have read about the whole pitiful
situation appear so obviously partisan and
politically motivated that their
objectivity can be seriously questioned.
This is not the case with Stewart's book;
it is, rather, a "journal" of his
experiences during his time in Iraq as an
administrator in the Coalition Provisional
Authority. It is to his credit that he
refrains from explicit Bush-bashing and
partisanship and confines himself to a
telling of the events of the occupation of
Iraq as he perceived them on the ground,
upfront and personal, particularly in the
southern areas where he was stationed.
How to
Spend $50 Billion to Make the World a
Better Place
edited by
Bjørn Lomborg
Edited by Bjørn Lomborg, this
abridged version of the highly acclaimed
Global Crises, Global Solutions provides a
serious yet accessible springboard for
debate and discussion on the world's most
serious problems, and what we can do to
solve them. In a world fraught with
problems and challenges, we need to gauge
how to achieve the greatest good with our
money.
This unique book provides a rich set of
dialogs examining ten of the most serious
challenges facing the world today: climate
change, the spread of communicable
diseases, conflicts and arms
proliferation, access to education,
financial instability, governance and
corruption, malnutrition and hunger,
migration, sanitation and access to clean
water, and subsidies and trade
barriers.
Each problem is introduced by a
world-renowned expert who defines the
scale of the issue and examines a range of
policy options.
The Central
Liberal Truth: How Politics Can Change A
Culture and Save It From
Itself
by Lawrence E.
Harrison
Which cultural values, beliefs, and
attitudes best promote democracy, social
justice, and prosperity? How can we use
the forces that shape cultural change,
such as religion, child-rearing practices,
education, and political leadership, to
promote these values in the Third
World--and for underachieving minorities
in the First World? In this book, Lawrence
E. Harrison offers intriguing answers to
these questions, in a valuable follow-up
to his acclaimed Culture
Matters.
Drawing on a three-year research
project that explored the cultural values
of dozens of nations--from Botswana,
Sweden, and India to China, Egypt, and
Chile--Harrison offers a provocative look
at values around the globe, revealing how
each nation's culture has propelled or
retarded their political and economic
progress. The book presents 25 factors
that operate very differently in cultures
prone to progress and those that resist
it, including one's influence over
destiny, the importance attached to
education, the extent to which people
identify with and trust others, and the
role of women in society. Harrison pulls
no punches, and many of his findings will
be controversial. He argues, for example,
that Protestantism, Confucianism, and
Judaism have been more successful in
promoting progress than Catholicism,
Orthodox Christianity, and Islam.
Kabul in
Winter: Life without Peace in
Afghanistan
by Ann
Jones
A sharp and arresting people's-eye view
of real life in Afghanistan after the
Taliban. Soon after the bombing of Kabul
ceased, award-winning journalist and
women's rights activist Ann Jones set out
for the shattered city, determined to
bring help where her country had brought
destruction.
Here is her trenchant report from
inside a city struggling to rise from the
ruins. Working among the multitude of
impoverished war widows, retraining
Kabul's long-silenced English teachers,
and investigating the city's prison for
women, Jones enters a large community of
female outcasts: runaway child brides,
pariah prostitutes, cast-off wives,
victims of rape. In the streets and
markets, she hears the Afghan view of the
supposed benefits brought by the fall of
the Taliban, and learns that regarding
women as less than human is the norm, not
the aberration of one conspicuously
repressive regime. Jones confronts the
ways in which Afghan education, culture,
and politics have repeatedly been hijacked
-- by Communists, Islamic fundamentalists,
and the Western free
marketeers&emdash;always with disastrous
results. And she reveals, through small
events, the big disjunctions: between U.S
promises and performance, between the new
"democracy" and the still-entrenched
warlords, between what's boasted of and
what is.
At once angry, profound, and starkly
beautiful, Kabul in Winter brings alive
the people and day-to-day life of a place
whose future depends so much upon our
own.
Failed
States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault
on Democracy
by Noam
Chomsky
The world's foremost critic of U.S.
foreign policy exposes the hollow promises
of democracy in American actions abroad --
and at home. The United States has
repeatedly asserted its right to intervene
against "failed states" around the globe.
In this much anticipated sequel to his
international bestseller Hegemony or
Survival, Noam Chomsky turns the tables,
charging the United States with being a
"failed state," and thus a danger to its
own people and the world. Forceful, lucid,
and meticulously documented, Failed States
offers a comprehensive analysis of a
global superpower that has long claimed
the right to reshape other nations while
its own democratic institutions are in
severe crisis, and its policies and
practices have recklessly placed the world
on the brink of disaster. Systematically
dismantling America's claim to being the
world's arbiter of democracy, Failed
States is Chomsky's most focused -- and
urgent -- critique to date.
Flight
Capital: The Alarming Exodus of America's
Best and Brightest
by David
Heenan
According to the author, the best and
brightest in America are returning to
their homelands in record numbers. They
are also taking America's technological
expertise and economic preeminence with
them. In this book he explores this exodus
through the personal stories of dozens of
successful, foreign-born professionals who
are leaving America for opportunities in
their native lands. Drawing on their
experiences, Heenan analyzes the economic,
cultural, and political factors that are
driving this flight, as well as the
initiatives that countries are using to
attract top talent.
Since September 11, Al Qaeda has been
portrayed as an Islamist front united in
armed struggle, or jihad, against the
Christian West. However, as the historian
and commentator Fawaz A. Gerges argues,
the reality is rather different and more
complex. In fact, Al Qaeda represents a
minority within the jihadist movement, and
its strategies have been vehemently
criticized and opposed by religious
nationalists among the jihadis, who prefer
to concentrate on changing the Muslim
world rather than taking the fight global.
It is this rift that led to the events of
September 11 and has dominated subsequent
developments.
Squandered
Victory: The American Occupation and the
Bungled Effort to Bring Democracy to
Iraq
by Larry
Diamond
"Squandered Victory is, I
submit, a book which will have wide appeal
to those who are intellectually interested
in America's recent intrusion into Iraq,
its justification for that intrusion, and
its problem with 'building a peace' after
defeating the Iraqi military, bringing
down Saddam Hussein, and occupying the
country. The general reader, however, may
run into difficulty handling the depth of
detail that Larry Diamond provides and
upon which he bases his evaluation of the
current Iraq situation and his
recommendations for establishing a stable
and prosperous Iraq in the future."
Read the rest of Dr. Dolhenty's review
of this book by clicking HERE.
Faith at
War: A Journey on the Frontlines of Islam,
From Baghdad to
Timbuktu
by Yaroslav
Trofimov
"First of all let me say: I love
first-person accounts of events and
activities. There is nothing more
fascinating, in my opinion, than reading
about the experiences that someone has
endured firsthand and who is providing an
interpretation of those very experiences.
Even more fascinating and, for that
matter, relevant, is someone who is
providing us with a diary or journal about
contemporary events that we are watching
or reading about on the daily news via
television, radio, magazines, and the
newspapers. Yaroslav Trofimov, in his book
Faith at War, is doing just
that."
Read Dr. Dolhenty's review of this book
by clicking HERE.
In his pathbreaking Resource
Wars, world security expert Michael T.
Klare alerted us to the role of resources
in conflicts in the post-Cold War world.
Now, in Blood and Oil, he
concentrates on a single precious
commodity, petroleum, while issuing a
warning to the United States-its most
powerful, and most dependent, global
consumer. Since September 11th and the
commencement of the "war on terror," the
world's attention has been focused on the
relationship between U.S. foreign policy
in the Middle East and the oceans of crude
oil that lie beneath the region's soil.
Klare traces oil's impact on international
affairs since World War II, revealing its
influence on the Truman, Eisenhower,
Nixon, and Carter doctrines. He shows how
America's own wells are drying up as our
demand increases; by 2010, the United
States will need to import 60 percent of
its oil. And since most of this supply
will have to come from chronically
unstable, often violently anti-American
zones-the Persian Gulf, the Caspian Sea,
Latin America, and Africa-our dependency
is bound to lead to recurrent military
involvement. With clarity and urgency,
Blood and Oil delineates the United
States' predicament and cautions that it
is time to change our energy policies,
before we spend the next decades paying
for oil with blood.
Read Dr. Dolhenty's review of this book
by clicking HERE.
This book moves the discussion of
affirmative action beyond the United
States to other countries that have had
similar policies, often for a longer time
than Americans have. It also moves the
discussion beyond the theories,
principles, and laws that have been so
often debated to the actual empirical
consequences of affirmative action in the
United States and in India, Nigeria,
Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and other countries.
Both common patterns and national
differences are examined. Much of what
emerges from a factual examination of
these policies flatly contradicts much of
what was expected and much of what has
been claimed.
The
Ornament of the World: How Muslims, Jews,
and Christians Created a Culture of
Tolerance in Medieval
Spain
In stark contrast to the headlines
blaring from the Middle East these days,
María Rosa Menocal shows how
Muslims, Jews, and Christians coexisted in
peace for over 700 years. Amazon.com
reviewer H. O'Billovich writes, "The
Ornament of the World tells of a time and
place--from 786 to 1492, in
Andalucía, Spain--that is largely
and unjustly overshadowed in most
historical chronicles. It was an era
during which three cultures--Judaic,
Islamic, and Christian--forged a
relatively stable (although occasionally
contentious) coexistence.... Menocal's
history is one of palatine cities, of
philosophers, of poets whose work inspired
Chaucer and Boccaccio, of weeping
fountains, breezy courtyards, and a
long-running tolerance 'profoundly rooted
in the cultivation of the complexities,
charms, and challenges of contradictions
which ended with the repression of Judaism
and Islam the same year Columbus sailed to
the New World."
Jihad: The
Trail of Political
Islam
One of Europe's leading authorities on
Islamic societies, Gilles Kepel, offers a
unique look at the development of
fundamentalist political Islam around the
world. Publishers Weekly comments:
"Kepel stands conventional wisdom on its
head, asserting that the spate of Islamist
violence during the last few years is a
result not of the movement's success, but
of its failure...."
Me Against
My Brother: At War in Somalia, Sudan, and
Rwanda
Me Against My Brother is an
unforgettable view of the devastating wars
in Somalia, Sudan, and Rwanda during the
1990s as witnessed by an intrepid
reporter. A powerful and important book on
a largely ignored subject, this is
frontline journalism at its finest.
Gathered
Against Jerusalem: Essays on a False
Peace
The Oslo "peace process" has brought
the world to crisis over Jerusalem, just
as the prophets foretold. These incisive
essays show how the wreckage of this
Process offers a unique opportunity for
Israel and all nations to re-chart their
path. These insightful and scholarly
articles provide a scintillating analysis
of the Arab-Israeli conflict. With a keen
eye and sharp wit, Professor Narrett
exposes the deadly illusions of diplomats
and pinpoints the only way to true and
lasting peace in the Middle East and the
world. An extraordinary collection of
writings.
Also of
interest...
Blind devotion to obscene ideologies --
Communism, Nazism -- made the final
hundred years of the millennium the
bloodiest in human history. Robert
Conquest reports on the 20th century's
traumas in this cogent and lucid
cautionary tale. As George Santayana once
said, "Those who do not remember the past
are condemned to repeat it."
Dark
Continent: Europe's Twentieth
Century
Dark Continent critically
examines the notion of a unified Europe by
exploring the conflicts that dominated the
continent in the 20th century and the
social value systems that informed them.
"If Europeans can give up their desperate
desire to find a single, workable
definition of themselves," Mazower
concludes, "they may come to terms more
easily with the diversity and dissension
which will be as much their future as
their past."
The Coming
Anarchy: Shattering the Dreams of the Post
Cold War
One of the most important voices on the
future of society and international
relations, Robert D. Kaplan's vision of
the future is a bleak one, full of ethnic
conflict as the world falls away from a
cold war that at least provided a kind of
stability in even the shakiest of
countries. Amazonians disagree as to the
value of The Coming Anarchy --
Adrienne Silvey brushes it off, asking
whether "The sky is falling," while David
G. Albrecht decrees it "chilling and
stirring." You be the judge.
