2008 Faculty Books

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Hossein Askari, Iran professor of international business and international affairs, and Zamir Iqbal, and Abbas Mirakhor

New Issues in Islamic Finance and Economics: Progress and Challenges (Wiley, 2008)

Islamic Finance: Progress and Challenges provides a review of the main issues and challenges facing Islamic finance. The application of Islamic finance is currently limited to banking. This book starts with an overview of the factors and motives behind the development of Islamic finance. A critical review of issues facing the industry is provided followed by a detailed analysis of areas where further attention is required. The book offers some original thinking on issues pertaining to governance, institutions, public finance and economic development within an Islamic financial system.

Muriel Atkin, Professor of History

Russia and Iran, 1780-1828, Minesota Univ. Pr. 2010.

Modern Russo-Iranian relations date from the late eighteenth century, when after several centuries of commercial and diplomatic contact, the two nations entered a period of extended warfare for possession of the Caucasian borderlands, disputed territory that eventually fell to Russia. In her history of that struggle, Muriel Atkin reasseses the motives of major figures on both sides and views the Iranians with more sympathy than Western and Russian historians have usually accorded them.

Russia embarked on her course in the Caucasus for reasons connected with defense or trade, and with a long-term imperial goal based on uncritical acceptance of prevailing European doctrines of empire. The new dynasty in Iran, on the other hand, had to fend off Russian attack and secure the borderlands in order to justify its basic claim to power. In the end, the wars brought major disruption to the already unstable borderlands, and left Iran with a discredited government and a controversy over reforms and relations with the West that would continue to cause turmoil in subsequent generations.

William T. Gormley, Jr., and Steven J. Balla, Associate Professor of Political Science, Public Policy and Public Administration, and International Affairs

Bureaucracy and Democracy: Accountability and Performance, 2nd Edition (CQ Press, 2008)

It is nearly impossible to look at the implementation of any policy—from testing at an elementary school to testing of a pharmaceutical drug—and avoid seeing the impact and influence of public bureaucracies. Given the importance of their work, and the accountability they owe to the American public, the performance of public bureaucracies must be assessed in a systematic manner. Working through four key perspectives—bounded rationality, principal-agent theory, interest group mobilization, and network theory—Gormley and Balla give students the analytic power needed to comprehensively evaluate performance, or the give-and-take between decision makers, managers, elected officials, organized interests, and individuals.

In addition to updating the book to account for recent developments and new scholarship—from the No Child Left Behind Act and presidential appointments to the Program Assessment Rating Tool and changes to the rulemaking process—the authors apply their working theories in a new chapter on the politics of disaster. With in-depth coverage of 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the avian flu, students can learn important lessons from looking at similar events and crises through the same analytical lenses.

Allida M. Black, Professor of History and of Public Policy and Public Administration

The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers: Human Rights Years 1945-48, Vol. 1 (Charles Scribner's Sons, 2007)

Human rights. Global relations. The role of women. U.S. politics. Eleanor Roosevelt was a trailblazer in many areas. Her writings are essential to the understanding of American politics and diplomacy and the international struggle to implement democracy in the twentieth century. Chronicling Roosevelt's development as diplomat, journalist, and political strategist in the years 1945 to 1948, The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers: The Human Rights Years, Volume 1 is filled with original writings and speeches that have been thoughtfully annotated and made easily accessible through a comprehensive index. This unique collection was developed by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project as the first of a five-volume set covering the years 1945 through 1962. Foreword by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Jeffrey Blomster, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs

After Monte Albán: Transformation and Negotiation in Oaxaca, Mexico (University Press of Colorado, 2008)

Jennifer Brinkerhoff, Associate Professor of Public Administration and International Affairs; Director, GW Diaspora Program

Diasporas and Development: Exploring the Potential (Lynne Rienner, 2008)

For some time in diaspora studies, attention to remittances has overshadowed the growing impact of emigrant groups both within the social and political arenas in their homelands and with regard to fundamental economic development. The authors of Diasporas and Development redress this imbalance, focusing on three core issues: the responses of diasporas to homeland conflicts, strategies for mobilizing effective homeland investment, and the positive role of direct diaspora participation in development efforts.

The book combines detailed case studies with theoretical frameworks to provide a valuable foundation for further research.

William K. Cummings, Professor of International Education and International Affairs, and James H. Williams, Associate Professor of International Education and International Affairs

Policy-Making for Education Reform in Developing Countries: Policy Options and Strategies (Rowman & Littlefield Education, 2008)

Policy-Making for Education Reform in Developing Countries aims at helping policymakers in developing countries better understand the processes and strategies for education reform, and the policy options available to them. This text focuses on the content of reform-options and strategies for achieving educational improvement at different levels of the system, e.g., primary, secondary, tertiary; for different sub-sectors, e.g., management, teachers; and for different purposes with which education systems are tasked, e.g., reaching peripheral groups of students, linking youth and employment.

A holistic approach is increasingly recognized as essential to realizing the promises of education for the development of social and human capital-innovation in a global economy, sustained economic growth, social harmony and greater civic participation, decreased achievement gaps, and increased equity.

Joseph J. Cordes, Professor of Economics, Public Policy and Public Administration, and International Affairs Director, Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration

Nonprofits and Business (co-edited with C. Eugene Steuerle, Urban Institute Press, 2008)

In this age of high-profile corporate foundations and socially responsible companies, the barrier between the nonprofit and business worlds is more permeable than ever. Nonprofits and Business assembles diverse researchers to examine nonprofits from commercial, economic, operational, and legal perspectives. As the government and the public have demanded greater efficiency from nonprofits, nonprofits have looked to corporations to find creative ways to raise money and demonstrate effectiveness. Nonprofits and Business is a unique resource on this emerging trend.

Bruce J. Dickson, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs

Wealth into Power: The Communist Party's Embrace of China's Private Sector (Cambridge University Press, 2008)

In Wealth into Power, Bruce Dickson challenges the notion that economic development is leading to political change in China, or that China's private entrepreneurs are helping to promote democratization. Instead, they have become partners with the ruling Chinese Communist Party to promote economic growth while maintaining the political status quo. Dickson's research illuminates the Communist Party's strategy for incorporating China's capitalists into the political system and how the shared interests, personal ties, and common views of the party and the private sector are creating a form of "crony communism." Rather than being potential agents of change, China's entrepreneurs may prove to be a key source of support for the party's agenda. Based on years of research and original survey data, this book will be of interest to all those interested in China's political future and in the relationship between economic wealth and political power.

Robert Eisen, Professor of Religion and International Affairs; Director, Judaic Studies Program

Philosophers and the Jewish Bible, (University Press Maryland, 2008)

The essays in this book are by modern scholars of philosophy who discuss how philosophers from the past approached the Bible as a whole or particular stories from the Bible.

Ilana Feldman, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs

Governing Gaza: Bureaucracy, Authority, and the Work of Rule, 1917-1967 (Duke University Press, 2008)

Marred by political tumult and violent conflict since the early twentieth century, Gaza has been subject to a multiplicity of rulers. Still not part of a sovereign state, it would seem too exceptional to be a revealing site for a study of government. Ilana Feldman proves otherwise. She demonstrates that a focus on the Gaza Strip uncovers a great deal about how government actually works, not only in that small geographical space but more generally. Gaza's experience shows how important bureaucracy is for the survival of government. Feldman analyzes civil service in Gaza under the British Mandate (1917-48) and the Egyptian Administration (1948-67). In the process, she sheds light on how governing authority is produced and reproduced; how government persists, even under conditions that seem untenable; and how government affects and is affected by the people and places it governs.

Drawing on archival research in Gaza, Cairo, Jerusalem, and London, as well as two years of ethnographic research with retired civil servants in Gaza, Feldman identifies two distinct, and in some ways contradictory, governing practices. She illuminates mechanisms of "reiterative authority" derived from the minutiae of daily bureaucratic practice, such as the repetitions of filing procedures, the accumulation of documents, and the habits of civil servants. Looking at the provision of services, she highlights the practice of "tactical government," a deliberately restricted mode of rule that makes limited claims about governmental capacity, shifting in response to crisis and operating without long-term planning. This practice made it possible for government to proceed without claiming legitimacy: by holding the question of legitimacy in abeyance. Feldman shows that Gaza's governments were able to manage under, though not to control, the difficult conditions in Gaza by deploying both the regularity of everyday bureaucracy and the exceptionality of tactical practice.

Alvin S. Felzenberg, Professorial Lecturer

Leaders We Deserved (and a Few We Didn't): Rethinking the Presidential Rating Game, (Basic Books, June 2008)

It's a perennial pastime to rate U.S. presidents on an all-time ranking: Certain presidents were "Great," others were "Near-Great," and so on down to "Failures" and "Unmitigated Disasters." (OK, we made that last category up.) But as Alvin Felzenberg points out, there are many flaws with these rating systems. Despite reams of new historical information, the rankings never seem to change very much. They all favor a certain kind of president-those who tended to increase executive power. That aside, the idea of rating presidential performance on a simple linear scale is absurd. The Leaders We Deserved (and a Few We Didn't) breaks presidential performance into easily understandable categories-character, vision, competence, foreign policy, economic policy, human rights, and legacy-and assesses, for each category, the best and worst. The result is a surprisingly fresh look at how the various presidents stack up against each other, with some of the "greats" coming off far worse than their supposedly mediocre colleagues.

James Goldgeier, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs

America between the Wars: From 11/9 to 9/11 (Coauthored with Derek Chollet, CFR 2008)

When the Berlin Wall collapsed on November 9, 1989—signaling the end of the Cold War—America and the West declared victory: Democracy and free markets had prevailed and the United States emerged as the world's triumphant superpower. The finger-on-the-button tension that had defined a generation was over, and it seemed that peace was at hand.

The next twelve years rolled by in a haze of self-congratulation—what some now call a "holiday from history." When that complacency shattered on September 11, 2001, setting the U.S. on a new and contentious path, confused Americans asked themselves: How did we get here?

In America between the Wars, Derek Chollet and James Goldgeier examine how the decisions and debates of the years between the fall of the Wall on 11/9 and the collapse of the Twin Towers on 9/11 shaped the events, arguments, and politics of the world we live in today. Reflecting the authors' deep expertise and broad access to key players across the political spectrum, this book tells the story of a generation of leaders grappling with a moment of dramatic transformation—changing how we should think about the recent past, and uncovering important lessons for the future.

David Gow, Edgar R. Baker Professor of International Affairs and Anthropology

Countering Development: Indigenous Modernity and the Moral Imagination (Duke UP, 2008)

Cauca, located in southwestern Colombia and home to the largest indigenous population in the country, is renowned as a site of indigenous mobilization. In 1994, following a destructive earthquake, many families in Cauca were forced to leave their communities of origin and relocate to other areas within the province where the state provided them with land and housing. Noting that disasters offer communities the opportunity to remake themselves and their priorities, David D. Gow examines how three different communities established after the earthquake wrestled with conflicting visions of development. He shows how they each countered traditional notions of development by moving beyond a myopic obsession with poverty alleviation to demand that Colombia become more inclusive and treat all of its people as citizens with full rights and responsibilities.

Through ethnographic fieldwork conducted annually in Cauca from 1995 through 2002, Gow compares the development plans of the three communities, looking at both the planning processes and the plans themselves. In so doing, he demonstrates that there is no single indigenous approach to development and modernity. He describes differences in how each community defined and employed the concept of culture, how they connected a concern with culture to economic and political reconstruction, and how they sought to assert their own priorities while engaging with the existing development resources at their disposal. Ultimately, Gow argues that the moral vision advanced by the indigenous movement, combined with the growing importance attached to human rights, offers a fruitful way to think about development: less as a process of integration into a rigidly defined modernity than as a critical modernity based on a radical politics of inclusive citizenship.

Henry Hale, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs Affairs

The Foundations of Ethnic Politics: Separatism of States and Nations in Eurasia and the World (Cambridge University Press, 2008)

Despite implicating ethnicity in everything from civil war to economic failure, researchers seldom consult psychological research when addressing the most basic question: What is ethnicity? The result is a radical scholarly divide generating contradictory recommendations for solving ethnic conflict. Research into how the human brain actually works demands a revision of existing schools of thought. At its foundation, ethnic identity is a cognitive uncertainty-reduction device with special capacity to exacerbate, but not cause, collective action problems. This produces a new general theory of ethnic conflict that can improve both understanding and practice. A deep study of separatism in the USSR and CIS demonstrates the theory's potential, mobilizing evidence from elite interviews, three local languages, and mass surveys. The outcome is a significant reinterpretation of nationalism's role in the USSR's breakup, which turns out to have been a far more contingent event than commonly recognized. International relations in the CIS are similarly cast in new light.

Dr. Peter Hotez, Professor and Chair, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Tropical Medicine

Forgotten People, Forgotten Diseases: The Neglected Tropical Diseases and Their Impact on Global Health and Development (American Society for Microbiology, 2008)

Some of the worst tropical diseases in the world have too long been ignored. Parasitic and bacterial diseases such as hookworm, snail fever, river blindness, guinea worm, elephantiasis, sleeping sickness, and leprosy are the most common infections of third-world populations. These neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) represent one of the most important reasons why populations living in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America remain caught in a vicious cycle of poverty, stigma, and despair.

With a lifetime devoted to the subject of tropical diseases, the well-known expert Dr. Peter Hotez provides a comprehensive view of these forgotten diseases. Written in accessible, straightforward language, Forgotten People, Forgotten Diseases thoroughly explains the most significant NTDs, including social and economic aspects, public health concerns, and preventative measures.

This volume will raise public awareness about these forgotten diseases and their enormous physical, social, and economic costs to individuals and nations alike, and advocates for the largely voiceless victims living in remote and rural regions. Dr. Hotez also provides a roadmap to coordinate global advocacy and mobilization of resources to combat these conditions. Finally, the book addresses unique opportunities to fight the NTDs through low-cost and highly cost-effective control measures.

Patricia Kelly, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs

Lydia's Open Door: Inside Mexico's Most Modern Brothel (University of California Press, 2008)

In this groundbreaking ethnographic study, Patty Kelly examines the lives of the women who work in the Zona Galactica, a state-run brothel in Chiapas's capital city. By delving into lives that would otherwise go unremarked, Kelly documents the modernization of the sex industry during the neoliberal era in the city of Tuxtla Gutiérrez and illustrates how state-regulated sex became part of a broader effort by government officials to bring modernity to Chiapas, one of Mexico's poorest and most conflicted states. Kelly's innovative approach locates prostitution in a political-economic context by treating it as work. Most valuably, she conveys her analysis through vivid portraits of the lives of the sex workers themselves and shows how the women involved are neither victims nor heroines.

Kirk Larsen, Korea Foundation Associate Professor of History and International Affairs

Tradition, Treaties, and Trade: Qing Imperialism and Chosŏn Korea, 1850–1910 (Harvard University Press, 2008)

Relations between the Chosŏn and Qing states are often cited as the prime example of the operation of the "traditional" Chinese "tribute system." In contrast, this work contends that the motivations, tactics, and successes (and failures) of the late Qing Empire in Chosŏn Korea mirrored those of other nineteenth-century imperialists. Between 1850 and 1910, the Qing attempted to defend its informal empire in Korea by intervening directly, not only to preserve its geopolitical position but also to promote its commercial interests. And it utilized the technology of empire—treaties, international law, the telegraph, steamships, and gunboats.

Although the transformation of Qing-Chosŏn diplomacy was based on modern imperialism, this work argues that it is more accurate to describe the dramatic shift in relations in terms of flexible adaptation by one of the world's major empires in response to new challenges. Moreover, the new modes of Qing imperialism were a hybrid of East Asian and Western mechanisms and institutions. Through these means, the Qing Empire played a fundamental role in Korea's integration into regional and global political and economic systems.

Stephen C. Lubkemann, Associate Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs

Culture in Chaos: An Anthropology of the Social Condition in War, (University of Chicago Press, 2008)

Fought in the wake of a decade of armed struggle against colonialism, the Mozambican civil war lasted from 1977 to 1992, claiming hundreds of thousands of lives while displacing millions more. As conflicts across the globe span decades and generations, Stephen C. Lubkemann suggests that we need a fresh perspective on war when it becomes the context for normal life rather than an exceptional event that disrupts it. Culture in Chaos calls for a new point of departure in the ethnography of war that investigates how the inhabitants of war zones live under trying new conditions and how culture and social relations are transformed as a result.

Lubkemann focuses on how Ndau social networks were fragmented by wartime displacement and the profound effect this had on gender relations. Demonstrating how wartime migration and post-conflict return were shaped by social struggles and interests that had little to do with the larger political reasons for the war, Lubkemann contests the assumption that wartime migration is always involuntary. His critical reexamination of displacement and his engagement with broader theories of agency and social change will be of interest to anthropologists, political scientists, historians, and demographers, and to anyone who works in a war zone or with refugees and migrants.

Melani McAlister, Associate Professor of American Studies and International Affairs

Religion and Politics in the Contemporary United States (co-edited with R. Marie Griffith, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008)

This collection of essays from a special issue of American Quarterly explores the complex and sometimes contradictory ways that religion matters in contemporary public life. Religion and Politics in the Contemporary United States offers a groundbreaking, cross-disciplinary conversation between scholars in American studies and religious studies. The contributors explore numerous modes through which religious faith has mobilized political action. They utilize a variety of definitions of politics, ranging from lobbying by religious leaders to the political impact of popular culture. Their work includes the political activities of a very diverse group of religious believers: Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and others. In addition, the book explores the meanings of religion for people who might contest the term—those who are spiritual but not religious, for example, as well as activists who engage symbols of faith and community but who may not necessarily consider themselves members of a specific religion. Several essays also examine the meanings of secular identity, humanist politics, and the complex evocations of civil religion in American life. No other book on religion and politics includes anything like the diversity of religions, ethnicities, and topics that this one does—from Mormon political mobilization to attempts at Americanizing Muslims in the post-9/11 United States, from César Chávez to James Dobson, from interreligious cooperation and conflict over Darfur to the global politics surrounding the category of Hindus and South Asians in the United States.

Barbara Miller, Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs; Director, Culture in Global Affairs Research and Policy Program

Cultural Anthropology: 5th Edition (Prentice Hall, 2008)

Through clear writing, a balanced theoretical approach, and engaging examples, Miller stresses the importance of social inequality and human rights, the environment, culture change and applied aspects of anthropology. Rich examples of gender, ethnicity, race, class, and age thread through the topical coverage of economic systems, the life-cycle, health, kinship, social organization, politics, language, religion, and expressive culture. The last two chapters address how migration is changing world cultures and the importance of local cultural values and needs in shaping international development policies and programs.

Material throughout the book highlights the relevance of anthropology to students and how they can apply in their careers. By entwining attention to key theories for understanding culture with an emphasis on relevance of anthropological knowledge and skills, this text is the perfect choice for all introductory cultural anthropology courses.

Barbara Miller, Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs; Director, Culture in Global Affairs Research and Policy Program

Anthropology: 2nd Edition (Pearson, 2008)

Anthropology 1e was the first introductory anthropology text to integrate a four-field perspective and address topics such as research methods, ethics, theory, globalization, gender, race and ethnicity throughout. Continuing with this tradition in Anthropology 2e, author Barbara Miller is joined by three of the brightest new scholars in archaeology and biological anthropology to provide complete and current coverage of each of the four fields of anthropology.

Henry R. Nau, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs

Perspectives on International Relations: Power, Institutions, and Ideas, 2nd Edition (CQ Press, 2008)

This popular textbook for introductory courses in international relations offers a unique and innovative framework that enables readers/students to recognize and evaluate the different theoretical perspectives through which we try to make sense of international politics. In this second edition, Nau shows how the four most powerful perspectives on international relations today — realist, liberal, identity/constructivist, and critical theory — explain the great events of history and interpret the most important problems facing the world in the 21st century. It is the first textbook to use theoretical perspectives and levels of analysis throughout the covered materials to decipher practical, day-to-day debates and show why scholars and people disagree about many aspects of world politics. It treats each perspective in a balanced and evenhanded way focusing on what each has to offer and where its vulnerabilities lie. This approach, featuring alternatives and hence critical thinking, lets the reader decide which perspective makes most sense in a given situation.

The coverage of the world economy is unique and thorough. As one reviewer of the textbook writes, "where some studies of undergraduate textbooks have shied away from detailing the workings of the international economy, Nau embraces these details…" The second edition contains new chapters on globalization from a critical theory perspective and on the role of global civil society and human rights as distinct from global governance through intergovernmental institutions. It also includes new materials on terrorism, the global environment, and financial market crises. The book is already used in over 100 institutions.

Deepa Ollapally, Professorial Lecturer

The Politics of Extremism in South Asia (Cambridge University Press, 2008)

South Asia is home to a range of extremist groups from the jihadists of Pakistan to the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka. In the popular mind, extremism and terrorism are invariably linked to ethnic and religious factors. Yet the dominant history of South Asia is notable for tolerance and co-existence, despite highly plural societies. Deepa Ollapally examines extremist groups in Kashmir, Afghanistan, Northeast India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka to offer a fresh perspective on the causes of extremism. What accounts for its rise in societies not historically predisposed to extremism? What determines the winners and losers in the identity struggles in South Asia? What tips the balance between more moderate versus extremist outcomes? The book argues that politics, inter-state and international relations often play a more important role in the rise of extremism in South Asia than religious identity, poverty, and state repression.

Marie D. Price, Associate Professor of Geography and International Affairs, and Lisa Benton-Short

Migrants to the Metropolis: The Rise of Immigrant Gateway Cities (Syracuse University Press, 2008)

Immigration today touches the lives and economies of more people and places than ever before. Yet the places that are disproportionately affected by immigrant flows are not countries but cities. This remarkable collection examines contemporary global immigration trends and their profound effect on specific host cities. The book focuses not only on cities with long-established diverse populations, such as New York, Toronto, and Sydney, but also on lesser known established gateway cities such as Birmingham (UK) and Amsterdam, and the emerging gateways of Johannesburg, Washington, D.C., Singapore, and Dublin.

The essays gathered here provide a global portrait of accelerating, worldwide immigration driven by income differentials, social networks, and various state policies that recruit skilled and unskilled laborers. Gateway cities vary in form and function, but many are hyperdiverse, globally linked through transnational networks, and often increasingly segregated spaces. Offering penetrating analyses by leading scholars in the field, Migrants to the Metropolis redirects the global narrative surrounding migration away from states and borders and toward cities, where the vast majority of economic migrants settle.

Peter Rollberg, Professor of Slavic Languages, Film Studies and International Affairs

Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Cinema (Scarecrow Press, November 2008)

The Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Cinema is the first reference work of its kind in the English language devoted entirely to the cinema of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and the post-Soviet period, including both the cinematic highlights and the mainstream. The cinemas of the former Soviet republics, including Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, Lithuania, and Latvia, are also represented with their most influential artists. Through a chronology, an introduction essay, a bibliography, and over 500 cross-referenced dictionary entries on filmmakers, performers, cinematographers, composers, producers, studios, genres, and outstanding films, this reference work covers the history of Russian and Soviet filmmaking from 1896 to 2007.

David Shambaugh, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs

China's Communist Party: Atrophy and Adaptation (University of California Press, 2008)

Few issues affect the future of China—and hence all the nations that interact with China—more than the nature of its ruling party and government. In this timely study, David Shambaugh assesses the strengths and weaknesses, durability, adaptability, and potential longevity of China's Communist Party (CCP). He argues that although the CCP has been in a protracted state of atrophy, it has undertaken a number of adaptive measures aimed at reinventing itself and strengthening its rule. Shambaugh's investigation draws on a unique set of inner-Party documents and interviews, and he finds that China's Communist Party is resilient and will continue to retain its grip on power.

David L. Shambaugh, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, and Michael Yahuda

International Relations of Asia (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2008)

As the world's most vital region, Asia embodies explosive economic growth, diverse political systems, vibrant societies, modernizing militaries, cutting-edge technologies, rich cultural traditions amid globalization, and strategic competition among major powers. As a result, international relations in Asia are evolving rapidly. In this deeply informed study, leading scholars offer the most current and definitive analysis available of Asia's regional relationships. They set developments in Asia in theoretical context, assess the role of leading external and regional powers, and consider the importance of subregional actors and linkages. Students and policy practitioners alike will find this book invaluable for understanding politics in contemporary Asia.

Robert J. Shepherd, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Honors and International Affairs

When Culture Goes to Market: Space, Place, and Identity in an Urban Marketplace (Peter Lang Publishing, 2008)

When Culture Goes to Market encompasses an ethnographic study of Washington, DC's Eastern Market, a popular weekend produce and flea market, and the people who constitute it: vendors, market supervisors, and customers. By analyzing how this marketplace, in contrast to theoretical notions of "The Market," functions as a social institution embedded in a particular time, place, and series of social relationships, Shepherd examines how urban public space is produced, reproduced, and shaped by larger economic and social processes. In doing so, he explores the practical limits to formalized bureaucratic planning in the success of this street market. Crossing disciplinary boundaries, When Culture Goes to Market is an excellent practical case study for courses in urban planning, microeconomics, cultural studies, urban and economic anthropology, and sociology.

Robert G. Sutter, Adjunct Professor of International Affairs

The United States in Asia (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008)

This thoughtful and deeply informed book assesses the background, status, and outlook of U.S. relations with the Asia-Pacific. Noted expert Robert G. Sutter takes issue with the "declinist" school of thought that he sees as overstating U.S. weaknesses while at the same time underplaying its strengths in the region. He provides a balanced inventory of the major strengths and weaknesses in American relations with Asia and weighs the significant points of agreement and disagreement between the United States and the governments and peoples of the region at the end of the George W. Bush administration.

Sutter carefully considers widely held views of the United States in decline, with its leadership role in regional affairs threatened by a range of political, economic, and security problems. The author finds that recent U.S. difficulties have not fundamentally undermined the main foundations of the leadership, power, and influence that America has exerted in the region for many years. Instead, he convincingly argues for U.S. policy options that will help to remedy prevailing difficulties while sustaining U.S. interests and leading role in Asian and Pacific affairs.

Sergio Waisman, Associate Professor of Spanish and International Affairs; Chair, Department of Romance, Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures

The Underdogs: A Novel of the Mexican Revolution, (translation, Penguin, July 2008).

The Underdogs is the first great novel about the first great revolution of the twentieth century. Demetrio Macias, a poor, illiterate Indian, must join the rebels to save his family. Courageous and charismatic, he earns a generalship in Pancho Villa's army, only to become discouraged with the cause after it becomes hopelessly factionalized. At once a spare, moving depiction of the limits of political idealism, an authentic representation of Mexico's peasant life, and a timeless portrait of revolution, The Underdogs is an iconic novel of the Latin American experience and a powerful novel about the disillusionment of war.

Caroline S. Wagner, Adjunct Professor of International Affairs

The New Invisible College: Science for Development (Brookings Institution, 2008)

Today the organization of science is undergoing a fundamental transformation. In The New Invisible College, Caroline Wagner combines quantitative data and extensive interviews to map the emergence of global science networks and trace the dynamics driving their growth. She argues that the shift from big science to global networks creates unprecedented opportunities for developing countries to tap science's potential. Rather than squander resources in vain efforts to mimic the scientific establishments of the twentieth century, developing country governments can leverage networks by creating incentives for top-notch scientists to focus on research that addresses their concerns and by finding ways to tie knowledge to local problem solving. The New Invisible College offers both a guidebook and a playbook for policymakers confronting these tasks.

Paul Williams, Associate Professor of International Affairs

Security Studies: An Introduction (Routledge, 2008)

Security Studies is the most comprehensive textbook available on security studies.

It gives students a detailed overview of the major theoretical approaches, key themes and most significant issues within security studies.

Part 1 explores the main theoretical approaches currently used within the field from realism to international political sociology

Part 2 explains the central concepts underpinning contemporary debates from the security dilemma to terrorism

Part 3 presents an overview of the institutional security architecture currently influencing world politics using international, regional and global levels of analysis

Part 4 examines some of the key contemporary challenges to global security from the arms trade to energy security

Part 5 discusses the future of security

Security Studies provides a valuable new teaching tool for undergraduates and MA students by collecting these related strands of the field together into a single coherent textbook.

Harold Wolman, Professor of Political Science, Public Policy and Public Administration, and International Affairs

Urban and Regional Policy and Its Effects (Brookings Institution Press, 2008)

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