Robert A. Rubinstein, Kerry Fosher, and Clementine Fujimura, editors

The relationship between anthropologists and the US military has generated many heated discussions—at professional meetings and in the pages of scholarly books and journals—much of it based on supposition rather than empirical evidence. The debates raise some fundamental questions: Who are military anthropologists? What do they do? In response, the authors of Practicing Military  More >

Gertrud Kolmar, translated from the German by Brigitte M. Goldstein

In these two extraordinary works, published posthumously, Gertrude Kolmar's elegiac prose transports us into her characters' rich inner worlds even as it depicts the cold material realities of 1920s Berlin. In A Jewish Mother from Berlin, Martha Jadassohn's seemingly conventional life descends into chaos after the brutal rape of her five-year-old daughter. The ethereally beautiful  More >

Mary B. Anderson and Marshall Wallace

A Global Observatory Must-Read Book in Peace and Security! How do ordinary people, neither pacifists nor peace activists, come to decide collectively to eschew violent conflict and then develop strategies for maintaining their region as a nonwar area despite myriad pressures to the contrary? Mary Anderson and Marshall Wallace analyze the experiences of thirteen nonwar communities that made  More >

Richard J. Kilroy, Jr., Abelardo Rodríguez Sumano, and Todd S. Hataley

Has the emergence of new transnational threats—terrorism, drug cartels, natural disasters—affected the dynamics of security relations among Canada, Mexico, and the United States? What is the likely future of these relations in a highly securitized world? Richard Kilroy, Abelardo Rodríguez Sumano, and Todd Hataley trace the evolution of security relations in North America from  More >

Rachel Vanderhill

Recent years have seen efforts by several states to promote authoritarianism abroad, garnering the attention of foreign policy analysts—and raising a number of questions. What determines the success or failure of these efforts? How does the relationship between international and domestic politics play out? Do states comply with external pressures for ideological reasons, or primarily to  More >

Melody Rose, editor

What unique challenges do women face as they seek and attain high-ranking positions in the executive branches of government? How can these challenges be overcome? Is there an established "pipeline" to office, or must women find their own ways to achieve power? Is there any relationship between gender and job performance? Addressing these questions, the authors of Women and Executive  More >

Hyo-sook Kim and David M. Potter, editors

In recent years, China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan have been transformed from aid recipients to aid donors, raising a number of questions. What motivated these four countries to embark on aid programs? Do their policies represent new approaches to poverty alleviation? Do they reinforce or disrupt the emerging consensus within the international community on aid policy harmonization and  More >

Rex Brynen, Pete W. Moore, Bassel F. Salloukh, and Marie-Joëlle Zahar

For years the authoritarian regimes of the Arab world displayed remarkable persistence. Then, beginning in December 2010, much of the region underwent rapid and remarkable political change.  This volume explores the precursors, nature, and trajectory of the dynamics unleashed by the Arab Spring. The authors focus on the complex forces that have sustained authoritarianism in the region, as  More >

Antonio Donini, editor

A Global Observatory Must-Read Book in Peace and Security! The authors of this book take a long view—starting with the origins of organized humanitarianism in the mid-nineteenth century—to examine whether the politicization of aid has achieved its desired objectives, and whether the recent dramatic growth of relief work has made humanitarian efforts vulnerable to greater  More >

Daniel H. Levine

Long assumed to be an unchanging and unquestioned bulwark of established power and privilege, religion in Latin America has diversified and flourished, while taking on new social and political roles in more open societies. How did this change occur? Why did churches in the region embrace new ideas about rights, sponsor social movements, and become advocates for democracy? Are further changes on  More >