New Book Briefs

Communications

Securing Cyberspace: A New Domain for National Security . Nicholas Burns (Director, Aspen Strategy Group and Professor of Diplomacy and International Politics, Harvard University) and Jonathon Price (Deputy Director, Aspen Strategy Group). Foreword by Joseph S. Nye (University Distinguished Professor, Harvard) and Brent Scowcroft (Former National Security Adviser to Presidents Ford and George H. W. Bush). The Aspen Institute (dist. by Brookings), 2012, 202 pp., $20.95 pb. Looks at the complexities of the emerging cyber threat, as well as the possibilities and the challenges of crafting effective domestic and international cyber policy. Topics are in five parts: (1) Cyberspace as a New Battleground (the current threat, future challenges, options for national security in a cyber-conflicted world); (2) Cyber Policy (regulating cyberspace, U.S. cyber statecraft, Internet governance to harness Leviathan); (3) Cybercrime Implications (the threat to US growth and prosperity, implications for business); (4) Tensions with Internet Freedom (freedom vs. security, freedom and political change); (5) Cyberspace Policies and Strategy (a new path forward for cyber defense and security). This book stems from the Aspen Strategy Group’s annual workshop, a bipartisan meeting of top national security experts.

Free and Open Source Software and Technology for Sustainable Development . Sulayman K. Sowe (JSPS-UNU Fellow, Science and Technology for Sustainable Societies, UNU Institute of Advanced Studies, Tokyo), Govindan Parayil (Vice Rector, UNU, and Director, UNU Institute of Advanced Studies), and Atsushi Sunami (Associate Professor, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo, Japan). United Nations University Press, November 2012, 404 pp., $38 pb. FOSS technologies transcend geographical and cultural boundaries to usher in a new development paradigm where volunteers collaboratively create software for common use. The political economy of FOSS technologies has far-reaching implications for world development because of the centrality of information and communications technologies for development (ICT4D). The global trend in the diffusion and adoption of FOSS technologies is a testimony to the socioeconomic and technological impact the software has for both developed and developing economies. Chapters focus on the socioeconomic, technical, and educational impact of information and communications technologies in general, and free and open source software in particular, for sustainable development. FOSS technologies have the potential of helping people shape and develop their own technology, stimulating the growth of indigenous software industries, creating local jobs, and lowering technology acquisition and deployment costs.

Crime, Ethics, Justice

The World of Cybercrime: Issues, Cases, and Responses (5 Volumes). Samuel C. McQuade III (Graduate Program Coordinator, Rochester Institute of Technology; Founder, Cyber Safety and Ethics Initiative; former U.S. Department of Justice and Committee on Law and Justice, National Research Council). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, December 2012, 1,650 pp., $499.95 (also as e-book). Covers all major areas in the world of cybercrime with up to the minute detail on the extent and variety of current problems. Explores and differentiates major types of online activity involving IT-enabled abuse, threats, and cybercrimes. Topics include hacking, cracking, and malware smacking; social computing and online sex; online gaming and Internet addiction; cyber bullying and online stalking; identity theft, phishing, and online fraud; and pirating, corporate espionage, and intellectual property theft.

Child Exploitation and Trafficking: Examining the Global Challenges and U.S. Responses . Virginia M. Kendall (Northwestern University and Loyola University) and T. Markus Funk. Foreword by Richard A. Posner. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2012, 444 pp., $70 (also as e-book). Brings fresh thinking to this complicated area of the law and helps erase some of its counterproductive mythology. Provides the first comprehensive, practical introduction to the history and present-day reality of child sexual exploitation, as well as to the interconnected web of domestic and transnational federal laws and law-enforcement efforts launched in response thereto.

Life Without Parole: America’s New Death Penalty? Charles J. Ogletree Jr. (Professor of Law and Executive Director, Institute for Race and Justice, Harvard Law School), and Austin Sarat (Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst College). New York: New York University Press, June 2012, 352 pp., $26 pb (also as e-book). Life without parole is “the new death penalty.” Ogletree and Sarat bring together original work by prominent scholars in an effort to better understand the growth of life without parole and its social, cultural, political, and legal meanings. They look at (1) what justifies the turn to life imprisonment; (2) how we should understand the fact that this penalty is used disproportionately against racial minorities; (3) the most promising avenues for limiting, reforming, or eliminating life without parole sentences in the United States; (4) the structure of life without parole sentences and their impact on prisoners; (5) where the penalty fits in modern theories of punishment; and (6) prospects for (as well as challenges to) reform.

Not Guilty: Are the Acquitted Innocent? A Modern Approach to Evidence . Daniel Givelber (Professor of Law and former Dean, Northeastern Law School of Law) and Amy Farrell (Assistant Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Northeastern University). New York: New York University Press, June 2012, 224 pp., $35 (also as e-book). As scores of death row inmates are exonerated by DNA evidence and innocence commissions are set up across the country, conviction of the innocent has become a well-recognized problem. But our justice system makes both kinds of errors—we acquit the guilty and convict the innocent. Exploring the reasons why people are acquitted can help us evaluate the efficiency and fairness of our criminal justice system. Examines factors that lead juries to find defendants “not guilty,” as well as the connection between those factors and the possibility of factual innocence, and explains why some criminal trials result in not-guilty verdicts and what those verdicts suggest about the accuracy of our criminal process.

Economics

Occupy World Street: A Global Roadmap for Radical Economic and Political Reform . Ross Jackson (Chairman Gaia Trust, Copenhagen, Denmark; www.ross-jackson.com). Foreword by Hazel Henderson (Ethical Markets Media). White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, March 2012, 315 pp., $19.95 pb (www.occupyworldstreet.org). An ambitious and original book by a former currency hedge fund manager, asserting that the current global structure is dysfunctional, undemocratic, and corrupt, while billions of citizens are crying out for change. Topics include the roots of the current political/economic logjam, the assault on nature, the coming peak in global oil production, the global collapse of civilization due to increased complexity, the evolution of questionable economic beliefs, the neoliberal ideology, the recent financial crisis, and growing inequality that supports the “corporatocracy.” A shift in values is underway, however, based on a new worldview of Gaian values and ecological economics. To realize the vision of a sustainable and just future that works for all, eight institutions must be founded by a “Gaian League” of member nations (a trade organization, a clearing union, a development bank, a legislative congress, an administrative commission, a court of justice, a resource board, and a council of wise elders). A “breakaway strategy” for getting there is also articulated, involving a handful of small nations from the top and the grass roots of the world from the bottom. (For a long review, see GFB Book of the Month, September 2012 and GFB Update newsletter for September 2012 for supporting material on “New and Appropriate Economics.”)

Green Economy and Good Governance for Sustainable Development: Opportunities, Promises and Concerns . Jose Antonio Puppim de Oliveira (Assistant Director and senior research fellow, UNU Institute of Advanced Studies). United Nations University Press, Tokyo, Japan: July 2012, 360 pp., $37 pb. Assesses achievements and obstacles toward sustainability over the past twenty years, and proposes new ideas for a more sustainable future. Much of the debate on green growth and environmental governance tends to be general in nature and conceptual or limited to single disciplines. It has not produced the kind of conceptual novelty and tools necessary to place the notion of a green economy within mainstream political, social, and economic agendas. Moreover, discussions on governance remain mostly in the international sphere with only tenuous talon governance at the national and subnational levels—the levels at which implementation is key. The contributors illustrate the gap that can emerge between intentions and results when green initiatives are put into practice, and highlight the lack of discussion on important topics such as equity. They also discuss issues such as oceans, cities, and biodiversity to bring forth solutions that are politically legitimate, socially acceptable, and economically viable.

Environment

Greenprint: A New Approach to Cooperation on Climate Change . Arvind Subramanian (Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development; Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics) and Aaditya Mattoo (Research Manager for trade and integration, World Bank). Center for Global Development (dist. by Brookings), October 2012, 150 pp., $17.95 pb. Beleaguered by mutual recrimination between rich and poor countries, squeezed by the zero-sum arithmetic of shrinking global carbon budget, and overtaken by shifts in economic and hence bargaining power between these countries, international cooperation on climate change has floundered. Any chance of progress must address each of these problems in a radically different way: (1) the old narrative of recrimination must cede to a narrative based on recognition of common interests, (2) leaders must shift the focus away from emissions cuts to technology generation, and (3) the old “cash-for-cuts” approach must be abandoned for one that requires contributions from all countries calibrated in magnitude and form to their current level of development and future prospects.

Zooland: The Institution of Captivity . Irus Braverman (Associate Professor of Law and Adjunct Professor of Geography, University at Buffalo, State University of New York). Stanford Law Books. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, October 2012, 280 pp., $24.95 pb. Illustrates the dramatic transformations of zoos since the 1970s, from places created largely for entertainment to globally connected institutions that emphasize care through conservation and education. Zoos naturalize their spaces, classify their animals, and produce spectacular experiences for their human visitors. They name, register, track, and allocate their animals in global databases. Zoos both abide by and create laws and industry standards that govern their captive animals, which include governing the reproduction of these animals. Zooland thus illuminates our understandings of the human and the nonhuman.

Government

Social Movements in the World–System: The Politics of Crisis and Transformation . Jackie Smith (Professor of Sociology, University of Pittsburgh) and Dawn West (Senior Analyst, American College of Physicians). New York: Russell Sage Foundation, January 2012, 252 pp., $39.95 pb. Since the end of the Cold War, transnational activism has shaped the way groups organize, including UN global conferences and WTO meetings. These movements have frequently emphasized norms of human rights and ecological sustainability over territorial sovereignty. This growing pool of transnational activists and organizations democratizes the process of organizing and facilitates local actions in support of global change agendas, as the world faces profound financial and ecological crises. Illuminates the contentious and complex interactions between social movements and global institutions, and the search for paths toward a more equitable and sustainable world.

State and Local Pensions: What’s Next? Alicia H. Munnell (Professor of Management Sciences and director, Center for Retirement Research, Boston College). Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, October 2012, 240 pp., $29.95 (also as e-book).

In the wake of the financial crisis and Great Recession, the health of state and local pension plans has emerged as a front burner policy issue. Many officials and experts express concern that pension promises are unsustainable or will squeeze out other pressing government priorities. A few local governments have even filed for bankruptcy, with pensions cited as a major cause. Munnell draws on both her practical experience and prior research to provide a broad perspective on the challenge of state and local pensions, and debunks the notion that all plans are in trouble. While a few plans are basket cases, many are functioning reasonably well. She shows that plans in serious trouble need a major overhaul. Even the relatively healthy plans face three challenges: (1) an excessive concentration of plan assets in equities, (2) the risk that steep benefit cuts for new hires will harm workforce quality, and (3) the constraints plans face in adjusting future benefits for current employees.

The Resilient Sector (2nd Ed.). Lester M. Salamon (Professor, Johns Hopkins University; Director, John Hopkins University Center for Civil Society Studies; Founding Director, Institute for Policy Studies). Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, November 2012, 120 pp, $19.95 pb (also as e-book). America’s nonprofit organizations are caught in a force field, buffeted by four rather different impulses—voluntarism, professionalism, civic activism, and commercialism—that are pulling it in different directions. Economic woes and cutbacks in public services have put additional burdens squarely on the nonprofit sector’s shoulders, exacerbating the sector’s longstanding “conflicting multiple identities” as not-for-profit organizations operating in a for-profit market economy, relying heavily on volunteers but expected to meet often-exacting professional standards.

Health Issues

Affordable Excellence: The Singapore Health Care System . William A. Haseltine (Chairman and President, ACCESS Health International, Inc.; chairman, William A. Haseltine Foundation for Medical Sciences and the Arts). Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press and National University of Singapore Press, November 2012, 120 pp., $22.95 pb. Since achieving independence, Singapore undertook the monumental task of transforming itself to a modern, prosperous, secure city-state. Singapore succeeded to set up a health system that has become one of the best in the world, delivering high quality care at a fraction of the cost of most First World systems. “Ranked 6th globally on performance, Singapore spends less than 4% of GDP on health care (in contrast to the US, for example, which spends over 17% of GDP).” Haseltine explores the underlying social philosophy and basic approach that Singapore used to set up its system and its system of health savings accounts and insurance programs that ensure no one will be without the means to buy quality care.

Intersexuality and the Law: Why Sex Matters . Julie A. Greenberg (Professor of Law and former Associate Dean, Thomas Jefferson School of Law). New York: New York University Press, January 2012, 184 pp., $32. The term intersex evokes diverse images, typically of people who are both male and female or neither male nor female. Neither vision is accurate. The millions of people with an intersex condition, or DSD (disorder of sex development), are men or women whose sex chromosomes, gonads, or sex anatomy do not fit clearly into the male/female binary norm. Until recently, intersex conditions were shrouded in shame and secrecy: many adults were unaware that they had been born with an intersex condition, and those who did know were advised to hide the truth. Current medical protocols and societal treatment of people with an intersex condition are based upon false stereotypes about sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability, which create unique challenges to framing effective legal claims and building a strong cohesive movement. Examines the role that legal institutions can play in protecting the rights of people with an intersex condition, and discusses societal and legal conceptions of sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability.

At Liberty to Die: The Battle for Death with Dignity in America . Howard Ball (Professor Emeritus of Political Science and University Scholar, University of Vermont). New York: New York University Press, June 2012, 224 pp., $30 (also as e-book). Over the past hundred years, average life expectancy in America has nearly doubled. While longevity is celebrated as an achievement in modern civilization, the longer people live, the more likely they are to succumb to chronic, terminal illnesses. In 1900, the average life expectancy was forty-seven years, with a majority of American deaths attributed to influenza, tuberculosis, pneumonia, or other diseases. In 2000, the average life expectancy was nearly eighty years. But, for too many people, these long life spans included cancer, heart failure, Lou Gehrig’s disease, AIDS, or other fatal illnesses, and with them came debilitating pain and the loss of a once full and often independent lifestyle. Is it appropriate, legally and ethically, for a competent individual to have the liberty to decide how and when to die when faced with a terminal illness? Charts how the right of a competent, terminally ill person to die on his or her own terms with the help of a doctor has come deeply embroiled in debates about the relationship between religion, civil liberties, politics, and law in American life.

The Global Organ Shortage: Economic Causes, Human Consequences, Policy Responses . T. Randolph Beard (Professor of Economics, Auburn University), David L. Kaserman (deceased in 2008, former Professor of Economics, Auburn University), and Rigmar Osterkamp (Senior Economist, Ifo Institute for Economic Research; Research Coordinator in Economics, University of Namibia). Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, December 2012, 264 pp., $60. Although organ transplants provide the best, and often the only, effective therapy for many otherwise fatal conditions, the great benefits of transplantation go largely unrealized because of failures in the organ acquisition process. In the United States, for instance, more than 10,000 people die every year either awaiting transplantation, or as a result of deteriorating health exacerbated by the shortage of organs. Issues pertaining to organ donation and transplantation represent perhaps the most complex and morally controversial medical dilemmas aside from abortion and euthanasia. These quandaries are not unsolvable: organ donors should be compensated within a publicly controlled monopsony, similar to current practices in Spain, where organ donors are compensated. The authors discuss the medical history of transplantation, development of national laws and waiting lists, the social costs and benefits of transplantation, the causes of organ shortages, “partial” reforms tried or proposed, and the ethics of the current system and its competitors.

Immigration

Run for the Border: Vice & Virtue in U.S.-Mexico Border Crossings . Steven W. Bender (Professor of Law, Seattle University). New York: New York University Press, May 2012, 256 pp., $39 (also as e-book). Mexico and the United States exist in a symbiotic relationship: Mexico frequently provides the United States with cheap labor, illegal goods, and, for criminal offenders, a refuge from the law. In turn, the United States offers Mexican laborers the American dream: the possibility of a better livelihood through hard work. To supply each other’s demands, Americans and Mexicans have to cross their shared border from both sides. Despite this relationship, U.S. immigration reform debates tend to be security-focused and center on the idea of menacing Mexicans heading north to steal abundant American resources. Furthermore, Congress tends to approach reform unilaterally, without engaging with Mexico or other feeder countries and, disturbingly, without acknowledging problematic southern crossings that Americans routinely make into Mexico. Offers a framework for a more comprehensive border policy through a historical analysis of border crossings, both Mexico to the United States and United States to Mexico. Urges reform as the product of negotiation and implementation by cross-border accord. Takes lessons from the past 150 years to argue for more explicit and compassionate cross-border cooperation.

Rethinking National Identity in the Age of Migration: The Transatlantic Council on Migration . Bertelsmann Stiftung & Migration Policy Institute (dist. by Brookings), December 2012, 200 pp., $33 pb. Greater mobility and migration have brought about unprecedented levels of diversity, transforming communities on both sides of the Atlantic in fundamental ways and sparking uncertainty over who “we” are in a society. There is a need for developing a new organizing principle for community cohesion, which addresses divisions between immigration’s “winners and losers,” blunts extremism, and responds smartly to changing community and national identities. The authors draw on various approaches to immigrant integration and managing diversity in North America and Europe to deliver recommendations on what policy makers must do to build and reinforce inclusiveness.

Managing Borders in an Increasingly Borderless World . Demetrios G. Papademetriou (President and Cofounder, Migration Policy Institute [MPI]) and Randall Hansen (Political Scientist and Historian, University of Toronto). MPI, January 2013, 275 pp., $24.95 pb. As borders become increasingly fluid in a globalized world, border security remains at the heart of public and policy maker concerns about immigration. The authors bring together perspectives from both sides of the Atlantic on what border security means in practice, address the challenges that continue to evade policy makers, and assess which policies have been most—and least—successful in achieving “secure” borders while also allowing for the movement of people and commerce.

Methods and Innovation

Innovations in Scaling Up Development Impact . Laurence Chandy, Homi Kharas, and Johannes Linn (all Development Assistance and Governance Initiative, Brookings) and Akio Hosono (Director, Research Institute of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency). Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, October 2012, 240 pp., $29.95 pb (also as e-book). In any developing country, governments, international donors, NGOs, and corporations are involved in a range of innovative activities to address needs of the poor. A fraction of those that show promise at a localized level will be replicated, expanded, and sustained to achieve a transformative impact. Learning how to expand the reach of proven interventions so that they help larger numbers of poor people—“scaling up”—is a fundamental challenge facing the developing world. Remarkably little is understood of how to design scalable development projects, the impediments to reaching scale, or the most appropriate pathways for reaching that goal. Case studies drawn from both the public and private sectors demonstrate how the scaling up of services for the world’s poor can happen.

The Real Problem Solvers: Social Entre-preneurs in America . Ruth A. Shapiro (Principal of Keyi Strategies; Social Entrepreneur in Residence, Commonwealth Club of California; Founder, Asia Business Council). Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, October 2012, 256 pp., $29.95 pb. “Social entrepreneurship” describes a host of new initiatives, and often refers to approaches that are breaking from traditional philanthropic and charitable organizational behavior. Nowhere is this more true than in the United States—where, from 1995 to 2005, the number of nonprofit organizations registered with the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) grew by 53 percent. Entrepreneurs, funders, investors, thinkers, and champions in the field address questions such as (1) “What types of change have these social entrepreneurial efforts brought to the world of civil society and philanthropy?” (2) “What works in today’s environment?” and (3) “What barriers are these new efforts breaking down as they endeavor to make the world a better place?” Contributors include Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, Ashoka Founder Bill Drayton, Jacqueline Novogratz (founder of the Acumen Fund), and Sally Osberg (CEO, the Skoll Foundation).

The Future of Futures . The Association of Professional Futurists (edited by Andrew Curry, The Futures Company, London). Introduction by Andy Hines (University of Houston). Houston TX: AIP (http://profuturists.org), July 2012, 48 pp. (12 × 8″), $40 pb. A celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Association of Professional Futurists (APF), which now has about three hundred members (mostly consultants), roughly 40 percent non-American. The brief contributions include (1) Wendy Schultz on the history of futures (from Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, to RAND, World Future Society, World Futures Studies Federation, Limits to Growth, Herman Kahn, and “new frontiers” in the twenty-first century); (2) Christian Crews on the history of founding APF in 2002; (3) Andrew Curry on scenarios and the Global Business Network; (4) Oliver Markley and John Peterson on a new typology of wild cards (low vs. high probability, impact, and credibility); (5) Tanja Hitchert (Institute for Futures Research, Stellenbosch University) on Africa futures, notably the “unparalleled economic transition sweeping the continent”; (6) Verne Wheelwright on the APF graduate student recognition program; (7) Cindy Frewen Wuellner on the temporary city and the “real possibility” of peak urbanization and undoing development; (8) Andy Hines on futurists and the “Black Swan” (lamenting that there is no mention of scenarios or professional futurists in Nicholas Taleb’s popular book, which nevertheless packages “the very basic tenets of foresight” and makes “an excellent case for the formation of a field devoted to foresight”); (9) Wendy Schultz and Andrew Curry’s “partially complete” map of the ecology of futures thought (curiously omitting mention of the World Future Society, Futuribles, and the Worldwatch Institute); (10) Noah Raford on crowd-sourced futures (outsourcing an institutional function to an undefined and generally large network of people); (11) Richard A. Slaughter on integral futures (on the social interiors of Critical Futures Studies, derived from the four quadrant framework of Ken Wilber); (12) Marcus Barber on value systems research; (13) Noah Raford on design fiction and experiential futures; (14) Riel Miller on anticipation as the discipline of uncertainty (on the need for disciplinarity and what such a “Discipline of Anticipation” entails); (15) Tom P. Abeles on the future as a verb, and the need for futures as a practice or a discipline “to jump to a new world of complexity”; and (16) Andrew Curry concluding that futures will be more distributed and networked, that it will find its own way to make the “complexity turn” and focus on different ways of knowing and the importance of values.

Futures was born into a world of growth, the emerging consumer economy, and the Cold War; it will grow up in an age of “descent”: futures that address a world of resource shortage or collapse will no longer be regarded as dystopian.

(Note: A handsome volume in an unusual 12 × 8″ format, with a wide variety of brief pieces ranging from the popularized to the arcanely academic. Although hinted at, little or nothing is said about climate change, biodiversity, security, food, governance, globalization, development, population, the economy, jobs, education, crime, inequality, health, communications, or the plethora of new technologies for better and worse. This is “professional?” Can a serious discipline ever emerge by ignoring key developments and prospects in these critical sectors?)

Miscellaneous

Poverty and Ethnicity

Confronting Suburban Poverty in America . Elizabeth Kneebone and Alan Berube (both Metropolitan Policy program, Brookings). Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, January 2013, 184 pp., $28.95 pb (also as e-book). In the 1960s, tackling poverty “in place” meant focusing resources on the inner city and on isolated rural areas, whereas the suburbs were home to middle- and upper-class families. But the America of 2012 is a very different place. For decades, suburbs added poor residents at a faster pace than cities. Unfortunately, the antipoverty infrastructure built over the past several decades does not fit this rapidly changing geography. The authors explain the source of these developments (job sprawl, shifts in affordable housing, population dynamics, immigration, and a struggling economy), as well as the challenges (such as the need for more and better transportation options, services, and financial resources. They also put forward recommendations for public, private, and nonprofit leaders seeking to modernize poverty alleviation and community development strategies, and connect residents with economic opportunity.

Diversity Explosion: How New Racial Demographics Are Remaking America . William H. Frey (Senior Fellow, Metropolitan Policy program, Brookings and Research Professor in Population Studies, University of Michigan). Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, Jan 2013, 224 pp., $29.95 (also as e-book). Major racial and ethnic changes are sweeping the United States: the aging white population is juxtaposed with new minority groups showing robust growth, as Hispanic and Asian groups now account for all the growth in the nation’s youth population. This younger multi-ethnic generation will transform the nation’s labor force and electorate. Traditional patterns have largely reversed. The Great Migration northward has been replaced with a southward shift so significant that several northern and western states are experiencing net losses in African American population, while that group’s presence in the suburbs grows as never before. The South is becoming more multi-ethnic. Although some racial lines are blurring, other race-and-space divisions persist. Chapters discuss cultural generation gaps, America’s new racial map, Hispanics, Asians, the great migration in reverse, white gains and losses, melting pot cities and suburbs, mixed-race marriages, and the red, blue, and purple states.

Regions and Nations

Security (Also See Communications)

The New Legions: American Strategy and the Responsibility of Power . Maj. Gen.(Ret.) Edward B. Atkeson (Senior Fellow, Institute of Land Warfare, Association of the U.S. Army). Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2012, 224 pp., $39.95 (also as e-book). Decries the decade-long campaign the United States has undertaken in the wake of 9/11 and offers a broad plan for global protection of American interests. Proposes shifting the military burden to friendly indigenous fighters recruited, trained, and equipped under U.S. leadership for operation in their native environments. Finds ample precedent for the effectiveness of similar legions of fighters, explains how such a program would work, and shows how these legions could help the United States achieve its global objectives in a more cost-effective way.

The Thistle and the Drone: How America’s War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam . Akbar Ahmed (Chair of Islamic Studies, American University; Distinguished Chair of Middle East Studies, U.S. Naval Academy). Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, January 2013, 300 pp., $28.95 (also as e-book). The local tribesman with his courage, pride, and sense of egalitarianism is the prickly thistle; the drone reference points to the most advanced kill technology of globalization. The two metaphors paint a bleak landscape of confusion, uncertainty, violence, and loss. The United States declared war on terrorism in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. More than ten years later, the results are decidedly mixed: the war campaigns have exacerbated the already-broken relationship between central governments and the tribal societies on their periphery in Pakistan, Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and elsewhere. Al Qaeda has been decimated, but old ethnic and tribal tensions have been revived. Ahmed provides concrete ways to minimize conflict and still win the war on terror. (Also see Living Under Drones, Stanford/NYU Law Clinics Report, October 2012; http://livingunderdrones.org.)

Living Under Drones: Death, Injury and Trauma to Civilians from US Drone Practices in Pakistan . Stanford/New York University Clinics Report, October 2012, 260 pp. (http://livingunderdrones.org). The result of nine months of research by the International Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic of Stanford Law School (led by Professor James Cavallero and Stephan Sonnenberg) and the Global Justice Clinic at the NYU School of Law (led by Professor Sarah Knuckey). In the United States, the dominant narrative about use of drones in Pakistan is of a surgically precise and effective tool that makes the United States safer by enabling “targeted killing” of terrorists, with minimal downsides or collateral impacts. “This narrative is false.” It is essential that public debate about U.S. policies take the negative effects of current policies into account: (1) There is significant evidence that U.S. drone strikes have injured and killed civilians, but civilian casualties are rarely acknowledged; (2) U.S. drone strike policies cause considerable and under-accounted-for harm to the daily lives of ordinary civilians, beyond death and personal injury (drones hover twenty-four hours a day over northwest Pakistan, striking homes, vehicles, and public spaces without warning; those living under drones face constant worry of a deadly strike and are powerless to protect themselves; (3) publically available evidence that the strikes have made the United States safer overall is ambiguous at best; “evidence suggests that US strikes have facilitated recruitment to violent non-state armed groups, and motivated further violent attacks”; (4) drone strikes have soured many Pakistanis on cooperation with the United States and undermined United States–Pakistani relations; “one major study shows 74% of Pakistanis now consider the US an enemy”; (5) current U.S. targeted killings and drone strike practices undermine respect for the rule of law and international legal protections, and may set dangerous precedents; (6) U.S. practices may also facilitate recourse to lethal force around the globe; as drone manufacturers and officials successfully reduce export control barriers, and as more countries develop lethal drone technologies, these risks increase. Recommendations: undertake a fundamental reevaluation of current practices that looks at short- and long-term costs and benefits, make public critical information on U.S. drone strike policies, establish compensation programs for civilians, and so on. (Also see “Here’s Looking at You: Should We Worry About the Rise of the Drone?” by Nick Paumgarten (The New Yorker, May 14, 2012, 46–59), who reports that the U.S. military now has >10,000 unmanned aerial vehicles, up from just a few in 2001, and that “with the wars winding down, the drones, field-tested at taxpayer expense, are coming home and looking for jobs,” especially among public safety agencies. Paumgarten describes the drones now available, ever-smaller models such as the 6-inch Hummingbird under development, and tiny “robobees” that can fly autonomously and in swarms. Peter W. Singer at the Brookings Institution believes that drones will be as transformative as gunpowder and the computer, as their intelligence and autonomy grows. (Note: Combine this above-ground development with small unmanned “sea gliders” that can cruise under the surface of the oceans with a minimum amount of power and no engine noise. At least four hundred have already been built in the United States, France, China, and Japan; The Economist, June 9, 2012, 84–85.)

Competitive Strategies for the 21st Century: Theory, History, and Practice . Thomas G. Mahnken (Chair of Economic Geography and National Security, U.S. Naval War College; Visiting Scholar, Center for Strategic Studies, Johns Hopkins University). Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, August 2012, 344 pp., $29.95 pb (also as e-book).The United States today faces the most complex and challenging security environment in recent memory—even as it deals with growing constraints on its ability to respond to threats. Its most consequential challenge is the rise of China, which increasingly has the capability to deny U.S. access to areas of vital national interest and to undermine alliances that have underpinned regional stability for over half a century. Mahnken assesses the United States–China military balance in depth, considers the role of America’s allies in the region, and explores strategies that the United States could adopt to improve its position relative to China over the long term.

Preventing a Biochemical Arms Race . Alexander Kelle (Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of Bath), Kathryn Nixdorff (retired Professor of Microbiology and Genetics, Darmstadt University of Technology), and Malcolm Dando (Professor of International Security, University of Bradford). Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, October 2012, 256 pp., $40 (also as e-book). Changes in the life sciences and the nature of warfare could lead to a resurgent interest in chemical and biological weapons (CBW) capabilities. The authors reveal how these two disparate fields might be integrated to precipitate a biochemical arms race among major powers, rogue states, or even non-state actors. Such an arms race may be looming if developments are left unattended. But they could be avoided. Identifies weaknesses in the international regime structures revolving around the Biological Weapons and Chemical Weapons Conventions. Policy proposals point to gaps and shortcomings in each prohibition regime individually, and the widening gap between them.

Deterring Terrorism: Theory and Practice . Andreas Wenger and Alex Wilner (both Center for Security Studies, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology/ETH, Zurich). Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, September 2012, 352 pp., $29.95 pb (also as e-book). During the Cold War, deterrence theory was the cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy. Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, however, popular wisdom dictated that terrorist organizations and radical fanatics could not be deterred—and governments shifted their attention to combating terrorism rather than deterring it. The authors challenge this prevailing assumption and explain when and where terrorism can be deterred by (1) identifying how and where theories of deterrence apply to counterterrorism, (2) applying these theoretical propositions to real-world threats to establish the role deterrence has within a dynamic counterterrorism strategy, (3) identifying how metrics can be created for measuring the success of terrorism deterrence strategies.

Contractors and War: The Transformation of US Expeditionary Operations . Christopher Kinsey (Senior Lecturer in International Security, King’s College London) and Malcolm Hugh Patterson (Macquarie University, Sydney). Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, July 2012, 352 pp., $29.95 pb (also as e-book). The U.S. military is no longer based on a Cold War self-sufficient model. Today’s armed forces are a third smaller than they were during the Cold War, and yet are expected to do as much if not more than they did during those years. As a result, a transformation has occurred in the way the U.S. government expects the military to conduct operations—with much of that transformation contingent on the use of contractors to deliver support to the armed forces during military campaigns and afterward. The authors explain this transformation, evaluate how the private sector will shape and be shaped by future operations, and present arguments that support and criticize emergent private sector roles.

Work

World of Work Report 2012: Better Jobs for a Better Economy . International Labor Office. Geneva: International Labor Office, May 2012, 120 pp., $50 pb. Analyzes recent labor market and social trends, assesses risks of social unrest, and presents employment projections for the next five years. It addresses six key questions: (1) the extent to which the slow recovery aggravated social conditions, including falling incomes, deepening poverty, and worsening inequality; (2) whether countries have gone too far, too fast with fiscal consolidation, how they should support recovery while meeting fiscal goals in the medium term; (3) what can be expected from recent labor market reforms; (4) how investment can be boosted so as to ensure a long-lasting recovery in both the economy and jobs; (5) what have been the barriers to implementing a more job-centered and equity-enhancing policy approach; (6) why the business-as-usual scenario maintained its centrality despite increasing risk of social unrest. Advocates a policy approach that takes into consideration the urgent need to create quality jobs and also lays the ground for a more productive, fairer economy and labor market.

Building a Sustainable Job-Rich Recovery . International Labor Office. Geneva: International Labor Office, 2012, 98 pp., $28 pb. Discusses general lessons to be learned from financial crises as well as the role of global imbalances that have taken a prominent place in the current crisis. Presents global stimulus measures and assesses their effectiveness, comparing them with earlier examples in Argentina and the Republic of Korea. Concludes with an overview of policy measures to maintain recovery momentum in times of increasingly reduced policy space, and focusing on the importance of quality job creation and demand-led initiatives to build a sustainable job-rich recovery.

Towards a Greener Economy: The Social Dimensions . International Labor Office. Geneva: International Labor Office, 2012, 102 pp., $28 pb. In reaction to the 2008 global financial crisis, the European Commission and the International Labor Office combined efforts to examine policies that will lead not only to a quicker recovery but also to a more sustainable, environmentally friendly, and equitable global economy. The report aims to promote a clearer understanding of the nature of the green economy and its implications for labor markets, especially the reallocation of jobs from high- to low-polluting sectors. A double dividend in terms of increased decent work opportunities and a greener economy is possible, provided that complementarities among environmental, economic, and social policies are adequately exploited.