I picked this book up based on the Amazon recommendations for a good military history of the Troubles. Unfortunately it does not live up to the billinI picked this book up based on the Amazon recommendations for a good military history of the Troubles. Unfortunately it does not live up to the billing. Partly this is due to the type history I was looking for. I was looking for a history at the operational level-i.e., the perspective of the colonel or major, how they planned and how it did not go according to plan and how they adapted. Instead, this is a farrago of 'face of battle' style anecdotes of what it was like for the enlisted and junior officers to deploy to Northern Ireland divided into chapters based on where the units deployed: Belfast, Londonderry, etc....more
This is a social history of the books of Western magic. Davies covers ground from late antiquity to the modern era. The main message of the book is thThis is a social history of the books of Western magic. Davies covers ground from late antiquity to the modern era. The main message of the book is that there is tremendous continuity in the documents, the appear over and over again through the ages, repurposed for different types of magic.
This is not a documentary history, getting into the details of differences in manuscripts, provenance, etc. If that is what you are looking for, you will feel that the book is extremely tedious, recounting this or that witch trial, this or that churchman who had a magical library, this or that academic. ...more
This book sat on my shelf for 29 years. I had originally bought it because the scientists I worked for at NASA were all reading it at the time. Being This book sat on my shelf for 29 years. I had originally bought it because the scientists I worked for at NASA were all reading it at the time. Being a student, I didn't have time to read it, when it was new.
It is hard to categorize this book. It is basically an account of field science by a hanger-on. It is sort of journalistic, but it is also a political screed about the evils of colonialism. It is informative for scientists who will be going into the field for the first time. It shows the challenges of doing science in the field. It also gives a view into the politics of Africa in the 25 years after decolonization (most French and British decolonization was in the 1960s, but Portuguese decolonization was contemporary with the book). The politics of victimization and socialism are well represented, being the politics of the educated classes in Africa.
Note: A whole bunch of the science and the politics is very stale. Its main value is as a historical artifact. ...more
This book addresses an important problem in strategy games (i.e., two-player zero-sum game theory, not board games): the problem of incommensurable utThis book addresses an important problem in strategy games (i.e., two-player zero-sum game theory, not board games): the problem of incommensurable utilities. States and quasi-states (e.g., the PLO) interacting in international system do not behave in objectively rational ways from the perspective of the other player in a game. This is an early attempt (1971) to cover ground that would later be covered in depth by Robert Jervis.
Dror offers up a classification system and a set of ideal types (Weberian analysis) that places states on a continuum of craziness. Five axes of analysis yield ideal types of craziness from normal to extreme craziness (i.e., a 'counterrational' martyr state would be a truly crazy state).
If the book has a defect, it is that its language is extremely pedantic and laden with neologisms. It is also begins poorly with a catalog of 'fallacies' that actually aren't logical fallacies that the US military, diplomatic, and intelligence communities are guilty of.
The book is important in the 21st century precisely because it is presents some useful guidance towards analysis of conflict between states. North Korea is not a crazy state, although Iran is. It is also useful for self-reflection. Is the United States trending away from being a normal state or actually becoming a more normal state as the global war on terror winds down?...more
This is a very dated book on game theory, but it does have the advantage of being easy to understand and provides some crucial algorithms for solving This is a very dated book on game theory, but it does have the advantage of being easy to understand and provides some crucial algorithms for solving two-person games, both zero-sum, and mixed strategy games. It covers games against nature as well. It also has the advantage of being very short. I recommend this book over Game Theory: A Very Short Introduction as a basic short introductory text for non-mathematicians, like business majors and political science majors....more
This is a pretty good edited volume on the question of why states, especially with outside options, choose to delegate to international organizations.This is a pretty good edited volume on the question of why states, especially with outside options, choose to delegate to international organizations. It is based on principal-agent theory that is used in other bureaucratic contexts to explain the why's and wherefore's of delegation to IOs, and the consequences of that delegation based on the type of IO involved--i.e., how much autonomy is given.
The introductory chapter is worth the book. For those uninitiated in principal-agent theory, there is a useful summary of it. This is especially helpful for people who study international relations as opposed to political science or organizational behavior. Some of the essays are really just repackaging of prior research by the authors of those, such as Thompson's essay on the UN Security Council having value to great powers to signal intentions by constraining their options (which extends Ikenberry's work on IOs). This can be found in Thompson's classic paper on the subject....more
This book is a skeptical scholarly treatment of the phenomenon of demonic possession in the early modern era (16th and 17th centuries) in Western EuroThis book is a skeptical scholarly treatment of the phenomenon of demonic possession in the early modern era (16th and 17th centuries) in Western Europe. It does not accept possession as real, magic as real, so reader beware. If you are looking for a sympathetic history this is not it.
The author approaches the phenomenon of demonic possession not using the typical scholarly explanations: medical conditions, mental illness, faking. Instead he treats it as a social performance phenomenon. He traces the origins in the Gospels and early Christianity to the early modern era. What came before became the model or script for demonic possession in the early modern period. Basically he is applying the social performance anthropology of Victor Turner to the phenomenon.
His explanation for the prevalence in the early modern period was increased anxiety in European society as a consequence of the transition from the medieval to the modern and the reformation.
The reformation figures prominently for another reason. It was an effective marketing method for Catholicism against the upstart Protestant denominations. Protestantism rejected the efficacy of ritual exorcism, and focused on fasting and prayer. Catholic exorcism is a dramatic ritual and appears efficacious.
I am not totally sold on the anxiety theory. Other periods in European history were revolutionary without triggering epidemics of exorcisms. The causal path is not fully established to account for it under some conditions and not others....more
This was a better book than the preceding Foundation Prequel. It basically explained the reasons for the founding of the Foundation and the secret SecThis was a better book than the preceding Foundation Prequel. It basically explained the reasons for the founding of the Foundation and the secret Second Foundation. It telescopes time through the various sections of the book, which is appreciated....more
This book presents a typology of blame avoidance strategies used by politicians and bureaucracies. This is critical background reading in the literatuThis book presents a typology of blame avoidance strategies used by politicians and bureaucracies. This is critical background reading in the literature of blame avoidance political behavior. ...more
I have to say that I enjoyed the world-building and adventure of the book but the last 20 pages ruined it. I could not suspend my disbelief. I can't sI have to say that I enjoyed the world-building and adventure of the book but the last 20 pages ruined it. I could not suspend my disbelief. I can't say more without a spoiler. The book covers Hari Seldon's life after he presents an academic paper with a mathematical proof showing that psychohistory is possible....more
This book is a decent introduction to the ideology of the social sciences. It provides, as the author puts it, a scaffolding that permits a new researThis book is a decent introduction to the ideology of the social sciences. It provides, as the author puts it, a scaffolding that permits a new researcher to understand their own frame of reference and the frame of reference of others in the social sciences. It is not complete by any means and needs to be supplemented with other texts, but it does deal in outline with the various claims made by different philosophical traditions. The book starts with positivism and uses it as a foil for the rest of the book. It covers in outline all the major movements you will find in contemporary social science.
Perhaps the most important elements you will learn from the book is that research in all traditions since philosophical pragmatism (Pierce, James, Dewey) and Marxism, which birthed the main paradigms, are implicitly or explicitly about affecting social change using research products. The book is strongest discussing paradigms from pragmatism and the Marxist legacy as interpreted in the Frankfurt School. It is weakest in discussing post-modernism.
Note: positivism, whether post-positivism, or not, gets a pretty bad rap in the book, which is probably true in some social science fields but not others. Positivism is utterly dead in anthropology, and there a huge division between behavioral and evolutionary/genetic psychologists and social psychologists. Positivism is still a dominant paradigm in political science in the United States, based on the number of quantitative papers published. ...more
This is an eminently readable history of magic. Like so much scholarship in the humanities since the 1980s, the basic interpretive frame is power-who This is an eminently readable history of magic. Like so much scholarship in the humanities since the 1980s, the basic interpretive frame is power-who has it and who doesn't. The book begins with an overview of ancient religious practices in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Israel, Athens, and Rome, that is prelude to the story that will emerge. Popular religion becomes magic when it is defined by organized religion as alien (what begins in ancient Athens, since magic is religion practiced by foreigners by definition). Fast forward to late antiquity and the middle ages, and in Europe magic is all that folk religion prohibited by the Church, even as the Church domesticates certain rituals and ceremonies.
Then the beginnings of humanism and scientific study happens at the end of the middle ages and scholarly elite, who study of ancient magical texts in translation from Arabic translations of originals, set the stage for the emergence of a rarefied magic that we see in our new religious movements and art. The persecution of witches by the Church is tied to institutional responses to heresy--e.g., the Cathar heresy. Doctrinal changes enabled the simultaneous study of high magic by clerics (exorcisisms, conjuring demons and controlling them with the name of God, etc.) and at the same time set the stage for persecution of women for alternative folk practices. (At the same time, it is abundantly clear that the Church itself had trouble getting convictions in witchcraft, because the claims were too fantastical.)
Fast forward to the modern era and we have the emergence of modern magic (Crowley, et al.) and the study of magic (religion) anthropologically. Modern magic is a set of new religious movements in this context. I would go further and apply Geertz's concept of ideologization of religion and say that modern magic is actually a form of scripturalism in response to modernity. The modern wiccans, et al. are really constructing based on texts produced in the high middle ages, a more "authentic" form of ancient religion, which of course never really existed, but assuages alienation caused by modernity.
Magic and witchcraft is a pretty narrow field of folklore studies in academia, and it is reflected in a spare selection of works in the bibliography. The book also is not footnoted, so it is difficult to know scholarly background for points made. For these reasons I knocked off a star.
The book is lavishly illustrated. What you will not find is how to practice magic. For those looking for an introduction to Wicca, look elsewhere. This is a dispassionate scholarly treatment of the subject. ...more
This is a comprehensive indictment of peacekeeping in the early 90s. It is a series of qualitative case studies on individual missions. The author is This is a comprehensive indictment of peacekeeping in the early 90s. It is a series of qualitative case studies on individual missions. The author is highly critical of peacekeeping beyond the traditional interposition missions and unarmed observer missions, since the use of force to deter spoilers, and humanitarian interventions violates the holy trinity of peacekeeping: neutrality, consent of the parties, and minimum use of force only in self defense, which were the terms under which the first peacekeeping mission, UNEF, deployed during the Suez Crisis.
There are some quibbles with his analysis. For example, he sets too high of a bar for success in Cambodia (the complete disarmament of the Khmer Rouge), when most scholars consider it a qualified success. The same is true of East Timor. It is considered a qualified success by most, but Jett moves that into the failed column. Ditto Mozambique, since the full mandate was not achieved, like de-mining, when most scholars consider it a success.
This is an important perspective to read in order to cover the spectrum of scholarship on peacekeeping (there is a large contingent of scholars in the field who are nostalgic for the type of mission seen during the Cold War--truce supervision between states), but it is not the final word....more
This is a truly excellent critical take on why peacekeeping in the post war period is dominated by peacekeepers from the Global South. While it fits iThis is a truly excellent critical take on why peacekeeping in the post war period is dominated by peacekeepers from the Global South. While it fits in the critical tradition of international relations, this is not a typical exercise is navel gazing and phantasmagorical logical absurdities that characterized "research" labeled "critical" in the social sciences. Nor is it a typical exercise in third world solidarity that characterizes the research in neo-colonialism.
His thesis is that peacekeeping in post-Cold War conflicts, which are almost entirely civil wars, is a form of non-territorial imperialism. The United Nations functions to impose a Westphalian and liberal peace on the conflicts of Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Peacekeeping operations are used to manage conflict so that it does not upset the international order established after the Second World War. Essentially the UN uses illiberal means (military coercion) to achieve liberal ends (liberal democracies), because democratic peace theory, the idea that democracies do not war with one another, is a form of secular millenarianism.
That the bulk of peacekeepers come from the Global South (8 of the 10 largest troop contributing countries were former British or French colonies) is explained as a historical continuity with the experience of imperial policing during empire. For example, the army in Kenya was formed from the African Rifles that deployed all over the British empire to fight small wars. The British Indian Army was likewise deployed all over the empire, which explains why India and Pakistan are two of the largest contributors to peacekeeping operations. They staff peacekeeping operations because it is in their DNA.
Peacekeepers from the developing world are a bargain in both blood and treasure for the Americans and Europeans on the UN Security Council since they can be maintained in the field at a fourth the cost of a developed world soldier. This is the same reason why the Europeans maintained colonial troops for colonial policing. They were cheaper than forces from the metropole....more
This is a short comedy of manners. It is a sitcom. It has its moments. It mainly has historical value and is sometimes on a 'great books' syllabus.This is a short comedy of manners. It is a sitcom. It has its moments. It mainly has historical value and is sometimes on a 'great books' syllabus....more
This is one of those key texts in political economy and economic history. It advances a theory of coevolution of institutions that support economic grThis is one of those key texts in political economy and economic history. It advances a theory of coevolution of institutions that support economic growth. Of course the focus is on why market economics emerged in Europe and England and how it was intertwined with the political institutions that developed along with it. The book then turns to the question of development in the Third World. There is a lot of literature that reasons analogically from Tilly's theory of state formation to say that the civil wars of the Third World are merely a process of state consolidation and will settle down into a stable configuration of states eventually (for example, Mohammad Ayoob has advocated this position). Bates says, not so fast. The reason is that international institutions (e.g., humanitarian intervention, peacekeeping, etc.) and political inversion (e.g., kleptocratic elites) actually work against that outcome....more
Disclosure: I was born the year before Radical Chic appeared. I am not a baby boomer who lived the period, so I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the jDisclosure: I was born the year before Radical Chic appeared. I am not a baby boomer who lived the period, so I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the journalism.
Radical Chic is a tour de force of gonzo journalism. The background: Leonard Bernstein, the famous conductor, hosted a fundraising party for the Black Panthers in his Park Avenue co-op. Tom Wolfe then executes a hilarious piece of ethnographic research to explain why New York high society would hobnob with Maoist black separatists, who would if they could dispossess high society of everything. Along the way, he explains the absolute necessity of servants (and the challenge posed of the social norm to not have colored servants) and a summer home, why the left wing politics of Jews never moderated as they became wealthy, how New York high society turns over approximately every 40 years with new leading families emerging, and the editorial position of the New York Times.
Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers transports us to San Francisco, the San Francisco of the Mr. Tibbs movies, beset by class and racial strife. Here again with participant-observer ethnography, Wolfe in hilarious fashion explains the genetic relationship between anti-poverty programs, community organizing, and racial violence. Along the way, he describes in cultural anthropological terms the key figure in a government bureaucracy, the flak catcher. ...more
Caveat: I work in the field and have been in computer security for two decades. I read the book to see if I would use it as a textbook for a class on Caveat: I work in the field and have been in computer security for two decades. I read the book to see if I would use it as a textbook for a class on cyberterrorism and cyberwarfare.
The book is a primer for non-technical policy makers. It is broken into three parts, each laid out in a FAQ type format. The first part sets a foundation of knowledge in the history of computers, networking, and the Internet and how the Internet works at a high level. It then goes into some basic concepts of information security. Being technical, I was frustrated with how things were simplified, but they have to be for the target non-technical audience. The second part deals with the types of conflict in cyberspace and how analogies from real warfare are applied and misapplied to understand the cyber domain. There is a wealth of stories of cyber attacks in the book. The third part is a catalog of policy prescriptions.
The book's main weakness is that it is completely unfootnoted, which is maddening. I know the papers and conference presentations that quotes are drawn from and to not see them properly footnoted is a problem for using the book in an academic setting. Otherwise, it would have been a good choice for a lower division class....more
Jett wrote one of the best qualitative studies of peacekeeping effectiveness. It is well organized and defensible in its conclusions. He selected two Jett wrote one of the best qualitative studies of peacekeeping effectiveness. It is well organized and defensible in its conclusions. He selected two cases of multi-dimmensional peacekeeping similar in many respects (decades long civil wars, super powers intervening on both sides, and lusophone countries) and deduces why one failed (UNAVEM II in Angola) and one succeeded (ONUMOZ in Mozambique).
While some reasons for the success of ONUMOZ were particular, such as a famine and withdrawal of South African support after the Apartheid regime fell, which forced the Renamo rebellion to agree to demobilize, he mainly highlights the following for success: large deployments to increase security (ONUMOZ was a huge armed peacekeeper deployment, UNAVEM II was a small unarmed observer mission), super power support for the peace settlement (which withdrew external support for the conflicting parties), and skilled Special Representatives of the Secretary General running the operations. Angola was run by a British UN bureaucrat who was a lifer and peter principled into position, who Jett describes as a spectator to events, whereas Mozambique was run by a stilled politician tapped to run it, who was skilled at negotiating a successful outcome and adapting to conditions on the ground rather than taking orders from UN headquarters in New York. That last aspect was highlighted as well in the case study done by Lise Howard in UN Peacekeeping in Civil Wars....more
Like all diplomatic memoirs there is a huge dose of "it's not my fault." However, the main value of this book is to explain the response to 9-11. RumsLike all diplomatic memoirs there is a huge dose of "it's not my fault." However, the main value of this book is to explain the response to 9-11. Rumsfeld puts it in context of the attack on the US and French peacekeepers in Beirut, and how there were no good options other than withdrawal back then. He discusses the limitations of international organizations, international law, and the laws of armed conflict in dealing with non-state actors in the Westphalian era, and how the solution they came up with was to impose a duty on sovereign states to police non-state actors within their borders, or else....more
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