The Art of Diplomacy: How American Negotiators Reached Historic Agreements that Changed the World
By Stuart E. Eisenstadt
Gaia’s Web: How Digital Environmentalism Can Combat Climate Change, Restore Biodiversity, Cultivate Empathy, and Regenerate the Earth
by Karen Bakker
Made in China: When U.S.-China Interests Converged to Transform Global Trade
By Elizabeth O’Brien Ingleson
Everyone Who is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis
By Jonathan Blitzer
Nostalgic Virility As A Cause of War: How Leaders of Great Powers Cope with Status Decline
By Matthieu Grandpierron
America’s Cold Warrior: Paul Nitze and National Security from Roosevelt to Reagan
By James Graham Wilson
The Art of Diplomacy: How American Negotiators Reached Historic Agreements that Changed the World
By Stuart E. Eisenstadt
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, May 2024
489 pages
A former U.S. ambassador to the E.U. lays out a useful roadmap to successful international negotiations.
In his latest book, the author aims to distill key events in U.S. negotiations into lessons for the next generation of diplomats and students. In some of the cases, Eizenstat had direct involvement; regarding others, he studied the records closely and interviewed the participants. As any diplomat will tell you, an essential ingredient in a successful negotiation is preparation. You must understand what the other side wants and how far they will go to get it. In the case of American negotiators, they must be clear about their own objectives while also maintaining the support of the Oval Office. Both sides have to be willing to give something, but they must also be able to walk away with something they can claim as a victory, if only a partial one. The point is not defeating an opponent but finding a workable consensus. Eizenstat identifies a failure to follow through on agreements as a recurring weakness of U.S. diplomacy over the decades. Sometimes, the failure arises due to domestic political circumstances; sometimes, it involves the mistaken view that adding signatures to a piece of paper is an end in itself and will solve all problems. Eizenstat hopes that future negotiators will address these shortcomings. “Successful international negotiations require putting aside historic enmities, hatreds, and prejudices, and reasoning together to reach durable, if painful, compromises,” he writes … He provides a valuable primer for those with an interest in this field. Eizenstat covers a lot of ground, writing with the authority and clarity of experience. – The Kirkus Review
REVIEWS
“Diplomacy has long been the backbone of U.S. foreign policy, and among its most skilled practitioners is Stuart Eizenstat. His latest book, The Art of Diplomacy, reveals why diplomatic negotiations are an essential tool in achieving our country’s long-term objectives—filled with first-hand experiences to bring to life the drama and consequences of international negotiation. From regional conflicts to global crises, Eizenstat recognizes that diplomacy is not the pursuit of perfection but the balancing of risk.”——Hillary Clinton, former United States Secretary of State
From the foreword: Stuart Eizenstat has written a thoughtful treatise….He is well-equipped to do so after a lifetime of public service and law practice at the highest levels. His experience as President Carter’s chief domestic policy advisor informed his distinguished diplomatic career – he understands both the internal pressures for short-term success and the external requirements of long-term survival….We have long agreed that the United States needs a framework for conducting diplomacy, and Eizenstat has written this book to provide one. — Dr. Henry A. Kissinger
Eliminating the use of force in interstate relations calls for a constant dedication to diplomacy. How does it work? Drawing on public sources, personal interviews with key actors and his own rich experience, Stuart Eizenstat offers fascinating accounts of the role of diplomacy in many great controversies. It is first-class diplomatic history but also highly instructive. It should be read by all who deal with foreign policy. — Hans Blix, Head of International Atomic Energy Agency; Head of United Nations Monitor, Verification, and Inspection Commission on Iraq; Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stuart E. Eizenstat has served as U.S. Ambassador to the European Union and Deputy Secretary of both the U.S. Treasury and State Departments. He is also the author of President Carter: The White House Years (2018), The Future of the Jews: How Global Forces are Impacting the Jewish People, Israel, and Its Relationship with the United States (2012), and Imperfect Justice: Looted Assets, Slave Labor, and the Unfinished Business of World War II (2003). He is an international lawyer in Washington, DC.
Gaia’s Web: How Digital Environmentalism Can Combat Climate Change, Restore Biodiversity, Cultivate Empathy, and Regenerate the Earth
by Karen Bakker
The MIT Press, April 2024
288 pages
In Gaia’s Web Karen Bakker explores the interplay among digital technologies, social and political systems, and the living planet in the present and future. At the surprising and inspiring confluence of our digital and ecological futures, Karen Bakker shows how the tools of the Digital Age could be mobilized to address our most pressing environmental challenges, from climate change to biodiversity loss. Interspersed with ten elegiac, enigmatic parables, each of which is based on an existing technology, Gaia’s Web evokes the conundrums we face as the World Wide Web intertwines with the Web of Life.
A new generation of innovators is deploying digital technology to come to the aid of the planet, using spy satellites to track down environmental criminals, inviting animals to the Metaverse, and biohacking Frankenstein-like biobots as environmental sentinels. But will they end up doing more harm than good?
With its uniquely broad scope—combining insights from computer science, ecology, engineering, environmental science, and environmental law—Gaia’s Web introduces profoundly novel ways of addressing our most pressing environmental challenges—mitigating climate change, protecting endangered species—and creating new possibilities for ecological justice by empowering nonhumans to participate in environmental regulation.
REVIEWS
“A much-needed corrective to binary views of technology as either a planet saver or a planet killer.”
—New York Review of Books
“While remaining clear-eyed about the risks of more digitalization in our era of mass surveillance and concentrated capital and grappling deeply with thorny ethical challenges, Bakker nonetheless chooses an inspiring path of hope. Her enthusiasm about the life-enhancing potential of a ‘digital green agenda’ is contagious. . . . This posthumously published text is a bittersweet gift, a reminder that our discipline lost a true visionary.”
—Naomi Klein, author of Doppelganger, The Shock Doctrine, and This Changes Everything
“Gaia’s Web, a visionary work, explores the myriad technologies of Digital Earth, and the startling implications for all human and nonhuman Earthlings, as the digital and natural worlds interpenetrate.”
—Alan Mackworth, Professor Emeritus of Computer Science, University of British Columbia
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Karen Bakker was a Guggenheim Fellow, a Professor at the University of British Columbia, and the Matina S. Horner Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. She was the author of The Sounds of Life: How Digital Technology Is Bringing Us Closer to the Worlds of Animals and Plants. She was internationally recognized for her work on global water politics, climate change, and the intersection of technology and environmental change. She passed away in August 2023.
Made in China: When U.S.-China Interests Converged to Transform Global Trade
By Elizabeth O’Brien Ingleson
Harvard University Press, March 2024
352 pages
The surprising story of how Cold War foes found common cause in transforming China’s economy into a source of cheap labor, creating the economic interdependence that characterizes our world today.
For centuries, the vastness of the Chinese market tempted foreign companies in search of customers. But in the 1970s, when the United States and China ended two decades of Cold War isolation, China’s trade relations veered in a very different direction. Elizabeth Ingleson shows how the interests of US business and the Chinese state aligned to reframe the China market: the old dream of plentiful customers gave way to a new vision of low-cost workers by the hundreds of millions. In the process, the world’s largest communist state became an indispensable component of global capitalism.
REVIEWS
“Provides helpful insights into the changes that occurred during this decisive decade. Through extensive archival research, [Ingleson] recounts how various U.S. policy choices during the 1970s helped open the door to globalization, how Chinese government policies sought to exploit that opening for China’s own economic development, and how U.S. businesses facing this new global incentive structure began to rethink their supply chains.”―Trevor R. Jones, American Affairs
“Made in China is the best overview we have of how the United States helped make China the world’s foremost trading power. Ingleson skillfully shows how American needs and Chinese wishes combined to remake global capitalism.”―Odd Arne Westad, author of The Cold War: A World History
“. . .With sharp analysis and effective storytelling, Ingleson shows how labor unions, textile workers, bankers, self-styled ‘China hands,’ and entrepreneurs of various stripes saw China as both an opportunity and a threat. In the process, she expands our understanding of the diverse voices and interests that shaped this pivotal trade relationship.”―Jason M. Kelly, author of Market Maoists: The Communist Origins of China’s Capitalist Ascent
“A compelling work about a period of US-China relations that is receiving increasing attention. From the lifting of the US trade embargo to the first tentative import partnerships to burgeoning manufacturing, Ingleson traces how American business’s view of China transformed from a land of ‘400 million customers’ to one of ‘800 million workers,’ a series of gradual perception shifts that added up to a sea change.”―Joyce Mao, author of Asia First: China and the Making of Modern American Conservatism
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elizabeth O’Brien Ingleson is Assistant Professor of International History at the London School of Economics. She earned her doctorate at the University of Sydney, and held fellowships at Yale University, the University of Virginia, and Southern Methodist University. She currently serves on the editorial board of the journal Cold War History.
Everyone Who is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and the Making of a Crisis
By Jonathan Blitzer
Penguin Press, January 2024
523 pages
An epic, heartbreaking, and deeply reported history of the disastrous humanitarian crisis at the southern border told through the lives of the migrants forced to risk everything and the policymakers who determine their fate.
This vast and unremitting crisis did not spring up overnight. . .it is the result of decades of misguided policy and sweeping corruption. Brilliantly weaving the stories of Central Americans whose lives have been devastated by chronic political conflict and violence with those of American activists, government officials, and the politicians responsible for the country’s tragically tangled immigration policy, Jonathan Blitzer reveals the full, layered picture. . . .
Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here is an odyssey of struggle and resilience. With astonishing nuance and detail, Blitzer tells an epic story about the people whose lives ebb and flow across the border, and in doing so, he delves into the heart of American life itself. This vital and remarkable story has shaped the nation’s turbulent politics and culture in countless ways—and will almost certainly determine its future.
REVIEWS
“. . .Blitzer makes a compelling case that the United States and Central America are knit as one . . . The themes explored in the book feel all the more relevant as we enter a presidential campaign in which immigration is once again a centrally toxic issue . . . Far from reading like a dry policy tome, Blitzer’s book makes its case by telling in vivid detail the stories of a cast of representative figures spread over five decades . . . Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here is sure to take its place as one of the definitive accounts of the U.S. and Central American immigration puzzle, a long and ongoing saga with no real solution in sight. . . .” —Manuel Roig-Franzia, Washington Post
“As a Salvadoran, and as a previously undocumented person living in the United States, it has felt impossible to find a single comprehensive, concise timeline that could tie my existence in this country to the wars funded by US taxpayers. Through in-depth research, a commitment to truth, and brilliant storytelling, Jonathan Blitzer has written the quintessential book that links Central American migration to US imperialism. Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here is a masterpiece that everybody, everybody should read.” —Javier Zamora, New York Times bestselling author of Solito
“. . .Blitzer takes us on a borderless, nonlinear journey through brutal military dictatorships, smugglers, the changing maze of U.S. immigration law, and an asylum policy that has been politicized since its inception. Ultimately, the book succeeds in holding a mirror up to our present-day crisis on the southern border and how it evolved . . .” —Alta
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jonathan Blitzer is a staff writer at The New Yorker. He has won a National Award for Education Reporting as well as an Edward R. Murrow Award, and was a 2021 Emerson Fellow at New America.
Nostalgic Virility As A Cause of War: How Leaders of Great Powers Cope with Status Decline
By Matthieu Grandpierron
McGill-Queen’s University Press, March 2024
228 pages
Why do great powers go to war? Why are non-violent, diplomatic options not prioritized? Nostalgic Virility as a Cause of War argues that world leaders react to status decline by going to war, guided by a nostalgic, virile understanding of what it means to be powerful. This nostalgic virility – a system of subjective beliefs about power, bravery, strength, morality, and health – acts as a filter through which leaders articulate glorified interpretations of history and assess their power and their country’s status on the international stage.
In this rigorous study of France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, Matthieu Grandpierron tests the theory of nostalgic virility against the two more common theoretical frameworks of realism and the diversionary theory of war. Consulting thousands of newly declassified government documents at the highest levels of decision making, Grandpierron examines three specific cases – the early years of the Indochina War (1945–47), the British reconquest of the Falklands in 1982, and the US invasion of Grenada in 1983 – convincingly contending that status-seeking behaviour and nostalgic virility are more relevant in explaining why a leader chooses war and conflict over non-violent, diplomatic options than the dominant frameworks.
Looking to the recent past, Nostalgic Virility as a Cause of War considers how this new model can be applied to current conflicts – from the Russian war in Ukraine to Chinese actions in the South China Sea – and provides surprising ways of thinking about the relationship between power, decision makers, and causes of war.
REVIEWS
“Nostalgic Virility As a Cause of War is a fantastic contribution to scholarship on the causes of war and on the dynamics of great power politics. The author develops a genuinely novel theoretical account of why powerful states go to war on their periphery and demonstrates, in persuasive detail, that status and identity concerns associated with a lost sense of virility are more important for explaining observed events than alternatives based on strategic interests and domestic politics.” David McCourt, University of California-Davis
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Matthieu Grandpierron is associate professor of international relations and political science at the Catholic University of Vendée.
America’s Cold Warrior: Paul Nitze and National Security from Roosevelt to Reagan
By James Graham Wilson
Cornell University Press, July 2024
336 pages
In America’s Cold Warrior, James Graham Wilson traces Paul Nitze’s career path in national security after World War II, a time when many of his mentors and peers returned to civilian life. Serving in eight presidential administrations, Nitze commanded White House attention even when he was out of government, especially with his withering criticism of Jimmy Carter during Carter’s presidency. While Nitze is perhaps best known for leading the formulation of NSC-68, which Harry Truman signed in 1950, Wilson contends that Nitze’s most significant contribution to American peace and security came in the painstaking work done in the 1980s to negotiate successful treaties with the Soviets to reduce nuclear weapons while simultaneously deflecting skeptics surrounding Ronald Reagan. America’s Cold Warrior connects Nitze’s career and concerns about strategic vulnerability to the post-9/11 era and the challenges of the 2020s, where the United States finds itself locked in geopolitical competition with the People’s Republic of China and Russia.
REVIEWS
“For decades, Paul H. Nitze was in the room where it happened. In America’s Cold Warrior, James Graham Wilson ably guides us through the issues that animated and frustrated Nitze and reminds us how significant, wide-ranging, and consequential his career was.”– Susan Colbourn, Duke University, author of Euromissiles
“Paul Nitze was one of the most important “Cold Warriors” to have served in the American government in the twentieth century. From writing NSC-68 to his famous “Walk in the Woods,” he played a critically important role in issues of national security for more than three decades. With James Wilson’s impressive book, he has finally received the recognition from historians he so richly deserves.” — Thomas Schwartz, Vanderbilt University, author of Henry Kissinger and American Power
“In this beautifully crafted, masterfully researched biography of America’s preeminent Cold Warrior, James Graham Wilson traces Paul M. Nitze’s career at the center of U.S. power. Whether it was crafting the Cold War bible NSC-68 in 1950, advising President John F. Kennedy during the Berlin and Cuban crises in1961-62, or seeking a grand bargain as Ronald Reagan’s nuclear arms negotiator in the 1980s, Nitze’s steely personality and grasp of detail made him indispensable. At this moment of renewed tensions with Russia and China, Wilson offers a timely study of the necessity and perils of nuclear diplomacy.” — Frank Costigliola, author of Kennan
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James Graham Wilson is a Historian at the US Department of State.