BOOK ALERT: A new memoir by retired Foreign Service Officer William Henry Luers will come out later this month; we look forward to reviewing it for the February 2025 issue of American Diplomacy. Mr. Luers’ Foreign Service career spanned 31 years and included service as Ambassador to Czechoslovakia and Venezuela as well as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Europe (1977-1978) and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for inter-American Affairs (1975-1977). For thirteen years he was President of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. He currently serves on several non-profit boards and is Director of the Iran Project.
Books of Interest for November 2024
The Divine Economy: How Religions Compete for Wealth, Power, and People
By Paul Seabright
Princeton University Press, May 2024
500 pages
“Longlisted for the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award”
“Winner of the Bronze Medal in Business Commentary, Axiom Business Book Awards”
Religion in the twenty-first century is alive and well across the world, despite its apparent decline in North America and parts of Europe. Vigorous competition between and within religious movements has led to their accumulating great power and wealth. . . In The Divine Economy, economist Paul Seabright argues that religious movements are a special kind of business. . .Their power can be used for good, especially when religious movements provide their members with insurance against the shocks of modern life, and a sense of worth in their communities. It can also be used for harm: political leaders often instrumentalize religious movements for authoritarian ends, and religious leaders can exploit the trust of members to inflict sexual, emotional, financial or physical abuse, or to provoke violence against outsiders. Writing in a nonpartisan spirit, Seabright uses insights from economics to show how religion and secular society can work together in a world where some people feel no need for religion, but many continue to respond with enthusiasm to its call.
REVIEWS
“Seabright has a great talent for addressing original questions. In this book, he reverses the familiar trope that religion is the antithesis of mere economics. On the contrary, he argues, religions are competing businesses: they attract people by providing services they value, from the mundane — a community in which to find a compatible mate — to the sublime — a sense of life’s meaning.”—Martin Wolf, Financial Times
In The Divine Economy: How Religions Compete for Wealth, Power, and People, Paul Seabright offers a novel economic analysis of religions. He describes them as the original platform organisations, rallying groups of users in mutually beneficial relationships just as Instagram or X do today, and points out how religious and secular groups can work together.” ― Financial Times
“This brilliant, challenging, and remarkably wide-ranging book is daringly built around a seemingly simple proposition: all religions are platforms, comparable to the digital platforms that have transformed our world. With inexhaustible curiosity, subtle intelligence, and a deeply sympathetic understanding of human needs and longings, Paul Seabright has illuminated not only the functioning of religions throughout world history but also their ability to survive and flourish in the contemporary world.”—Stephen Greenblatt, author of The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
“Business economics meets religion—the result is original, illuminating, sometimes surprising, and always enjoyable to read.”—John Kay, coauthor of Radical Uncertainty: Decision-Making for an Unknowable Future
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Paul Seabright is a British economist who teaches in the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences at the Toulouse School of Economics. From October 2021 to September 2023 he held a Two-Year Fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford. He is a Fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, London, and of the European Economic Association. His research lies in the areas of microeonomic theory, industrial and competition policy, intellectual property and the digital society, development economics, economics and human evolution, the economics of gender, the economics of religion. From 2005 to 2019 he was an annual visitor at the Santa Fe Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Breaking the Mold: India’s Untraveled Path to Prosperity
By Raghuram G. Rajan and Rohit Lamba
Princeton University Press, May 2024
336 pages
The new path for economic development that India must create The whole world has a stake in India’s future, and that future hinges on whether India can develop its economy and deliver for its population—now the world’s largest—while staying democratic. . . Blocking India’s current path are intense global competition in low-skilled manufacturing, increasing protectionism and automation, and the country’s majoritarian streak in politics. Rajan and Lamba explain how India can accelerate growth by prioritizing human capital, expanding opportunities in high-skilled services, encouraging entrepreneurship, and strengthening rather than weakening its democratic traditions. It can chart a path based on ideas and creativity even at its early stage of development. REVIEWS
“There are no better guides to how [India] might best leverage its potential—and manage the obstacles. . . . [Rajan and Lamba] expertly devise a new growth model for India, offering detailed recommendations for reforming the country’s industrial strategy, healthcare, education and democracy. . . . This is a novel, well-argued and solidly evidenced pitch for India’s future. . . . A must-read for anyone keen to understand a nation that will play a big part in all our economic futures.” — Tej Parikh, Financial Times
“A forthright accounting of the nation’s many faults and enormous unused potential i.e., human capital. . . . A sobering economic study packed with useful ideas.” ― Kirkus Reviews
“In a world where governments are increasingly embracing nationalism, Rajan and Lamba set out a daring blueprint for inclusive Indian growth based on economic and political openness. Their insightful, engaging, and inspiring book is essential reading for anyone interested in India or economic development.”—Maurice Obstfeld, Peterson Institute for International Economics
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Raghuram Rajan is the Katherine Dusak Miller Distinguished Service Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago. He was the Governor of the Reserve Bankof India between 2013 and 2016, and also served as Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Bank for International Settlements between 2015 and 2016. Dr. Rajan was the Chief Economist and Director of Research at the International Monetary Fund from 2003 to 2006.
Rohit Lamba is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Cornell University and a visiting Assistant Professor of Economics at New York University, Abu Dhabi. Previously, he was an Assistant Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, Pennsylvania State University, 2015-2023.
The Great Transformation: China’s Road from Revolution to Reform
by Odd Arne Westad and Chen Jian
Yale University Press, October 2024
424 pages
Odd Arne Westad and Chen Jian chronicle how an impoverished and terrorized China experienced radical political changes in the long 1970s and how ordinary people broke free from the beliefs that had shaped their lives during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. These changes, and the unprecedented and sustained economic growth that followed, transformed China and the world.
In this rigorous account, Westad and Chen construct a panorama of catastrophe and progress in China. They chronicle China’s gradual opening to the world—the interplay of power in an era of aged and ailing leadership, the people’s rebellion against the earlier government system, and the roles of unlikely characters: overseas Chinese capitalists, American engineers, Japanese professors, and German designers. This is a story of revolutionary change that neither foreigners nor the Chinese themselves could have predicted.
REVIEWS
“Almost every page contains an eye-opening detail. . . . The Great Transformation evokes the multiple paths, ideas and possibilities that have shaped, and continue to shape, China’s present.”—Julia Lovell, Financial Times
“Westad and Chen have written a masterful account of China’s modernization that illuminates the path it took to emerge as America’s only true peer competitor.”—Graham Allison, author of Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?
“In The Great Transformation, Odd Arne Westad and Chen Jian ask a fresh question: How did the People’s Republic of China emerge from the lunacies of the Cultural Revolution and embark on the path to prosperity—a market-based industrialization that prior to 1978 would have been denounced as the ‘capitalist road’? Deeply researched and clearly written, this new account of a transformative period gives due weight to the local and international forces at work—as well as to the roads not taken, which might have been more liberal politically but less effective economically.”—Niall Ferguson, author of Civilization: The West and the Rest and Kissinger, 1923–1968: The Idealist
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Odd Arne Westad is the Elihu Professor of History and Global Affairs at Yale University. His books include The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times, winner of the Bancroft Prize, and Restless Empire: China and the World since 1750. He lives in New Haven, CT.
Chen Jian is Distinguished Global Network Professor of History at NYU and NYU Shanghai and Hu Shih Professor of History Emeritus at Cornell University. His books include China’s Road to the Korean War, Mao’s China and the Cold War, and Zhou Enlai: A Life. He lives in Ithaca, NY.
The Russian Way of Deterrence: Strategic Culture, Coercion, and War
By Dimitry (Dima) Adamsky
Stanford University Press, October 2023
226 pages
From a globally renowned expert on Russian military strategy and national security, The Russian Way of Deterrence investigates Russia’s approach to coercion (both deterrence and compellence), comparing and contrasting it with the Western conceptualization of this strategy. Strategic deterrence, or what Dmitry (Dima) Adamsky calls deterrence à la Russe, is one of the main tools of Russian statecraft. Adamsky deftly describes the genealogy of the Russian approach to coercion and highlights the cultural, ideational, and historical factors that have shaped it in the nuclear, conventional, and informational domains. Drawing on extensive research on Russian strategic culture, Adamsky highlights several empirical and theoretical peculiarities of the Russian coercion strategy, including how this strategy relates to the war in Ukraine. Exploring the evolution of strategic deterrence, along with its sources and prospective avenues of development, Adamsky provides a comprehensive intellectual history that makes it possible to understand the deep mechanics of this Russian stratagem, the current and prospective patterns of the Kremlin’s coercive conduct, and the implications for policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic
REVIEWS
“With a sophisticated understanding of strategic culture and an encyclopedic review of recent military thinking by Russian authors, Dmitry (Dima) Adamsky presents a creative and convincing new argument about Russian deterrence strategy. This is a must-read for anyone in academia or the policy world who wants to know how Russia thinks about war.”―Kimberly Marten, Barnard College, Columbia University
“It is one thing to say, ‘they don’t think the way we do.’ It is quite another to explore in depth how and why that is so―which is why The Russian Way of Deterrence is so profoundly important. A landmark work, invaluable today, and of enduring importance as a study of strategic culture.”―Eliot Cohen, Johns Hopkins SAIS
“Only Dmitry (Dima) Adamsky could have written this book, which brings together his knowledge of strategic culture, the evolution of modern Russian military thinking, and a deep knowledge of Russian military organizations. It comes at a time when it is needed.”―Stephen Peter Rosen, Harvard University
“In this rich and provocative book, Dmitry (Dima) Adamsky explores the distinctive approach to deterrence and coercion that has emerged in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Drawing on extensive research and careful analysis, Adamsky assesses the relevance of that new approach for understanding Russia’s war against Ukraine.”―David Holloway, Stanford University
“A magisterial study, revealing the evolution of the theory and practice of deterrence within the Russian strategic community. In this insightful account, Dmitry (Dima) Adamsky excels in synthesizing the Russian approach to deterrence, and coercion, through the lens of strategic culture literature.”―Michael Kofman, Center for Naval Analyses (CNA)
“The Russian Way of Deterrence is relevant and provocative when it comes to the emergent international security landscape…. Adamsky has done a splendid job at explaining Russian thinking about deterrence, providing the reader with important insights into how Russian deterrence theory and military strategy are responding to the changing character of war.”―James J. Wirtz, Comparative Strategy
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dmitry (Dima) Adamsky is a Professor at Reichman University in Israel and a visiting professor at Vytautas Magnus University in Lithuania. He is the author of Russian Nuclear Orthodoxy (Stanford, 2019) and The Culture of Military Innovation (Stanford, 2010).
Punishing Putin: Inside the Global Economic War to Bring Down Russia
By Stephanie E. Baker
Scribner, September 2024
368 pages
Undeterred by eight years of timid US sanctions, Vladimir Putin ordered his full-scale assault on Ukraine on February 24, 2022. In the hours that followed across the world, Western leaders weaponized economic tools to counter an unprecedented land grab by a nuclear-armed power. What followed was an undeniably world-changing financial experiment that risked throwing the world into a devastating recession. The end goal was simple: to sap the strength of Putin’s war machine and damage the Russian economy. . . From seizing superyachts to manipulating the global price of oil to trying to block the sale of military technology to Russia, we learn how the White House coordinated with top officials in London and Brussels to freeze a staggering $300 billion in foreign currency reserves accumulated in the West by Russia’s central bank. Mobilizing an army of white collar-crime investigators and experts on international law, Baker explores how the West has cracked down on illicit Russian money by targeting oligarchs, one superyacht at a time, and their enablers around the world.
REVIEWS
“The riveting inside story of the unprecedented economic war to take down Putin and save Ukraine. Anyone wishing to understand the complexity and difficulty of battling Putin on the global economic stage will find Stephanie Baker’s exposé an essential read.” — Bill Browder, New York Times
“Punishing Putin. . . explores the struggle to bankrupt Putin’s war machine—and how the Kremlin has responded with smuggling efforts and closer ties with Beijing. Essential reading for understanding Russia’s war and how it is remaking the world economy.” —Chris Miller, New York Times bestselling author of Chip War
“The essential, must-read insider account of the West’s cat-and-mouse economic warfare against Russia and how it is changing the face of global trade. Magisterial and gripping.” —Catherine Belton, author of Putin’s People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West
“Deeply reported and deftly written, Punishing Putin brings you inside a critical front in the new cold war, the one that will decide how long Russia can sustain its confrontation with the West. No one writing about sanctions today has a stronger grasp of this terrain than Stephanie Baker or a better knack for untangling its complexity.” —Simon Shuster, New York Times bestselling author of The Showman: Inside the Invasion that Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky
“Stephanie Baker has produced a definitive account of the war behind the war—the desperate struggle to restrain Russia’s violence through economic sanctions. . . this is a story that resounds beyond Eastern Europe. She argues persuasively that economic warfare is a crucial part of the modern arsenal, and that the lessons of Ukraine will shape future conflicts.” —Peter S. Canellos, author of The Great Dissenter
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stephanie Baker is an award-winning investigative reporter at Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Businessweek. She writes about politics, economics, financial crime, Russia, and Ukraine, among other topics. Her work has been recognized by the Gerald Loeb Awards, the Overseas Press Club, the UK Society of Editors, the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, the Society of Publishers in Asia, and the UK’s Foreign Press Association. She is a fixture across all Bloomberg media, including Bloomberg television, radio, and podcasts, and she has appeared on NPR, PBS, and the BBC.
Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country
By Patricia Evangelista
Random House, October 2023
428 pages
Journalist Patricia Evangelista came of age in the aftermath of a street revolution that forged a new future for the Philippines. Three decades later, in the face of mounting inequality, the nation discovered the fragility of its democratic institutions under the regime of strongman Rodrigo Duterte.
Some People Need Killing is Evangelista’s meticulously reported. . . human chronicle of the Philippines’ drug war. For six years, Evangelista documented the killings carried out by police and vigilantes in the name of Duterte’s war on drugs—a crusade that has led to the slaughter of thousands—immersing herself in the world of killers and survivors and capturing the atmosphere of terror created when an elected president decides that some lives are worth less than others.
The book takes its title from a vigilante, whose words demonstrated the psychological accommodation many across the country had made: “I’m really not a bad guy,” he said. “I’m not all bad. Some people need killing.”
A profound act of witness and a tour de force of literary journalism, Some People Need Killing is a brilliant dissection of the grammar of violence and an investigation into the human impulses to dominate and resist.
REVIEWS
A journalistic masterpiece . . . One of the most remarkable pieces of narrative nonfiction I have read in a long, long time.”—David Remnick, The New Yorker
“Evangelista makes us feel the fear and grief that she felt as she chronicled what Duterte was doing to her country. But appealing to our emotions is only part of it; what makes this book so striking is that she wants us to think about what happened, too. She pays close attention to language, and not only because she is a writer. Language can be used to communicate, to deny, to threaten, to cajole. Duterte’s language is coarse and degrading. Evangelista’s is evocative and exacting.”—The New York Times
“Riveting . . . Evangelista’s book is an extraordinary testament to half a decade of state-sanctioned terror. It’s also a timely warning for the state of democracy.”—The Atlantic
“In this haunting work of memoir and reportage, Patricia Evangelista both describes the origins of autocratic rule in the Philippines, and explains its universal significance. The cynicism of voters, the opportunism of Filipino politicians, the appeal of brutality and violence to both groups—all of this will be familiar to readers, wherever they are from.”—Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Patricia Evangelista is a former investigative reporter for the Philippine news company Rappler. Her reporting on armed conflict and disaster was awarded the Kate Webb Prize for exceptional journalism in dangerous conditions. She was a Headlands Artist in Residence, a New America ASU Future Security Fellow, and a fellow of the Logan Nonfiction Program, the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, and the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma. Her work has earned local and international acclaim. She lives in Manila.
