Booklist | What to Read on Global Policy Analysis” in IR via Stephen M. Walt

Walt’s crowdsourcing a reading list–but also identifying the gap in goodreads for global policy analysis.  He also explains why process matters so much for international policymaking, and the importance of implementation via diplomacy and military power:

In global affairs, by contrast, the rule of law is far weaker and there are often competing power centers with very different interests. Strategic interactions loom much larger, and the success of a given policy choice often depends not just on the intrinsic merits of the specific initiative but on how other key actors will respond to it. (Among other things, this is why simple game theoretic models are often useful for analyzing certain international policy problems). To the extent that the issues are truly global, the correct policy choice depends far more on bargaining, persuasion, in some cases coercion, and on developing solutions that either elicit others’ voluntary compliance or achieve the objective in the face of opposition. Such features are not entirely absent in domestic policy discussions, but they play a larger role in interactions between states, corporations, and non-state actors operating in the anarchic world of international politics.

via Is There a Good Book or Article on “Policy Analysis” in IR? | Stephen M. Walt.

Some of the commenter suggestions are worth considering:

• Maarten Hajer’s article, “Policy without Polity: policy analysis and the institutional void”
• John Mearsheimer, Why Leaders Lie
• Dan Drezner, All Politics is Global; Avoiding Trivia
• Being useful: policy relevance and international relations
• Managing Strategic Surprise, Ian Bremmer and Paul Bracken, eds.
• Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, The Practioneer’s Game
• Bob Jervis, Why Intelligence Fails
• Policy analysis papers from Bernard Brodie, Tom Schelling and Raymond Garthoff
• Graham Allison and Zelikow, Essence of Decision
• Jeffrey Pfeffer, Managing with Power: Politics and Influence in Organizations

Booklist | ‘Passage of Power,’ 4th Book of Caro’s Johnson Portrait – NYTimes.com

The series of LBJ’s remarkable life as political force of nature–part Darth Vader, part Mr. Smith–is a compelling study in leadership for anyone with the time to wade through them all.  Michiko Kakutani reviews the latest volume:

He was a man driven by a colossal ego and a genuine sense of compassion for the powerless and the poor: a man who, in the weeks and months after the assassination, was able, in Mr. Caro’s opinion, to overcome his own weaknesses and baser instincts — not for long but “long enough” — to act in a fashion that was “a triumph not only of genius but of will.”

As he did in the third volume, “Master of the Senate,” Mr. Caro finds much to admire in the legislative ends to which Johnson used power, and he employs his insights into Johnson’s personality — his insecurities, his fear of failure, his need to ingratiate himself with those above him and dominate those below — to examine the role that character plays in politics and policy making and hence in histor

via ‘Passage of Power,’ 4th Book of Caro’s Johnson Portrait – NYTimes.com.

Zbigniew Brzezinski and Robert Kagan on the State of America – NYTimes.com

The two big books of the hour in geopolitics…and one that Obama has read:

As you’d expect, there are big differences between the two. Kagan barely mentions the Iraq war in “The World America Made,” and certainly feels no need to explain his past enthusiasm for a decision that many now regard as a calamity. By contrast, Brzezinski is scathing in “Strategic Vision,” judging Iraq “a costly diversion” from the fight against Al Qaeda. The war, he says, was justified by dubious claims about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that “evaporated altogether within a few months” and that sapped America’s international standing.

via Zbigniew Brzezinski and Robert Kagan on the State of America – NYTimes.com.

Booklist | Ethics, Conscience, and the Messiness of Doing the Right Thing -‘Beautiful Souls,’ by Eyal Press – NYTimes.com

The question? Why do certain people do the right thing even amidst difficulty?  This book takes a broad range of disciplines and tries shine a light on how to explain them, offering “rich, provocative narratives of moral choice” according to Michael S. Roth, president of Wesleyan University.  (Also, reviewed on NPR).

Press examines his subjects carefully, alert to the different personalities and circumstances of each individual. He weighs the role of prejudice, idealism and community. He explores the “element of reciprocity” in one case and the “anxiety of responsibility” in another, sees the importance of “mutual support” and discusses the frustrations of being ignored. He reads about oxytocin receptors; he studies David Hume. He makes modest conclusions. I don’t mean that as criticism. If Press made more comprehensive claims, I wouldn’t trust him. It’s no more possible to explain an act of conscience than it is to dissect a dream.

We often use the word “conscience” when we don’t know what other word to use. When Grüninger said he “could do nothing else,” he may have been deflecting judgment, or he may not have been able to describe his sense of compulsion any better, his feeling that he didn’t have a choice when he clearly did. “Conscience” is indefinable. It can be indefensible, too: An act of conscience describes an action motivated by loyalty to a conviction, but it usually requires the defiance of other loyalties. It can mean turning away from your family, or your country, or your job, or even your sense of self. Press’s real achievement in this short book is not in his research or analysis, but in his refusal to flinch from that disquieting fact.

via ‘Beautiful Souls,’ by Eyal Press – NYTimes.com.

The Impact of Books on Washington Policy – NYTimes.com

Great read (pardon the pun) on how ideas influence policy…a thesis not overly surprising for a book-a-day place like DC. I also wholly support the notion that most books were more effective as articles as well as the notion that you don’t need to read the entire book to get the key ideas.

I saw the potency of books firsthand while serving recently on the State Department’s policy planning staff. Ideas that originated between covers often shaped conversations and found their way into major speeches or memos. Indeed, a book, by its mere existence, can lend legitimacy to an argument in a sound-bite-driven debate. “There are so many ideas flying around, it’s very important that some have been worked out more thoroughly and comprehensively,” says Anne-Marie Slaughter, the State Department’s policy planning director from 2009 to 2011. “When I find an idea I’ll immediately go to the book to make sure that it’s serious, even if I don’t read the whole book.” The author Leslie Gelb acknowledges that his “Power Rules,”where he argued that G.D.P. matters more than military might, was more influential when reduced to articles. Still, he says, publishing a book “gets people talking about what you did.”

Other key reads?  ”Nonzero,” “Monsoon,” Lords of Finance,” “This Time is Different,” and even “The Best and the Brightest” all get the nod.

“Nonzero” employs evolutionary biology and game theory to argue that life is not a zero-sum game with a clear winner and loser. “You operate within a much more horizontal setting, where you operate by connecting to others and mobilizing others in ways that advance common causes,” Slaughter says. “ ‘Nonzero’ basically spells out the logic of that.” This idea was reflected in Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 2010 Internet Freedom speech, which championed the “freedom to connect.” Slaughter, who was policy planning director at the time, says, “We were actively focused on a world in which the power to connect to others is essential.”

via The Impact of Books on Washington Policy – NYTimes.com.

Booklist | Best Reads 2011 for Diplomacy and International Affairs

In 2011 the lessons of US conflict, financial meltdowns, and ongoing political cycle made for a whole lot to think about.  These books are moving to the top of my booklist for better insights into diplomacy and international affairs–not because I have read them, but because they come highly recommended and touch on what I see as important topics.  Feedback is welcome.

 

• ARGUABLY: Essays by Christopher Hithens.  With his passing the world has lost an estimable writer, debater, and a formidable foe for all who believe in God.
• CATHERINE THE GREAT: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie.  Because you can never read enough Russian history.
• GEORGE F. KENNAN: An American Life by John Lewis Gaddis.  The most important biography for students of diplomacy and foreign policy of the year by an estimable giant in the field.
• MORE THAN GOOD INTENTIONS by Dean Karlan and Jacob Appel.  Is foreign aid all bad? Here comes a third way for thinking about international development.
• PAKISTAN: A Hard Country by Anatol Lieven.  An inside look at a critical country that many fail to fully understand, especially with very high stakes, including nuclear weapons, strained military/civilian relations, and regional conflicts.
• THE GREAT BIG BOOK OF HORRIBLE THINGS by Matthew White.  An amateur’s major contribution to documenting war.  In the broad sweep of history, we can see more clearly the impact and depths of humanity’s inhumanity–and also better understand by comparison of how many people were lost in each.
• THINKING FAST AND SLOW by Daniel Kahneman.  Treading in the footsteps of Malcolm Gladwell, this Nobel recognized psychologist presents his life’s work addressing decision making, intuition, and what it means for persuasion.
• THE SWERVE: How The World Became Modern, by Stephen Greenblatt.  The debate over modernity continues–but it warrants consideration as to how the West arrived here.
• THE QUEST: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World by Daniel Yergin.  His earlier book explained the world of energy and this one shows how policy should be directed in this critical area.
• THE UNQUIET AMERICAN: Richard Holbrooke in the World by Derek Chollett and Samantha Power.  A review of the one of the most important American diplomats of the past thirty years.
• TO END ALL WARS: A Story Of Loyalty And Rebellion, 1914-1918 by Adam Hochschild.  A new perspective by a writer with a social conscience the “great war” that explores its supporters versus detractors, rather than necessarily looking at it from the sides of various combatants.
• THE INFLUENCING MACHINE by Brooke Gladstone, illustrated by Josh Neufeld.  Who are the media and what does it mean for “great journalism” in the face of multiplying online content, amateur writers, and emerging forms for conveying information?
• WHAT IT IS LIKE TO GO TO WAR by Karl Marlantes.  With Iraq scaling down and Afghanistan still ongoing, our need to better understand the horror and lasting effects of conflict remains high.
• WHY THE WEST RULES–FOR NOW: The Patterns of History, and What they Reveal About the Future by Ian Morris.  Focus for a moment on the most important nexus of international politics–the east/west axis.

 

Booklist | Drezner’s Reading List for U.S. Politicians

In the throes of the U.S. Republican Primary to recognize John Huntsman’s exit today  take a look at these suggestions from regular FP.com blogger Dan Drezner for informing your inner pol:

1)  Walter Russell Mead, Special Providence.  Comment:  An excellent introduction to the myriad strains of thought that have permeated American foreign policy over the past two and a half centuries.  International relations theorists might quibble with Mead’s different intellectual traditions, but I suspect politicians will immediately “get” them.

2)  David Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest (for Democrats); James Mann, Rise of the Vulcans (for Republicans).  Comment:  Each side should read about their greatest foreign policy mistake of the past century to appreciate that even the best and smartest advisors in the world will not necessarily translate into wise foreign policies.

3)  Richard Neustadt and Earnest May, Thinking in Time.  Comment:  Politicians like to claim that they don’t cotton to abstract academic theories of the world, that they rely on things like “common sense”  and “folk wisdom.”  …  Neustadt and May’s book does an excellent job of delineating the various ways that the history can be abused in presidential decision-making.

via My three must-read U.S. foreign policy books for aspring politicians | Daniel W. Drezner.

Watch for my year in review list of best books for thinking about diplomacy and international affairs.  (I’m up to my neck in booklists, another great things about year end and the start of a new semester.)

Booklist | The Partnership – Five Cold Warriors and Their Quest to Ban the Bomb, Philip Taubman

An important story of important global leaders who aim to get rid of what is arguably the greatest danger to world survival in the 21st century:

Philip Taubman’s fascinating, haunting book, “The Partnership,” is about the drive to abolish nuclear weapons — and, implicitly, about why it will probably fail. Taubman, a former reporter and editor for The New York Times, tells the stories of five American national security mandarins who, in the twilight of their illustrious careers, stunned their peers by campaigning to scrap all nuclear arms. They are not exactly pacifist hippies: Henry A. Kissinger and George P. Shultz, Republican secretaries of state; William J. Perry, a Democratic secretary of defense; Sam Nunn, a Democrat who had been chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee; and Sidney D. Drell, an influential Stanford physicist. Their continuing activism, Taubman writes, “has induced sitting presidents and foreign ministers to embrace ideas not long ago ridiculed as radical and reckless,” and has “powerfully influenced Obama,” who advocates a world without nuclear ­weapons.

These five men had done much to foster a nuclearized world, and had prospered for their contributions to its infernal machinery. Much of “The Partnership” consists of eerie tales of the atomic cold war, charting the upward progress of these grandees. When they broke ranks, Taubman writes, “it was roughly equivalent to John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, J. P. Morgan and Jay Gould calling for the demise of capitalism.”

via The Partnership – Five Cold Warriors and Their Quest to Ban the Bomb – By Philip Taubman – Book Review – NYTimes.com.

Booklist | The Unquiet American: Richard Holbrooke in the World

Finally, the urgently awaited book on Holbrooke.  Think of this as the Steven Jobs book for diplomats:

Holbrooke was not unaccustomed to being a singular figure. In a handsome eulogy to George Kennan in 2005, he observed: “In today’s Washington, with its emphasis on orthodox thinking, such a person could never rise inside the government. . . . This is a great loss, because, as the life of George F. Kennan shows, individual, original thinking by one lonely person can sometimes illuminate and guide us better than all the high-level panels and commissions and interagency meetings.” That might also serve as an appropriate epitaph for Holbrooke.

via The Unquiet American – Richard Holbrooke in the World – Edited by Derek Chollet and Samantha Power – Book Review – NYTimes.com.

Booklist | Niall Ferguson’s ‘Civilization’ Traces West’s Decline – Review – NYTimes.com

A renowned Harvard historian offers his take on the decline of the West with a take that is two parts history and one part finance:

Indeed, the central thesis of “Civilization” is that six “killer apps” (along with “the fortuitous weakness of the West’s rivals”) enabled the West “to dominate the world for the better part of 500 years.” Those “apps” were competition, science, property rights, medicine, “the consumer society” (“without which the Industrial Revolution would have been unsustainable”) and “the work ethic” (which Mr. Ferguson, drawing upon Max Weber, associates with Protestant Christianity).

Much as Mr. Zakaria did in “The Post-American World” (2008), Mr. Ferguson notes that in recent decades much of the rest of the world has become increasingly adept at downloading such Western concepts.

via Niall Ferguson’s ‘Civilization’ Traces West’s Decline – Review – NYTimes.com.