Pakistan Under Siege: Extremism, Society, and the State (Brookings, 2018) provides a unique insight into Pakistan’s complex and multi-layered relationship with militancy and the role of the state in Islamicizing society in a way that Pakistanis

Philip Thai, “China’s War on Smuggling: Law, Economic Life, and the Making of the Modern State, 1842-1965” (Columbia UP, 2018)

Aug 21st, 2018 1h 5m

From petty runs to organized trafficking, the illicit activity of smuggling on the China coast was inherently dramatic, but now historian Philip Thai has also identified China’s history of smuggling as a significant narrative about the expansio

Stephen Tankel, “With Us and Against Us: How America’s Partners Help and Hinder the War on Terror” (Columbia UP, 2018)

Aug 10th, 2018 59m 44s

With Us and Against Us: How America’s Partners Help and Hinder the War on Terror (Columbia University Press, 2018) offers readers a fresh, insightful and new perspective on US counterterrorism cooperation with complex countries like Saudi Arabi

Jacob N. Shapiro, “Small Wars, Big Data: The Information Revolution in Modern Conflict” (Princeton UP, 2018)

Jun 7th, 2018 53m 33s

Small Wars, Big Data: The Information Revolution in Modern Conflict (Princeton University Press, 2018), Eli Berman, Joseph H. Felter, and Jacob N. Shapiro, takes a data-based approach to examine how actions can affect violence in asymmetric con

Milan Vaishnav, “When Crime Pays: Money and Muscle in Indian Politics” (Yale UP, 2017)

May 9th, 2018 29m 13s

Why do Indian voters knowingly vote for politicians with pending criminal proceedings against them? Why do political parties recruit criminal politicians among their rank and file? If money and muscle do not mean the failure of democracy, but i

George Perkovich and Ariel E. Levite, “Understanding Cyber Conflict: 14 Analogies” (Georgetown UP, 2017)

Apr 18th, 2018 52m 37s

Understanding Cyber Conflict: 14 Analogies (Georgetown University Press, 2017), edited by George Perkovich and Ariel E. Levite, uses analogies to conventional warfare and previous technological innovations to explain the complexities of cyber c

Looted Episode 4: Village Pillage (“Field Notes”)

Mar 10th, 2018 25m 56s

This is the fourth in a series of podcasts from Zoe Kontes’ terrific “Looted.”Archaeologist Dr. Spencer Pope shares his thoughts on looting in Sicily, particularly at the site of Palik, a 2,400 year old town not far…

Alexander Thurston, “Boko Haram: The History of an African Jihadist Movement” (Princeton UP, 2017)

Feb 5th, 2018 46m 39s

Boko Haram is one of the most well known global terrorist organizations. They have killed thousands of people and displaced millions of West Africans. While widespread journalistic reporting on the group tries to keep up with their activities,

Mark S. Hamm and Ramon Spaaij, “The Age of Lone Wolf Terrorism” (Columbia UP, 2017)

Jan 19th, 2018 43m 52s

The Age of Lone Wolf Terrorism (Columbia University Press, 2017), by Mark S. Hamm and Ramon Spaaij, identifies patterns among individuals that commit acts of terror outside of a group or network. Hamm and Spaaij follow these individuals, common

Matthew Bunn and Scott D. Sagan, “Insider Threats” (Cornell UP, 2017)

Jan 12th, 2018 44m 7s

In Insider Threats (Cornell University Press, 2017), co-editors Matthew Bunn and Scott D. Sagan bring together a series of case studies and lessons learned spanning public and private sectors. Essays include discussions of the American anthrax

Looted Episode 3: Big Bronzes

Jan 2nd, 2018 24m 3s

This is the third in a series of podcasts from Zoe Kontes’ terrific “Looted.” There’s nothing like a full-bodied ancient Greek bronze nude to get the crowds to a museum. A visitor might even fall in love (speaking from personal experience Riace

Hilary Matfess, “Women and the War on Boko Haram: Wives, Weapons, Witnesses” (Zed Books, 2017)

Dec 18th, 2017 43m 28s

Today we talked with Hilary Matfess about her new book Women and the War on Boko Haram: Wives, Weapons, Witnesses, just recently published by Zed Books in 2017. Drawn from her extensive research and interviews from 2015 to 2017, Matfess’ book a

Looted Episode 2: Figure Drawing

Nov 24th, 2017 26m 29s

This is the second in a series of podcasts from Zoe Kontes’ terrific “Looted.” Marble figurines made ca. 5,000 years ago in the Cycladic Islands of the Aegean became all the rage for collectors, and a great influence in Modernist Art. Easily lo

Looted Episode 1: Gold Digger

Nov 2nd, 2017 22m 43s

This is the first in a series of podcasts from Zoe Kontes’ terrific “Looted.” Listen to the story of a gold funerary wreath, looted from Northern Greece in the 1990s, smuggled into Germany, and eventually purchased by an illustrious U.S. museum

Andrew Smith, “Terror and Terroir: The Winegrowers of the Languedoc and Modern France” (Manchester University Press, 2016)

Oct 6th, 2017 59m 26s

Andrew Smith‘s Terror and Terroir: The Winegrowers of the Languedoc and Modern France (Manchester University Press, 2016) is a political history of wine radicalism. Focused on the producers rather than the consumers of what Roland Barthes famou

Geoff Martin and Erin Steuter, “Pop Culture Goes to War: Enlisting an Resisting Militarism in the War on Terror” (Lexington Books, 2010)

Aug 16th, 2017 57m 4s

Two professors from Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, Canada have published a book about how American popular culture reinforces militarism in the United States. In Pop Culture Goes to War: Enlisting and Resisting Militarism in the War

Adam Lockyer, “Australia’s Defence Strategy: Evaluating Alternatives for a Contested Asia (Melbourne University Press, 2017)

May 14th, 2017 14m 34s

In Australia’s Defence Strategy: Evaluating Alternatives for a Contested Asia (Melbourne University Press, 2017), Adam Lockyer, a Senior Lecturer in Security Studies at Macquarie University, explores how to use theory to evaluate defense strate

James Heinzen, “The Art of the Bribe: Corruption Under Stalin, 1943-1953” (Yale UP, 2016)

May 12th, 2017 1h 1m

The Soviet Union under Stalin was very repressive. You could get sent to a GULAG (if not shot) for casually telling an “anti-Soviet” joke or pilfering ubiquitous “state property.” But, as James Heinzen points out in his excellent book The Art o

Rebecca Gould, “Writers and Rebels: Literature of Insurgency in the Caucasus” (Yale UP, 2016)

Apr 22nd, 2017 1h 4m

Rebecca Gould‘s Writers and Rebels: Literature of Insurgency in the Caucasus (Yale University Press, 2016) is the first existing comparative study of Chechen, Dagestani and Georgian literatures and a major contribution to the study of the cultu

Phil Gurski, “Western Foreign Fighters: The Threat to Homeland and International Security” (Rowman and Littlefield, 2016)

Apr 17th, 2017 51m 37s

Phil Gurski‘s Western Foreign Fighters: The Threat to Homeland and International Security (Rowman and Littlefield, 2016) is his second recent monograph on terrorism, and another useful resource for practitioners and non-specialists alike. Writt

Julie Wilhelmsen “Russia’s Securitization of Chechnya: How War Became Acceptable (Routledge, 2017)

Feb 14th, 2017 48m 59s

In Russia’s Securitization of Chechnya: How War Became Acceptable (Routledge, 2017), a study of the transformations of the image of Chechnya in the Russian public sphere, Julie Wilhelmsen performs a post-structuralist revision of the Copenhagen

Karen J. Greenberg, “Rogue Justice: The Making of the Security State” (Crown Publishers, 2016)

Jan 27th, 2017 1h 1m

The 9/11 attacks revealed a breakdown in American intelligence and there was a demand for individuals and institutions to find out what went wrong, correct it, and prevent another catastrophe like 9/11 from ever happening again. In Rogue Justic

Samson Lim, “Siam’s New Detectives: Visualizing Crime and Conspiracy in Modern Thailand” (U of Hawaii Press, 2016)

Jan 21st, 2017 59m 11s

Siam’s New Detectives: Visualizing Crime and Conspiracy in Modern Thailand (University of Hawaii Press, 2016) is a rewarding, multilayered study of how Thailand became the Kingdom of Crime, and its police, masters of simulation and representati

Marc Sageman, “Misunderstanding Terrorism” (U. Pennsylvania Press, 2016)

Dec 14th, 2016

In Misunderstanding Terrorism (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016) Marc Sageman provides an important reassessment of the global neojihadi threat to the West. He argues that inaccurate evaluations of the threat and overreactions to a limite

Samantha Newbery, “Interrogation, Intelligence and Security: Controversial British Techniques” (Manchester UP, 2015)

Dec 17th, 2015 30m 44s

Interrogation, Intelligence and Security: Controversial British Techniques (Manchester University Press, 2015) by Samantha Newbery examines issues of history, efficacy, and policy in her thorough examination of British authorities’ use of the “