Hot off the Presses

Highlights of new books by Belfer Center authors

Cycles of Invention and Discovery: Rethinking the Endless Frontier

By Venkatesh Narayanamurti, Benjamin Peirce Research Professor of Technology and Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School;
Toluwalogo Odumosu, Associate, Science, Technology, & Public Policy Program

Harvard University Press
(October 2016)

Cycles of Invention and Discovery offers an in-depth look at the real-world practice of science and engineering. It shows how the standard categories of “basic” and “applied” have become a hindrance to the organization of the U.S. science and technology enterprise. Tracing the history of these problematic categories, the authors document how historical views of policymakers and scientists have led to the construction of science as a pure ideal on the one hand and of engineering as a practical activity on the other.

“The authors make a substantial contribution to both research policy as practiced by our federal government and the operations of research laboratories in many institutions in our country. This book should be required reading for government officials who fund research and to all who lead large research efforts.” —Thomas E. Everhart, California Institute of Technology

Ruling Minds: Psychology in the British Empire

By Erik Linstrum, Former Ernest May Fellow in History and Policy, International Security Program

Harvard University Press 
(January 2016)

At its zenith in the early twentieth century, the British Empire ruled nearly one-quarter of the world’s inhabitants. As they worked to exercise power in diverse and distant cultures, British authorities relied to a surprising degree on the science of mind. Ruling Minds explores how psychology opened up new possibilities for governing the empire. From the mental testing of workers and soldiers to the use of psychoanalysis in development plans and counterinsurgency strategy, psychology provided tools for measuring and managing the minds of imperial subjects. This book shows that psychology did more to expose the limits of imperial authority than to strengthen it.

“This reviewer has difficulty imagining a future history of modernist psychology that will be the equal of Linstrum’s impressive foundational study. An indispensable read for anyone interested in history, psychology, and political science.” —M. Uebel, Choice

Rape During Civil War

By Dara Kay Cohen, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School

Cornell University Press
(August 2016)

Rape is common during wartime, but even within the context of the same war, some armed groups perpetrate rape on a massive scale while others never do. In Rape During Civil War, Dara Kay Cohen examines variation in the severity and perpetrators of rape using an original dataset of reported rape during all major civil wars from 1980–2012. Cohen also conducted extensive fieldwork, including interviews with perpetrators of wartime rape, in three postconflict countries.

“Rape is one of the most devastating forms of violence associated with war, and preventing it requires a deeper understanding of its causes. Rape During Civil War represents the most significant scholarly effort to understand this phenomenon. The breadth and quality of the research is remarkable. Dara Kay Cohen combines cross-national statistical work with in-depth case studies, including extensive original research and interviews with both victims and perpetrators….” —Benjamin Valentino, author of Final Solutions: Mass Killing and Genocide in the 20th Century

THE PIVOT: The Future of American Statecraft in Asia

By Kurt Campbell, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

Hatchette Book Group
(June 2016)

The United States is in the midst of a substantial and long-term national project, which is proceeding in fits and starts, to reorient its foreign policy to the East. The central tenet of this policy shift, aka the Pivot, is that the United States will need to do more with and in the Asia-Pacific hemisphere to help revitalize its own economy, to realize the full potential of the region’s dramatic innovation, and to keep the peace in the world’s most dynamic region where the lion’s share of the history of the twenty-first century will be written.

THE PIVOT explores how the United States should construct a strategy that will position it to maneuver across the East.

“This is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the emerging ‘Pacific Century’ and America’s indispensable role in it.” —John McCain, U.S. Senator