Hot off the Presses

Highlighting new books from the Belfer Center Community:

Security Mom: An Unclassified Guide to Protecting Our Homeland and Your Home

By Juliette Kayyem, Board Member, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

Simon & Schuster (April 2016)

It’s time to put the “home” back into our homeland. Part prescription and part memoir, this exceptional view of America’s security concerns by a leading government Homeland Security advisor, Pulitzer Prize–finalist columnist, CNN analyst, and mother of three delivers a message and a plan: security begins at home.

Insightful, honest and with no shortage of humor, Kayyem’s memoir may prove—beyond any government accounting or historical analysis—the most lasting contribution to explaining America’s security efforts and engaging our communities for the challenges we will certainly face. She brings it home for all of us.

—Edward Davis, Former Commissioner, Boston Police Department

War by Other Means: Geoeconomics and Statecraft

By Robert D. Blackwill, Senior Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and Jennifer Harris

Simon & Schuster (April 2016)

In a cogent analysis of why the United States is losing ground as a world power and what it can do to reverse the trend, War by Other Means describes the statecraft of geoeconomics: the use of economic instruments to achieve geopolitical goals. Geoeconomics has long been a lever of America’s foreign policy. But factors ranging from U.S. bureaucratic politics to theories separating economics from foreign policy leave America ill-prepared for this new era of geoeconomic contest, while rising powers, especially China, are adapting rapidly. The rules-based system Americans set in place after World War II benefited the United States for decades, but now, as the system frays and global competitors take advantage, America is uniquely self-constrained. Its geoeconomic policies are hampered by neglect and resistance, leaving the United States overly reliant on traditional military force.

Robert Blackwill and Jennifer Harris do policymakers a service by reminding them of the importance of geoeconomic tools. In a world increasingly affected by economic power, their analysis deserves careful consideration.

—Dr. Henry A. Kissinger, former U.S. Secretary of State

United States Law and Policy on Transitional Justice: Principles, Politics, and Pragmatics

By Zachary D. Kaufman, Research Fellow, International Security Program

Oxford University Press (April 2016)

In this book, Zachary D. Kaufman explores the U.S. government’s support for, or opposition to, certain transitional justice institutions. By first presenting an overview of possible responses to atrocities (such as war crimes tribunals) and then analyzing six historical case studies, Kaufman evaluates why and how the United States has pursued particular transitional justice options since World War II.Kaufman demonstrates that political and pragmatic factors featured as or more prominently in U.S. transitional justice policy than did United States government officials’ normative beliefs.

Dr. Zachary Kaufman’s book makes an important contribution to our understanding of the how’s and why’s of America’s transitional justice policies…. A superb achievement.

—Dr. Yuen Foong Khong, Li Ka Shing Professor of Political Science, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore

The Use of Force: Military Power and International Politics

Edited by Robert J. Art, Fmr. Research Fellow, International Security Program and Kelly M. Greenhill, Research Fellow, International Security Program

Eighth Edition, Rowman & Littlefield  (July 2015)

The Use of Force, long considered a classic in its own right, brings together enduring, influential works on the role of military power in foreign policy and international politics. Now in its eighth edition, the reader has been significantly revised; with twenty innovative and up-to-date selections, this edition is 60 percent new. Continuing the tradition of previous editions, this fully updated reader collects the best analysis by influential thinkers on the use of force in international affairs.

It is hard to imagine a better collection of traditional security analyses by prominent realist scholars.

—Deborah Avant, Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver