Hot Off the Presses

The Gene Revolution: GM Crops and Unequal Development
Edited by Sakiko Fukuda-Parr; Earthscan

The high-yield selective breeding of "the Green Revolution" of the 1960s and 70s is now being overtaken by "the Gene Revolution"-the development and spread of GM crops across the world. This is the first book to bridge the gap between the "naysayers" and "cheerleaders," and to provide a penetrating examination of the realities, complexities, benefits and pitfalls of GM adoption in developing countries that are desperately fighting poverty while trying to stay afloat in the hyper-competitive global economy.

"An accessible introduction to the food and environmental policy issues posed by the Gene Revolution . . . should be required reading!"
-Vernon W. Ruttan, University of Minnesota

A Leadership for Peace: How Edwin Ginn Tried to Change the World
By Robert I. Rotberg; Stanford University Press

For as long as there has been war, there have been those who have opposed such bloodshed. Here Robert Rotberg details the flowering of the great American peace movement in the late nineteenth century and the remarkable life of its foremost proponent, Edwin Ginn. This is the story of Ginn's personal attempt to change world attitudes regarding the dangers of arming for war by appealing to logic, reason, and common sense. Ginn's vigorous peace campaigning and organizational activities shed substantial light on important foreign and domestic issues in the decades leading up to the First World War.

"This book presents little-known and new material regarding a ‘leading' figure in the late 19th and early 20th century American peace movement-the Boston educational book publisher and originator of the World Peace Foundation, Edwin Ginn. It does something more, which is to exhibit nearly all of the strategic and intellectual dilemmas that are faced by the internationalist counterparts of Edwin Ginn and the World Peace Foundation today."

-Alan K. Henrikson, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University

Service to Country: Personnel Policy and the Transformation of Western Militaries
Edited by Curtis Gilroy and Cindy Williams, BCSIA Studies in International Security; The MIT Press

Motivated, able, and well-trained military personnel are essential to the success of any military, and personnel policies are crucial to getting and keeping qualified servicemen and women. The transformation of personnel policies is an important element of the broader transformation occurring in Western militaries. Across Europe and North America, nations are embracing plans to change military personnel policies to build future capabilities consistent with new strategic environments and with the demographic and societal realities of the future. For many nations, a key reform is to shift from a conscript military to a smaller, all-volunteer force.

"The book is a must-read for anyone interested in the future of successful Western militaries."

-General Sir Rupert Smith, British Army (ret.), former Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, and author of The Utility of Force: The Art of War in the Modern World

Human Rights and Wrongs: Slavery, Terror, Genocide
By Helen Fein; Paradigm

Human Rights and Wrongs explains the persistence of crimes against humanity since the Holocaust-including slavery, terror, and genocide. Using extended country descriptions and analyses, the book goes beyond case studies to explain such gross human rights violations in terms of an integrated theory of life integrity, giving readers vivid illustrations in addition to a theoretical framework. Distinguished author Helen Fein then asks how we can arrest human wrongs and discusses whether democracy is the answer. She shows the positive links among human rights, freedom, and development and draws out policy recommendations from her findings.

"Helen Fein has long been one of the world's leading experts on genocide and state-sponsored massacres. In her superb new book she returns to that subject but also delves into other atrocities-terror, torture, and slavery-that have been perpetrated by states and by non-state actors alike...her eloquent discussion and shrewd insights help readers to understand why these appalling forms of human cruelty have occurred so frequently and why bringing an end to them has been so difficult."

-Mark Kramer, Director of Cold War Studies, Harvard University

The End of Government . . . As We Know It: Making Public Policy Work
By Elaine C. Kamarck; Lynne Rienner

In the last decades of the twentieth century, many political leaders declared that government was, in the words of Ronald Reagan,"the problem, not the solution." But on closer inspection, argues Elaine Kamarck, the revolt against government was and is a revolt against bureaucracy-a revolt that has taken place in first world, developing, and avowedly communist countries alike.

To some, this looks like the end of government. Kamarck, however, counters that what we are seeing is the replacement of the traditional bureaucratic approach with new models more in keeping with the information age economy. The End of Government explores the emerging contours of this new, postbureaucratic state considering: What forms will it take? Will it work in all policy arenas? Will it served democratic ideals more effectively than did the bureaucratic state of the previous century?

"Elaine Kamarck shows us what we can expect if we want to go beyond the tired rhetoric of left and right to create a government capable of dealing with all the new challenges of this new century. . . ."

-Al Gore, former Vice President of the United States