Books

Escaping Gravity is Belfer Center Senior Fellow and former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver's first-hand account of the transformation of the space agency. She describes how a handful of "revolutionaries" helped transform NASA through changes that enabled competition and challenged the traditional systems at the same time the capabilities and  resources of the private sector began to mature. 

This chapter investigates the durability of partnership arrangements and their adaptability as a key condition for partnership effectiveness and long-term sustainability. Using a 16-year database consisting of partnership initiatives selected as finalists for the Roy Family Award for Environmental Partnership, as well as case studies of the Noel Kempff Climate Action Project, Mexico City Metrobús, and Alianza Shire, Amanda Sardonis and Henry Lee show that partnership adaptability is a determinant of partnership effectiveness and is intrinsically linked to partnership structuring.

This chapter in The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Futures presents a taxonomy of photovoltaic installations based on who owns them and uses their electricity, making it easier to identify solar energy communities in urban environments and map their economic, environmental and social benefits. 

In his new book, The Avoidable War?, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd demystifies the actions of the U.S. and China, explaining and translating them for the benefit of the other. Geopolitical disaster is still avoidable, but only if these two giants can find a way to coexist without betraying their core interests through what Rudd calls “managed strategic competition.” Should they fail, down that path lies the possibility of a war that could rewrite the future of both countries, and the world.

Number One Realist illuminates Bernard Fall's study of political reconciliation in Indochina, while showing how his profound, humanitarian critique of war continues to echo in the endless conflicts of the present. It will challenge and change the way we think about the Vietnam War.

In The Devil Never Sleeps,  Juliette Kayyem lays the groundwork for a new “fail safely” approach to dealing with disasters. The book shares lessons on how to better prepare for that moment. Kayyem examines notable crises, like the Challenger explosion, California wildfires, and the power outage at Super Bowl XLVII, detailing the choices people made along the way and how they impacted outcomes.

An excerpt from a chapter in the forthcoming Lincoln Institute book Infrastructure Economics and Policy: International Perspectives, which includes contributions from leading international academics and practitioners addressing the latest approaches to infrastructure policy, implementation, and finance.

Capital Choices analyzes the creation of different SWFs from a comparative political economy perspective, arguing that different state-society structures at the sectoral level are the drivers for SWF variation. Juergen Braunstein focuses on the early formation period of SWFs, a critical but little understood area given the high levels of political sensitivity and lack of transparency that surround SWF creation. Braunstein’s novel analytical framework provides practical lessons for the business and finance organizations and policymakers of countries that have created, or are planning to create, SWFs.

In a new book chapter, authors Alexandre Strapasson, Collins Oduor, and Beatriz Domeniconi assess livestock production in the context of the circular economy.

This chapter focused on the analysis of the factors that influence maize farmers’ access to climate information services based on a field study carried out in selected districts of Ashanti, Central, and Eastern regions of Ghana.