New Publications

Prof. Nayef Al-Rodhan (Honorary Fellow)

21st-Century Statecraft: Reconciling Power, Justice And Meta-Geopolitical Interests

Lutterworth, 2022

From civilisational frontier risks associated with new challenges like disruptive technologies, to the shifting nature of great-power conflicts and subversion, the 21st century requires a new approach to statecraft. In 21st-Century Statecraft, Professor Nayef Al-Rodhan proposes five innovative statecraft concepts. He makes the case for a new method of geopolitical analysis called ‘meta-geopolitics’, and for ‘dignity-based governance’. He shows how, in an interdependent and interconnected world, traditional thinking must move beyond zero-sum games and focus on ‘multi-sum and symbiotic realist’ interstate relations.

Michael T. Benson (D.Phil., Modern History, 1991)

Daniel Coit Gilman and the Birth of the American Research University

Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022

Gilman, a Yale-trained geographer who first worked as librarian at his alma mater, led a truly remarkable life: selected as the third president of the University of California; elected as the first president of Johns Hopkins University, where he served for twenty-five years; acted as one of the original founders of the Association of American Universities; and—at an age when most retired—hand-picked by Andrew Carnegie to head up his eponymous Institution in Washington, D.C. This is the first comprehensive biography written about Gilman in the last 100 years.

Peter Burke (DPhil History, 1960)

Ignorance: A Global History

Yale University Press, January 2023

Throughout history, every age has thought of itself as more knowledgeable than the last. Renaissance humanists viewed the Middle Ages as an era of darkness, Enlightenment thinkers tried to sweep superstition away with reason, the modern welfare state sought to slay the ‘giant’ of ignorance, and in today’s hyper-connected world seemingly limitless information is available on demand. But what about the knowledge lost over the centuries? Are we really any less ignorant than our ancestors?

Gabriella Y. Carolini (MPhil Development Studies, 2000)

Equity, Evaluation, and International Cooperation: In Pursuit of Proximate Peers in an African City

Oxford University Press, 2022

Is South-South Cooperation (SSC) any different from other international partnerships in practice? While straightforward, this question often gets lost in conventional scholarship on SSC and international cooperation, which privileges macro-level narratives of how cooperation mechanisms fit within geopolitical concerns and shape the outcomes of foreign aid. Carolini instead offers an answer from the ground up. She highlights two main lessons from the close examination of the ecosystem of international cooperation projects in the urban water and sanitation sector in Maputo, Mozambique.

Isaac Kardon (MPhil Modern Chinese Studies, 2007)

China’s Law of the Sea: The New Rules of Maritime Order

Yale University Press, 2023

An in-depth examination of the law and geopolitics of China’s maritime disputes and their implications for the rules of the international law of the sea.

China’s Law of the Sea is the first comprehensive study of the law and geopolitics of China’s maritime disputes. It provides a rigorous empirical account of whether and how China is changing ‘the rules’ of international order—specifically, the international law of the sea.

Christos Retoulas (DPhil Oriental Studies, 1999)

God's Gift, World's Deception: Dr Eben Alexander's Proof of Heaven in the Light of the Real

Lit Verlag, 2022

Situating former Harvard neurosurgeon Dr. Eben Alexander's Near-Death Experience within the ontological landscape of Romanity, or, the 'Byzantine'-Ottoman Continuum of Roman Ecumenicity, namely: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. God's Gift, World's Deception is a unique exploration of this unique NDE, attesting to its vital and organic ties to those experiences of the New Testament Fathers of the 'Byzantine' Apostolic Catholic Orthodox Church (ἡ τῶν πάντων ἑνότης, the unity of all being/existents), which came to them via theosis.

Maxim Bouev (MPhil, DPhil Economics, 1999)

In the Mirror of Supermodels: Tales of Models in Financial Economics (jointly authored with Kirill Ilinski)

Nauka, Moscow, 2020

The book was a runner-up in the PWC Business Book prize, Russia 2021. It consists of 2 volumes: The Models for Adults, and The Beauties with Complications. Volume 1 introduces the reader to the practical side of financial modelling. Through the prism of well-known ‘good models’ for main asset classes, the authors build the foundation of financial literacy. Volume 2 is about the practical use of concrete quantitative models - from those used in the analysis of financial returns and in asset allocation, to trading strategies and modelling of economic risks of corporations.

Fiona Macaulay (MPhil Latin American Studies and DPhil Politics, 1991)

Transforming State Responses to Feminicide: Women’s Movements, Law and Criminal Justice Institutions in Brazil

Bingley: Emerald Press, 2021

Feminicide ­- the murder of women by intimate partners or for reasons of misogyny - is a global problem. This book traces how state responses to feminicide in Brazil have been positively transformed by regional efforts, local women’s movement mobilisation, changes in the law and its application, and by policy entrepreneurs within the criminal justice institutions. This has resulted in improved investigation, prosecution and prevention of this specific form of gender-based violence.

Julia Zulver (MPhil Latin American Studies, 2012; DPhil Sociology, 2015)

Feminismo de Alto Riesgo en Colombia

Published in Spanish by Ediciones Uniandes and FESCOL, 2022

High-Risk Feminism in Colombia documents the experiences of grassroots women’s organisations that united in demanding gender justice during and in the aftermath of Colombia’s armed conflict. In doing so, it illustrates a little-studied phenomenon: women whose experiences with violence catalyse them to mobilise and resist as feminists, even in the face of grave danger.

Homa Katouzian (Iranian Studies, 2004)

Poets and Poetry of the Constitutional Era in Iran (co-ed)

Routledge, July 2022

Compiled by experts on the works of each individual poet, this book covers the poetry and poets of the Constitutional Revolution of Iran.

Following a two-pronged approach, this volume studies both those who were influenced by the Constitutional Revolution in their works and those who addressed the Revolution with their work, influencing it directly. The volume explores influential poets and writers from the period, including Iraj, Vaziri, Afrāshteh, Yazdi, Bahār and ‘Eshqi. It covers female poets who are often overlooked, as well as the major satirical poets whose work educated and entertained the readers and criticised socio-political events. As Persian poetry and its multifunctional legacy became the standard-bearer of the Constitutional movement, this volume is an important contribution to an understanding of Iran.

Youssef M Choueiri (Senior Member, 1994)

Narratives of Arab Secularism. Politics. Feminism. Religion

Routledge, 2022

A new interpretation of Arab secularism, tackling the complexity and contemporary ramifications of the subject. The study of modern Arab thought and intellectual history will never be quite the same again.

Angel M. Foster (DPhil Modern Middle Eastern Studies, 1996)

Sex in the Middle East and North Africa

Vanderbilt University Press, 2022

Sex in the Middle East and North Africa examines the sexual practices, politics, and complexities of the modern Arab world. Short chapters feature a variety of experts in anthropology, sociology, health science, and cultural studies. Many of the chapters are based on original ethnographic and interview work with subjects involved in these practices and include their voices.

Arzu Öztürkmen (Programme on Contemporary Turkey, SAM, 2005)

The Delight Of Turkish Dizi: Memory, Genre And Politics Of Television In Turkey

Seagull Books, Distributed By The University Of Chicago Press, 2022

The first comprehensive study of dizi, a television genre unique to Turkey akin to soap opera or telenovela.  Standing at the crossroads of folklore, media, and performance studies, Arzu Öztürkmen explores the rise of the dizi genre in Turkey since the 1970s, when national television broadcasting began in the country. The Delight of Turkish Dizi approaches this unique genre - not quite soap opera or telenovela - as an art form that developed with the collective creative input of writers, producers, directors, actors, editors, musicians and, lately, international distributors. Öztürkmen shows how dizi-making is a marathon run by sprinters, where production and broadcasting processes have been tightly interwoven, offering a mode of communication and consumption that is distinct to the Turkish television industry. The research consists of oral history with key figures in dizi production and ethnographic surveys of film sets, international content markets, and award ceremonies.

Derek Leebaert (DPhil Political Economics / History, 1983)

Unlikely Heroes: Franklin Roosevelt, His Four Lieutenants, and the World They Made

New York: St. Martin's Press, 2023

An entirely new understanding of Franklin Roosevelt and his presidency.

Meier Daniel (Postdoctoral researcher, 2011)

Liban. Du mythe phénicien aux périls contemporains

Le cavalier bleu, Paris, 2022

Deconstructing misperceptions about contemporary Lebanon including recent events, thus encompassing historical, political, economic and social dimensions.

Judy Klass (MPhil, DPhil Political Science/Latin American Studies, 1988)

After Tartuffe

A full-length play, which was produced in the Fresh Fruit Festival in New York City in 2015, was published online in two instalments in the journal The Courtship of Winds in 2022.

It will be published as a hard-copy script by Next Stage Press in 2023. It's a quirky science fiction play in verse: a re-imagining of Molière's play Tartuffe, set in a post-apocalyptic future United States.

Sangeeta Dasgupta (History, 2005)

Reordering Adivasi Worlds: Representation, Resistance, Memory

Oxford University Press, 2022

Recounting the story of the Oraons and Tana Bhagats of Chhotanagpur in the present-day state of Jharkhand, this book questions postcolonial understandings of the category of 'tribe' and unravels the threads of a hierarchical adivasi world. It unpacks colonial ethnography, missionary narratives, and anthropological writings; explores issues of adivasi identity and resistance; and demonstrates how contemporary adivasi protest draws upon memories of the past.

Markus Schultze-Kraft (MPhil in Latin American Studies, DPhil in Politics, 1995)

Education for Sustaining Peace through Historical Memory

Palgrave Macmillan, 2022

Informed by the author’s long-standing work on violent conflict, peace and education in countries of the Global South, particularly Colombia, this open-access book presents a comprehensive narrative about the relationship between peace education, historical memory and the sustaining peace agenda, advocating for the adoption of a new perspective on education for sustaining peace through historical memory. Education on and for peace in countries wrestling with, or emerging from, protracted violent conflict is up against major challenges, and both conventional and critical approaches to peace education are limited to address these. Incorporating a focus on historical memory, without losing sight of its own pitfalls, peace education can support learners and teachers to come to grips with achieving positive, peace-sustaining change at both the micro (individual) and macro (social and institutional) levels, and develop concepts and practices of effective and legitimate alternatives to violence and war. Conceived in these terms, historical memory-oriented peace education also stands to enhance the work-in-progress that is the UN-led sustaining peace agenda, including its Sustainable Development Goals.

Francisco Torres (Santander Visiting Fellow, Senior Member and Academic Visitor, 2012-2015)

Annette Bongardt (Academic Visitor, 2012-2015)

Co-authored

Lessons on the Political Economy of European Integration – Selected Topics

Lisbon: Universidade Católica Editora, 2022

This book applies a political economy lens and an interdisciplinary approach to the European integration process, analysing its sustainability. It aims to critically analyse the on-going processes of European integration as well as the current challenges facing the EU. It discusses the evolution of European integration in terms of its various stages, with emphasis on its regulatory character, notably EU trade, the Single Market, Economic and Monetary Union and the European Green Deal, and examines the issue of the optimal size and scope of the Union.

Ludger Kühnhardt (SAM, 1989 and Visiting Fellow, 2005) has published two new books:

Politisches Denken der Europäischen Union. Supranational und zukunftsoffen

Paderborn: Brill Fink, 2022

The European Union should be based on the idea of European sovereignty, as French President Emmanuel Macron designed the future of the EU in 2017. The concept of European sovereignty connects questions of political thought with the internal order and the global political strategy of the EU. From a historical perspective, modern political thought has evolved around the concept of the state. However, ancient roots of political thought indicate that fundamental questions of political order were already reflected in a context prior to the evolution of the modern state. Important concepts of political philosophy emerged in ancient Greek and Roman history that continue to have an impact today. Against this background, Ludger Kühnhardt discusses whether and how political thinking can also generate its own concepts and reflections in a supranational context, and especially in the European Union.

Verknüpfte Welten. Notizen aus 235 Ländern und Territorien (vol. 1 1960-1999; vol.2 2000-2020)

Wiesbaden: Springer 2022.

As journalist, contemporary historian and political advisor, Ludger Kühnhardt has recorded impressions, noticed conversations and reflected on links between the different worlds of this one planet. The two volumes of Verknüpfte Welten - written in German on the spot during travels in all independent states and many non-sovereign territories on all continents for over six decades, offer fascinating reading. The texts are reconstructing the puzzle of a world that has gradually discovered itself as single entity over a period of just over half a century. With the Covid pandemic, an intermediate epoch between old resolutions and new connections has come to an end. The unique travel notes taken in 235 countries and territories offer exciting impulses for multi-dimensional reflections and creative re-assessments of the years 1960 to 2020.

Gianfranco Pasquino (Political Science, Visiting Fellow, 2007) has published two new books:

The Culture of Accountability: A Democratic Virtue (co-authored with Riccardo Pelizzo)

Routledge, 2023

Accountability is the most important process at work in democratic political systems. It is a democratic virtue, perhaps the most important democratic virtue. It is a process, not a link, because it deploys itself at different points/stages in time and, in a way, it never ends. Indeed, democracy itself is a never-ending quest. Moreover, political accountability affects many actors and concerns numerous institutions. It has many faces and, as a consequence, it is a most complex process that this book studies very closely with reference to institutions, behaviours, values and political culture.

Fascismo. Quel che è stato, quel che rimane

Treccani libri, 2022

Fascism was the most important political phenomenon in the history of 20^th-century Italy and one of the most significant of the century in general. It has influenced the politics of many countries and has been the subject of an extraordinary amount of study. One hundred years after the March on Rome, it is still useful to reflect on the political, economic, social and cultural conditions that paved the way for its success. This is what the essays collected in the volume do; they retrace its history from its origins to its fall, reconstructing its ‘values’, the conquest of power, transformations, consensus, interpretations, and contextualise it in a broader European context.

Roger Bartlett (DPhil History, 1965)

The Bentham Brothers and Russia: The Imperial Russian Constitution and the St Petersburg Panopticon

University College London Press, 2022. Open Access

The philosopher and jurist Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and his brother Samuel (1757-1831), an engineer and naval architect, had a long love affair with Russia. Following an in-depth context-setting introduction, this book details the later stages of this relationship under Tsar Alexander I (ruled 1801-25), when Jeremy tried twice, but unsuccessfully, to help write a new Imperial constitution, and Samuel found a unique opportunity to build his Inspection House or Panopticon in St Petersburg, the only Panopticon ever built by the Benthams themselves. The St Petersburg Panopticon, still relatively unknown, is described in detail from archival sources. The book illustrates an important facet of the Benthams' world-view and contributes to the history both of Russian codification and of the much-mythologised Panopticon.

Jorge Heine (Visiting Fellow, 1984)

Xi-Na En El Siglo Del Dragón : Lo Que Todos Deben Saber Sobfre China  ( Xi-Na In The Century Of The Dragon : What Everyone Needs To Know About China).

Santiago, Lom, 2022.

Drawing on the author’s years as Chilean ambassador to China (2014-2017), this book, combining analysis with personal impressions and vignettes of what life in China is all about, conveys a portrait of contemporary China, with a special focus on the presidency of Xi Jinping.

Moshe Maoz (DPhil Middle Eastern Studies, 1966)

Asad's Autocratic Dynasty In Syria: Civil War And The Role Of Regional And Global Powers

Liverpool University Press, 2022

In 2011, the diplomatic and expert consensus was that Bashar al-Asad's regime would fail, causing Syria to disintegrate into several ethnic enclaves or mini-states. A decade later and Bashar is still in control, having defeated the rebels and gained the support of Russia. The years of internal warfare have brought about changes in the spectrum of parties involved in the Syrian state, and the final outcome is inevitably going to be shaped by geopolitics. The Alawi minority still in large measure controls the Sunni-Muslim (Arab) majority. The other players are a gallery of ever-changing allegiances: ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra, and many other radical Islamic groups; the Muslim Kurdish and Christian Arab communities; as well as Shii Lebanese Hizballah. External horizon players are Iran; Sunni Turkey and Saudi Arabia; Jewish Israel; the United States and Russia. This study aims to analyze the agendas, actions, and interrelations of these various actors from 2011 until the present.

Daniel Bell (MPhil and DPhil in Politics, 1991) has published two new books:

The Dean of Shandong: Confessions of a Minor Bureaucrat at a Chinese University

Princeton University Press, 2023

An inside view of Chinese academia and what it reveals about China's Political System.

Bridging Two Worlds: Comparing Classical Political Thought and Statecraft in India and China

Co-edited with Amitav Acharya, Rajeev Bhargava, and Yan Xuetong.

University of California Press, 2023.

Xian Guan (MSc in Comparative Social Policy, 2016)

Xian Guan translated the book Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice, and London into a Chinese version published in 2021 by Commercial Press (商务印书馆).

From a gender perspective, the book integrates cultural history, urban development, literature, art and personal memoir, showing an exhilarating but also fraught relationship that women have with the metropolis.

The book was selected as New York Times Editor’s Choice and Notable Book of 2017, Book of the Year 2016 by the Financial Times, Guardian, New Statesman, Observer, The Millions and Emerald Street.

Giulia De Togni (MSc Social Anthropology, 2015)

Fall-out from Fukushima: Nuclear Evacuees Seeking Compensation and Legal Protection After the Triple Meltdown.

Routledge, 2021

This book shows how the Fukushima plaintiffs have challenged narratives of safety and risk containment produced by TEPCO and the Japanese government through offering new empirical data on risk perceptions and life choices of some nuclear evacuees.

Considering the Fukushima evacuees’ disappearance from public discourse in Japan, the book engages with theoretical writings on risk, neoliberal governmentality and citizen science. Chapters draw on a wide range of anthropologically-related methodologies including socio-linguistics, participant observation, and qualitative interviews.

Dov Lynch (DPhil International Relations, 1995-1998)

Leawald

Editions du seuil: 2022

The novel opens with Léa fishing out the body of an old man who has just drowned in a Parisian swimming pool. At the end, alone, she painfully pushes a zinc coffin down an alley in the Montmartre cemetery. Léa is a kind of modern Antigone, heroine of a dystopian novel which develops in short minimalist scenes, borrowing something from the funereal aesthetic of Enki Bilal.

Leandro Prados de la Escosura (DPhil Modern History, 1976)

Human Development and the Path to Freedom. 1870 to the Present

Cambridge University Press, 2022

How has human development evolved during the last 150 years of globalisation and economic growth? How has human development been distributed across countries? How do developing countries compare to developed countries? Do social systems matter for wellbeing? Are there differences in the performance of developing regions over time? Employing a capabilities approach, this book addresses these key questions in the context of modern economic growth and globalisation.

Sir Michael Llewellyn-Smith (History of Greece (modern), 1958)

The Macedonian Front 1915-1918: Politics, Society and Culture in Time of War

Routledge, 2022

The ‘Macedonian question’ has been much studied in recent years as has the political history of the period from the Balkan Wars in 1912-13 to the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. But for a variety of reasons, connected with the political division of Greece and the involvement of outside powers, the events at and behind the Macedonian front have been sidelined. The recent commemorations of the centenary of the end of the First World War in the UK illustrate how by comparison with the enormous and moving emphasis on the western front, Macedonia has been not wholly but largely ignored. This volume illuminates this comparatively neglected period of Greek history and examines the strategic and military aspects of the war in Macedonia and the political, social, economic and cultural context of the war.

Sally Tomlinson (SAM, 1984)

Ignorance: Banishing the Five Giants

Agenda Publications 2022, Foreword by Lord Neil Kinnock

One of five books asking whether the Five Giants William Beveridge claimed in 1942 should be overcome. The book runs through education in Britain from 1942-2021, documenting the positives and negatives and concludes the whole schooling system needs reframing as a democratic public good.

Peter Hacker (Philosophy, 1960) has published five books:

The Passions: A Study of Human Nature

Wiley-Blackwell, 2018

Intellectual Entertainments: Eight Philosophical Dialogues on Consciousness, Mind and Body

Anthem Press, London, 2020

Dialogues sur la pensée, l’esprit, le corps, et la conscience, trs. Michel le Dou & Benoit Gaultier Agone, Marseille, 2021

The Moral Powers: A Study of Human Nature

Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, 2021

Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience (co-authored with M. R. Bennett), extensively revised and expanded 2nd edition

Wiley/Blackwell, Oxford, 2022

Marwan Iskandar (Economics, 1964)

Lebanon’s Six Years of Darkness 2014-2020

MIA Marwan Iskandar Associates, 2021.

This book is about the background of the current economic crisis in Lebanon.

Dr Kadira Pethiyagoda (International Relations, 2012)

Indian Foreign Policy and Cultural Values

Palgrave MacMillan/ Springer, 2021

As India rises to great power status in the emerging multipolar world order, what influence will its rich and ancient culture have on the country’s foreign policy?  This book reveals that cultural values have greater explanatory power than previously thought and describes the nature of their influence.  

Elizabeth Elbourne (DPhil History, 1992)

Empire, Kinship and Violence: Family histories, Indigenous rights, and the making of settler colonialism, 1779-1842

Cambridge University Press, 2022.

In tracing the history of three linked imperial families in Britain and across contested colonial borderlands from 1770 to 1842, the book tells a larger story about the development of British and American settler colonialism and the betrayal of indigenous peoples. Through an analysis of the changing politics of kinship and violence, the work explores issues such as indigenous sovereignty claims, British subjecthood, violence, land rights and cultural assimilation.

John C Maher (Senior Member, 2008)

Language Communities in Japan

Oxford University Press, 2022

A detailed description of the historic and contemporary languages and communities that have informed the culture of Japan: from Sanskrit to Korean and Persian, from Latin to English, Chinese and Nepali.

 

Vera Tamari (MPhil Islamic Art-and Architecture, 1984) has published two books:

Intimate Reflections: The Art of Vera Tamari

AMQattan Foundation, Ramallah, Palestine 2022

The book, written by nine authors, traces the career of Vera Tamari as visual artist, curator and academician.

RETURNING Palestinian Family memories in clay reliefs

Photographs and text by Vera Tamari

Co- publishers The Arab Image Foundation, Beirut and The Educational Book shop, Jerusalem, 2022

Vignettes of family stories inspired by personal family photographs from Jaffa and Jerusalem.  From the turn of the 20th century until the dispossession of the Palestinians and expulsion from their land to the Nakba of 1948 and the terracotta reliefs related to the same photos.

 

Karim Tabet (MLitt History, 1976) has published three books in French:

Fleur de lys, feuille d'érable

Through a retrospective of New France (today’s Canada), from the founding of Ville-Marie (the future Montréal) in 1642, until the signing of the Great Peace in 1701, this historical novel talks about the difficult situation of the first settlers and describes their dramatic journey, through various fictional characters, namely: the genius carpenter, the soldier who became a farmer, the freedom-loving woman, the young nobleman invested with a divine mission, the lay missionary, the wood runner and others, who intersect and rub shoulders during their journeys with the native tribes (Algonquins, Hurons and Iroquois) as well as real figures whose fundamental role shaped the tumultuous history of New France, such as Maisonneuve, Talon, Frontenac, Bourgeoys…..all determined to fulfill their destiny in this New World neglected by the kingdom of France, undermined by bloody conflicts, marked by a hostile and often cruel environment, but blessed by prodigious encounters.

Les mûriers de la tourmente

A historical novel that depicts the silk workers (called the Canuts), of the French city of Lyon, and a family of mulberry trees growers from Mount Lebanon whose eldest son, Boulos, departs to Lyon where he becomes an apprentice in a Lyon weaving workshop. With the suffering, excessive ambitions, betrayals and crimes, but also love, idealism and loyalty as a backdrop, the novel which mixes fiction and reality, tells the story of Boulos and his family, recounts the political intrigues and the military upheavals in Mount Lebanon, describes the miserable conditions of the Canuts and describes the latter revolts in France (1831 & 1834). Colourful characters retrace an era that spans several generations.

De rivage en rivage.

A historical novel that combines fiction and facts, it is a saga that recounts the rise and fall of a Greek family established first in Smyrna and then in Cairo, between 1822 and 1952.

   The story depicts a succession of events that will forever affect this region of the Eastern Mediterranean, namely: the agony of the Ottoman Empire, the Armenian genocide and other ethnic conflicts, the Great War, the awakening of Turkish and Egyptian nationalism, the fight against colonialism and the emergence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

Andre Liebich (SAM, 2010) has published two books:

Cultural Nationhood and Political Statehood

Routledge, 2022

This book explores the development of the idea that every nation – understood as a linguistic community – is entitled to its own state.

Following several contemporary studies of nationalism, this book provides a critical examination of the peculiarly modern concurrence of cultural nations and political states as it developed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The author argues that this is one of the most fateful coincidences of modernity: so firmly engraved in today's consciousness that most scholars and policymakers assume the correlation of cultural nationhood and political statehood to be intellectually unproblematic, yet the consequences have been overwhelming. The conflation of cultural nation and political state has imposed an isomorphism of language, culture, and politics upon the world. It has pre-determined democratic practice by enforcing the doctrine that the will of the people can only be the will of a people. It has led to the assumption that every nation may become a state. The book’s originality lies in tracing the genesis and the elaboration over time of this curious contemporary assumption.

The Politics of a Disillusioned Europe: East Central Europe after the Fall of Communism

Springer, 2022

Presents a concise history of Central and Eastern Europe since 1989 and seeks to understand the region’s disenchantment with the EU as a result of political and economic circumstances. This edition offers thought-provoking observations regarding the adoption of neo-liberal economics by the countries concerned.