The end of the Cold War and the (then) receding threat of global nuclear conflagration were meant to usher in a "peace dividend": concomitantly warfare would decline as states devoted themselves to making money and providing for their respective soci...

How Russia's post-Soviet economy, engineered to stagnate, explains its conflict with Ukraine and divisions across Eurasia. "Fortress Russia" evokes a Kremlin standing strong against the West. But Moscow's ceaseless quest for safety from sanctions an...

What can we learn from India's postcolonial experience of fashioning a democracy despite its extensive poverty, entrenched inequalities and widespread illiteracy? With India under growing scrutiny over the erosion of its democracy since 2014, worldw...

This book traces the long history of Iran's wars, and the evolution of the Islamic Republic's military trajectory since 1979. Ahmed Hashim draws on Farsi, Arabic and European sources to explore Iran's efforts to create modern armed forces, the devast...

A personal history of conflict, imprisonment and unrepentance, from the only woman convicted of crimes against humanity for her role in the Bosnian War. In 2001, Biljana Plavsic made history. Indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the F...

A renowned social scientist reflects on democratisation theory as applied in the Middle East. Azmi Bishara's "Arduous Paths" builds on his sizeable body of work on democracy through the lenses of civil society, religion and secularism, populism and...

An absorbing journey through a region caught between history, geography and ideology. What is "Central Europe"? Where do its borders lie? Does it even exist? Attempts to define it usually yield more questions than answers. But perhaps the wrong ques...

Explains how, against the odds, pioneering start-ups have taken on established firms and revolutionised global commerce - with huge implications for the future of business. In a struggle between David and Goliath, the giant is always predicted to wi...

A fascinating account of how Saudi Arabia leveraged its massive oil wealth to alter the balance of power in world football. "Kingdom of Football" explores how and why Saudi Arabia burst onto the landscape of world football in 2023, and examines what...

An authoritative appraisal of US policy in Africa since the end of the Cold War, highlighting ill-fated interventions and a damaging withdrawal from strategic vision. When President George H.W. Bush and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev convened i...