Dictatorial Misrule
As the crimes of the former president become ever more obvious, we are reminded of the words of Shakespeare, who might have been describing the White House from 2017-2021: “Hell…
Demagogues in American Politics
At a recent talk at the University of Texas in Austin, Dr. Charles Zug explained how he was led to a study of a particularly problematic element of American politics.…
EUROMISSILES: The Cold War Gambit
“In a somewhat unusual thing for a book, my central cast of characters are three types of missiles.” So stated Dr. Susan Colbourn in a recent talk at the University…
How China Derailed its Peaceful Rise
“Trump cabinet meetings eerily resembled high-level meetings in Beijing as, one by one, the senior officials praised the wisdom of their leader. The unpredictable interactions between the administrations of the…
MIDWAY: How America won the War in the Pacific
The Silver Waterfall has been written by Brendan Simms and Steven McGregor. McGregor, who gave a talk on the book in Austin (hosted by the Clements Center), is a US…
Reagan the Peacemaker: A Major New Book
When Ronald Reagan was running for the Presidency, many thought he was a warmonger. The fear that he would lead the United States into a bloody conflict was palpably real…
Montesquieu and the Founding of America
“War, peace and international affairs: Montesquieu’s writings are essential to our understanding of America for the past 250 years.” Dr. Paul Carrese (Arizona State University) is an authority on the…
Power Politics in China
Much of Chinese politics is opaque, even for the experts, but certain moments have entered the public consciousness in the West. One of these was the infamous Gang of Four,…
Cold War Radio
While radio often seems nostalgic now, it had great value during the Cold War, from the 1950s to the 1990s. Writing of Radio Liberty and Voice of America in his…
Naval Strategy
In physics, ‘exceptional points’ are specific system parameters leading to the commonality of two different solutions that can only exist in systems with losses. For those with a scientific, rather…