There are currently between twenty and thirty civil wars worldwide, while at a global level the Cold War has been succeeded by a "war on drugs" and a "war on terror" that continues to rage a decade after 9/11. Why is this, when we know how destructive war is in both human and economic terms? Why do the efforts of aid organizations and international diplomats founder so often?In this important book David Keen investigates why conflicts are so prevalent and so intractable, even when ...

The United States' ignominious exit from Afghanistan in 2021 topped two decades of failure and devastation wrought by the war on terror. A long-running "fight against migration" has stoked chaos and rights abuses while pushing migrants onto more dangerous routes. For its part, the war on drugs has failed to dampen narcotics demand while fueling atrocities from Mexico to the Philippines. Why do such "failing" policies persist for so long? And why do politicians keep feeding the very crises ...

In the late twentieth century, disasters seemed like distant happenings in countries far away from the prosperous West. But today they are ‘coming home’ with a vengeance. From global warming to migration crises, from assaults on democracy to Covid-19 and the fall-out of war in Ukraine – the West is in the grip of multiple, overlapping crises that keep its populations in a state of perpetual fear and distraction.Disasters should be awakening us to the need to reform our disaster-pro...

The uses of shame (and shamelessness) in spheres that range from social media and consumerism to polarized politics and mass violenceToday, we are caught in a shame spiral—a vortex of mutual shaming that pervades everything from politics to social media. We are shamed for our looks, our culture, our ethnicity, our sexuality, our poverty, our wrongdoings, our politics. But what is the point of all this shaming and countershaming? Does it work? And i...

There are currently between twenty and thirty civil wars worldwide, while at a global level the Cold War has been succeeded by a "war on drugs" and a "war on terror" that continues to rage a decade after 9/11. Why is this, when we know how destructive war is in both human and economic terms? Why do the efforts of aid organizations and international diplomats founder so often?In this important book David Keen investigates why conflicts are so prevalent and so intractable, even when ...

The United States' ignominious exit from Afghanistan in 2021 topped two decades of failure and devastation wrought by the war on terror. A long-running “fight against migration” has stoked chaos and rights abuses while pushing migrants onto more dangerous routes. For its part, the war on drugs has failed to dampen narcotics demand while fueling atrocities from Mexico to the Philippines.Why do such “failing” policies persist for so long? And why do politicians keep feeding the very ...

The uses of shame (and shamelessness) in spheres that range from social media and consumerism to polarized politics and mass violenceToday, we are caught in a shame spiral—a vortex of mutual shaming that pervades everything from politics to social media. We are shamed for our looks, our culture, our ethnicity, our sexuality, our poverty, our wrongdoings, our politics. But what is the point of all this shaming and countershaming? Does it work? And if so, for whom?

**“A brilliant, revisionist argument that places oil companies at the heart of 20th-century history—and of the political and environmental crises we now face.” —Guardian“A sweeping overview of the relationship between fossil fuels and political institutions from the industrial revolution to the Arab Spring.” —Financial Times**Oil is a curse, it is often said, that condemns the countries producing it to an existence defined by war, corruption and enormous i...

The Call of the World takes us on an unprecedented behind-the-scenes tour of defining moments in recent global history. Bill Graham – Canada’s minister of foreign affairs and then its minister of defence in the tumultuous years following 9/11 – is an insightful and wryly humorous guide, steering readers through an astonishing array of national and international events, explaining important geopolitical relationships, and revealing the human side of global affairs through his deft ...

The war on terror is a lost cause. As the war heads towards its second decade, American security policy is in disarray – the Iraq War is a disaster, Afghanistan is deeply insecure and the al-Qaida movement remains as potent as ever with new generations of leaders coming to the fore.Well over 100,000 civilians have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, many tens of thousands have been detained without trial, and torture, prisoner abuse and rendition have sullied the reputation of the United...

As the Bush administration has turned the United States into a belligerent and lawless force in the world, the Canadian government has followed in close step. Attempting to please our powerful neighbour, Ottawa has abandoned Canada’s traditional role as a leading peacekeeping nation, and instead adopted a more militaristic, warlike stance, battling insurgents in Afghanistan as a junior partner in the U.S. "war on terror."Ottawa has also abandoned Canada’s traditional attempt to be ...

The Hill Times: Best Books of 2016A bold call for a Canadian foreign policy that advances the basic freedoms that enable peace, stability, development, and security.What ends should a democratic country’s foreign policy serve? Avoiding diplomatic disputes? Keeping allies happy? Promoting national and global security? While a qualified yes is the logical answer to all of these secondary questions, Two Freedoms argues for something more, som...