Book Reviews

Book reviewed in this article: America's Choice 2000: Entering a New Millenium edited by William Crotty. The Perfect Tie: The True Story of the 2000 Presidential Election by James W. Ceaser and Andrew E. Busch.     

The Call to Public Service: Entrance, Learning, and Reflection

Books reviewed in this article: Richard P. Nathan, So You Want to Be in Government? Handbook for Appointed Officials in America's Governments Kenneth H. Ashworth, Caught between the Dog and the Fireplug, or, How to Survive Public Service O.C. McSwite, Invitation to Public Administration     

Fixing race: visual representations of African Americans at the World's Columbian Exposition,Chicago, 1893

ABSTRACT

Cooks examines the Johnson family cartoon series published in Harper's Weekly during the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Her analysis addresses the series’ caricatures of African-American fairgoers in the context of the landmark exposition, a national celebration of America's cultural leadership and accomplishment since its ‘discovery’ by Christopher Columbus in 1492. The Johnson family cartoons are remarkable because they are the only racist images in the issues of Harper's Weekly in which they appear, highlighting the importance of their message that African Americans were an unwanted presence at an event that served to solidify America's national identity. The series provides insight into some of the social anxieties of white Americans regarding the presence of African Americans at the exposition. It also explores white American discomfort with racial and economic diversity through the antics of the imaginary yet symbolically representative Johnson family. Cooks's discussion includes a visual analysis of the cartoons and comparisons of the Johnson family images with photographs and illustrations of African-American labourers at the fair and with depictions of proper behaviour by white American fairgoers. This examination of the cartoon series questions the roles of race, class and social hierarchy in turn-of-the-century America, and illustrates that acceptable mainstream attitudes clung to ideas of racial prejudice.     

Book Reviews

Book review in this article: Thatcher, Reagan, Mulroney: In Search of a New Bureaucracy. By Donald Savoie. Administrative Transformation in Central and Eastern Europe: Towards Public Sector Reform in Post-Communist Societies. Joachim Jens Hesse, ed. Before the Shooting Begins: Searching for Democracy in America's Culture Wars. By James Davison Hunter. Social Security and Medicare: A Policy Primer. By Eric R. Kingson and Edward D. Berkowitz. The Political Psychology of the Gulf War: Leaders, Publics and the Process of Conflict. Stanley A. Renshon, ed.     

In search of a textbook: Recent overviews of United States intelligence history since the days of the founding fathers

Charles D. Ameringer, U.S. Foreign Intelligence: The Secret Side of American History (Lexington: D.C. Heath, 1990). Pp. xix + 458. US $24.95.

Nathan Miller, Spying for America: The Hidden History of U.S. Intelligence (New York: Paragon House, 1989). Pp. xi + 482. US $24.95.

Ernest Volkman and Blaine Baggett, Secret Intelligence: The Inside Story of America's Espionage Empire (London: W.H. Allen, 1989). Pp. xxi + 265. £16.99 (paperback).     

The 2012 United States election and the implications for East Asia

Abstract

The 2012 election resulted in a major victory for President Obama and while his Democratic Party improved its Congressional strength, the House of Representatives remains under Republican control. The election revealed the depth of America's political and voter divisions with each party showing dramatically different areas of strength and weakness. Yet the election did not hinge on foreign policy leaving the Obama administration likely to continue most of its earlier policies toward East Asia as marked by the multilayered ‘pivot’ toward Asia. Relations with China and North Korea are likely to remain difficult to manage while US–ROK links should be far smoother. Of particular concern is the economic sluggishness and rising nationalism in Japan which could well cause bilateral problems with the US and regional problems with Japan's neighbors, including US ally, South Korea. And at home the bipolar divisions over how best to deal with America's economic revitalization could well impede US abilities to exert a convincing multi-dimensional role in the region.     

Why George W. Bush Is a Unilateralist and How It Will Affect the 2004 Presidential Election

ABSTRACT

U.S. President George W. Bush has had a stormy relationship with Europe. Bush campaigned on a theme of putting America's interests first and eschewing multilateralism when necessary. Since taking office, Bush has been true to his campaign pledges. Bush's style and substance have caused many in Europe to regard him as a “buffoon” at best and a dangerous cowboy at worst. What the Europeans do not seem to understand is that, for better or worse, George W. Bush's view of the world is held by a substantial portion of the American people, and even when the U.S. had a more Euro-friendly leader in President Bill Clinton, America's policies were often at odds with those preferred by its allies in Europe. This is due to a fundamental difference that has developed between Europe and the United States over the last century. Today, no matter who occupies the White House, American foreign policy is likely to be in conflict with Europe's. Far from being a liability, this difference is likely to be a political asset to George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election.     

How Bush bungled Asia: militarism,economic indifference and unilateralism have weakened the United States across Asia

Abstract

Criticism of the Bush administration's policies in East Asia is hardly common fare. Roseate colors certainly pervade the picture painted by defenders of Bush's policies toward Asia who argue that relations between the US and that region have never been better. This paper shows to the contrary that the Bush administration politicized wide swaths of public policy, including foreign relations, in an effort to create a permanent Republican electoral majority. That effort created a host of failures in America's Asian relations. The article focuses on three central problems: excessive militarization of American foreign policy; economic mismanagement; and a unilateralism that distanced the US from the rising Asian regionalism. The failures are not irreversible however and a change in administration has the potential to revitalize cross Pacific ties.     

An Assessment of Anti-Satellite Capabilities and their Strategic Implications

ABSTRACT

The success of space-based communications, navigation and reconnaissance programs – in both the commerical and military arenas – presents a significant vulnerability. Intuitively, as the economic importance and military indispensability of space systems grows, so will their attractiveness as targets. Although attacks against satellites would involve significant operational challenges, economic costs and diplomatic risks, it is well within the realm of technological possibility. For example, China's decision to research ASATs is an indication of its long-term strategic goal of weakening America's monopoly on military space capabilities. This essay describes the current capabilities of anti-satellite (ASAT) technology, assesses its military impact and considers its broader policy and security implications. In light of the broad implications of ASAT weapons on the debate about missile defense in particular and space weaponization in general, the author concludes that the best way to protect America's space-related economic and military functions is to avoid ASATs development.     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed in this issue. A breed apart: the Waziristan model
F. S. AIJAZUDDIN The Thistle and the Drone. How America's War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam, by Akbar Ahmed. Inventing history or inventing Israel?
Dennis Marks The Invention of the Land of Israel, by Shlomo Sands. Explaining the Congo wars
Sara Hellmüller Congo, by Thomas Turner. Not so right‐wing after all
Richard Briand Small Wars, Faraway Places: The Genesis of the Modern World 1945–1965, by Michael Burleigh. Caucasian problems and old Russian questions
Andrew Wachtel The Fire Below. How the Caucasus Shaped Russia, edited by Robert Bruce Ware. Capitalism versus democracy?
Gianfranco Pasquino Politics in The Age of Austerity, edited by Armin Schäfer and Wolfgang Streeck. Anti‐colonialism with a hint of nostalgia
Arifa Akbar From the Ruins of the Empire. The Revolt against the West and the Remaking of Asia, by Pankaj Mishra. What to do with the toffs and the not‐so‐toffs
Meg Russell The House of Lords 1911–2011: A Century of Non‐Reform, by Chris Ballinger. How liberal was John Stuart Mill?
Duncan Kelly Mill and Paternalism, by Gregory Claeys. Liberty Abroad: J. S. Mill on International Relations, by Georgios Varouxakis. War on terror: ‘Collateral damage’ in Britain
Laleh Khalili Shadow Lives: The Forgotten Women of the War on Terror, by Victoria Brittain.     

Why PAR?

Is the Public Administration Review still necessary? Some think that PAR, which debuted in 1940 as America's first and only generalist scholarly public administration journal, belongs to a bygone era of two‐cent postage stamps—a time of coal furnaces, steam radiators, and wood‐burning stoves, when language was crafted longhand or by manual typewriter; when a slide rule calculated most math problems; when a long‐distance telephone call was rare and expensive; when the entire Army, Navy, and State departments were housed within a single building in Washington, DC, the Old Executive Office Building next to the White House; when President Franklin D. Roosevelt communicated to Americans through fireside chats; and when many in the United States still worried about keeping their jobs in the aftermath of the Great Depression, fiercely favoring isolationism over foreign entanglements and strict racial segregation throughout the South.     

Fighting Poverty with Mobility: A Normative Policy Analysis1

Concentrated urban poverty is America's deepest social problem. Eliminating it stands as our nation's greatest challenge. In this article I analyze from a normative perspective antipoverty policies that attempt to address this problem via “mobility,” that is, policies that attempt to disperse the urban poor to suburban locations. I find these policies to be normatively problematic on two grounds: the level coercion experienced by (and the corresponding lack of free choice given) a vulnerable population and the undesirable effects (in the current context of American urban development) caused by failing to regard established neighborhoods as stable communities. The results of this analysis indicate strongly the need to generate increased levels of economic activity in America's inner cities, and I suggest that more research on this issue be conducted with an eye toward formulating and implementing a comprehensive strategy to bring about inner-city revitalization.     

Japanese foreign intelligence‐related activities

John J. Fialka, War by Other Means: Economic Espionage in America (New York: W.W. Norton, 1997). Pp.242, index. $25 (cloth); $15 (paper). ISBN 0–393–31821–4 and ‐04014–3.

James H. Hansen, Japanese Intelligence: The Competitive Edge (Washington DC: NIBC Press, 1996). Pp.222, index. $29.95. ISBN 1–878–29216–1.

Larry Kahaner, Competitive Intelligence: From Black Ops to Boardrooms ‐ How Businesses Gather, Analyze, and Use Information to Succeed in the Global Marketplace (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996). Pp.300, index. $24 (cloth); $12.95 (paper). ISBN 0–684–81074–3 and ‐84404–4.

Peter J. Katzenstein, Cultural Norms and National Security: Police and Military in Postwar Japan (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996). Pp.307, index. $42.50 (cloth); $17.95 (paper). ISBN 0–8014–14326–0 and ‐8332–8.

Richard J. Samuels, ‘Rich Nation, Strong Army’: National Security and the Technological Transformation of Japan (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1994). Pp.455, index. $19.95 (paper). ISBN 0–8014–9994–1.

Peter Schweizer, Friendly Spies: How America's Allies Are Using Economic Espionage to Steal Our Secrets (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1993). Pp.342, index (out of print). ISBN 0–871–13497–7.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this issue. Democratic Flaws
RICHARD BOURKE The Life and Death of Democracy, by John Keane. Flawed democracy
Gianfranco Pasquino Democracy Inc. Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism, by Sheldon Wolin. Democracy in the Land of Good Things (Britain)
Richard Mullender Democracy: 1,000 Years in Pursuit of British Liberty, by Peter Kellner. The soldier's right to kill
Christopher Finlay Killing in War, by Jeff McMahan. Facts from Eastern Europe and elsewhere
Richard Briand Facts are Subversive: Political Writing from a Decade without a Name, by Timothy Garton Ash. The soul of Tony Blair
Ilaria Favretto Losing Labour's Soul? New Labour and the Blair Government, 1997–2007, by Eric Shaw. Greeks and Turks in Europe and Cyprus
Mehmet Ugur Turkey's Accession to the European Union: An Unusual Candidacy, by Constantine Arvanitopoulos. Cyprus: The Post‐Imperial Constitution, by Vassilis K. Fouskas and Alex O. Tackie. Obama's last chance
Tony Klug The Last Chance: The Middle East in the Balance, by David Gardner. Thatcher's grandchildren
Mark Garnett Thatcher's Britain: The Politics and Social Upheaval of the 1980s, by Richard Vinen.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article: Far Right ELISABETH CARTER Extreme Right Parties in Western Europe, by Piero Ignazi. Right‐wing Extremism in the Twenty‐first Century, edited by Peter H. Merkl and Leonard Weinberg. From Tax Populism to Ethnic Nationalism: Radical Right‐wing Populism in Sweden, by Jens Rydgren. Modernity and Secession: The Social Sciences and the Political Discourse of the Lega Nord in Italy, by Michel Huysseune. New Labour new NHS? , Jennifer Dixon New Labour's State of Health. Political Economy, Public Policy and the NHS, by Calum Paton. Bad aid , Norman Flynn The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done so Much III and so Little Good, by William Easterly. Plato Lives! , Richard Mullender Plato's Republic: A Biography, by Simon Blackburn. Plato's Children: The State We Are In, By Anthony O'Hear. plato and the Virtue of Courage, by Linda R. Rabieh. Exporting Burke , Richard Bourke Foreign Affections: Essays on Edmund Burke, by Seamus Deane.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this issue. Britain's problem: how to be nice about Europe ILARIA POGGIOLINI Britain's Policy towards the European Community, 1964–7: Harold Wilson and Britain's World Role, by Helen Parr. Harold Wilson's EEC Application, by Jane Tooney. A Stranger in Europe: Britain and the EU from Thatcher to Blair, by Stephen Wall. For love of what you are not Rosemary Bechler Visceral Cosmopolitanism: Gender Culture and the Normalisation of Difference, by Mica Nava. Globalised capitalism: the migrants Selina Chen Chinese Whispers: The True Story behind Britain's Hidden Army of Labour, by Hsiao‐Hung Pai. Globalised capitalism: the poor Suzanne Franks The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done about It, by Paul Collier. The dark side of globalisation Ombretta Ingrascì McMafia: Crime without Frontiers, by Misha Glenny. The militant matryoshkas F. S. Aijazuddin Frontline Pakistan: The Path to Catastrophe and the Killing of Benazir Bhutto, by Zahid Hussain. Walking under Israeli occupation Jad Adams Palestinian Walks: Notes on a Vanishing Landscape, by Raja Shehadeh. A decade of deconstruction: Britain in the 1970s Richard Mullender Crisis? What Crisis? Britain in the 1970s, by Alwyn W. Turner. The threat from the Internet Kathy Bowrey The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It, by Jonathon Zittrain.     

Can there be Costless War? Violent Exposures and (In)Vulnerable Selves in Benjamin Percy's "Refresh,Refresh"

Abstract

The technological transformation of the conduct of war, exemplified by the American employment of drones in Afghanistan and in Iraq, calls for a critical reflection about the fantasies that underpin, and are in turn animated by, the robotic revolution of the military. At play here is a fantasy of a "costless war" or a "sterile war", that is such act of military state violence against the other that is inconsequential for the self. In other words, the seductive appeal of the "costless war" fantasy rests on the desire to develop a self that is invulnerable in the face of violence. Importantly, it is a desire explicitly projected towards a particular American future (of an imagined warfare, or of a super-power status), but also one that is connected to a lacking critical reflection about the intersubjective aspects of violence in the debates about America's post-9/11 military involvements. This article reflects critically about the fantasy of the "costless war" and about its underpinning politics of invulnerability from a perhaps unlikely angle of literature. In a close reading of a short story by Benjamin Percy called "Refresh, Refresh" (2008), it explores its narrative insights into how acts of violence, which are undertaken far from home, inevitably return to affect and damage, perhaps beyond repair, the subject at home. Importantly, the return of violence in Percy's story occurs within the domain of the everyday and the mundane, not of the exceptional, and testifies to the despair experienced by young males "abandoned' by their military fathers. My interpretation draws also on theoretical explorations of the connection between violence, intersubjectivity and vulnerability, based on the ideas of Emmanuel Levinas on the subject's ethical captivity by the suffering of the other, and on Judith Butler's recent "uses" of the Levinasian ethical project in her writing about the post-9/11 America.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this article: Nineteen Men and One Woman DICK LEONARD The 20 British Prime Ministers of the 20th Century, twenty volumes, general editor Francis Beckett. Britain's Prime Ministers, by Roger Ellis and Geoffrey Treasure. Contra Blair Richard Briand Yo, Blair!: Tony Blair's Disastrous Premiership, by Geoffrey Wheatcroft. The columnist's progress Mark Garnett What's Left? How Liberals Lost Their Way, by Nick Cohen. The neo‐con and Iraq Martin Durham The Right War? The Conservative Debate on Iraq, edited by Gary Rosen. The road to hell … Dick Pountain The Politics of Good Intentions: History, Fear and Hypocrisy in the New World Order, by David Runciman.     

President Donald Trump: A Case Study of Spectacular Power

Donald Trump's election as president certainly startled many, though not all political observers. In this article, I offer my own observation that Mr Trump's election represents a developmental progression of America's electoral system from a political process to an entertainment process. The effect of the office of the president now is to distract and entertain. I will aim to convince readers that his election as America's president is not an anomaly, but rather represents how the politics of image and representation now work as an everyday event and should be treated as part of a reality that we should now take for granted.