Elliott School Book Launch Series

Recent Events

Thursday, May 6 2021, 10:00 -11:00 am EST

Since 1949, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has maintained unrivalled control over the country, persisting even in the face of economic calamity, widespread social upheaval, and violence against its own people. Yet the party does not sustain dominance through repressive tactics alone—it pairs this with surprising responsiveness to the public.

In an event co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies, Professor Bruce Dickson will explore how this paradox has helped the CCP endure for decades. The subsequent Q&A with the audience will be led by Alyssa Ayres, Dean of the Elliott School.

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Award-Winning Faculty Publications

Past Launches

In a talk co-sponsored by more than six campus partners and attended by Professors Jay Shambaugh, Carol Wise and Roselyn Hsueh, Professor Stephen Kaplan explored how patient capital affects national-level governance across the Americas and beyond, including how Chinese leaders might react to developing nation’s ongoing struggles with debt and dependency.

The Book Launch Series, Institute for International Economic Policy, and Humanitarian Action Inititiave teamed up to present a roundtable discussion on the fluctuating relationship between the humanitarianism and human rights. The talk was led by its editor, Michael Barnett, moderated by Maryam Deloffre, and attended by ESIA Vice Dean Ilana Feldman and Miriam Tiktin from The New School.

Peace operations remain a principal tool for managing armed conflict and protecting civilians. The fully revised, expanded and updated third edition of Understanding Peacekeeping by Professor Paul Williams provides a comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to the theory, history, and politics of peace operations. The talk was moderated by Shirley Graham, Director of GEIA at ESIA.

Drawing on his fieldwork in Brazil with pirates, musicians, activists, filmmakers, police, salesmen, technicians, policymakers, politicians, and consumers, Professor Alexander Dent argues that 21st-century capitalism creates piracy and its enforcement at the same time, producing fraught consumer experiences in Latin America and beyond.

Through a detailed examination of the Russian domestic scene and the Kremlin's foreign policy rationales, Marlene Laruelle disentangles the foundation for, meaning, and validity of accusations of fascism in and around Russia. The discussion was also attended by Yoshiko Herrera, J. Paul Goode, and Anton Shekhovtsov.

Why has Southeast Asia become the new battleground between the United States and China? Is China's growing domination truly inevitable? How will the relationship between the two countries evolve? The Book Launch Series presented a lecture by Professor David Shambaugh on his latest book, in what was also the first school event attended by the new Dean, Dr. Alyssa Ayres.

How did Kurosawa influence George Lucas' Star Wars? Why do critics repeatedly use the adjective Shakespearean to describe Bong Joon-ho's Parasite (2019)? How do East Asian cinema and theatre portray vocal disability and transgender figures? Professor Alexa Alice Joubin answered these questions in a talk co-hosted by the Book Launch Series, National Resource Center, Institute for Korean Studies and Sigur Center for Asian Studies.

For centuries, scientists and society cast moral judgments on anyone deemed mentally ill, confining many to asylums. In his new book, Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs Roy Richard Grinker chronicles the progress and setbacks in the struggle against mental-illness stigma—from the eighteenth century to today’s high-tech economy.

At the close of the 19th century, Confucian revivalists attempted to transform and bind Xinjiang to the dominant Chinese cultural and political realm. However, the result was a profound estrangement that endures to this day. Assistant Professor of History and International Affairs Eric Schluessel explores this encounter between Chinese power and a Muslim society through the struggles of ordinary people in the oasis of Turpan.

Scholar and policy practitioner Nilofar Sakhi examined in her book whether the development of productive power is an effective approach to human security implementation in Afghanistan. The talk was moderated by Associate Professor of History and International Affairs, Dr. Benjamin Hopkins, and co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies.

Gender Security Agenda

October 31, 2020 marks the 20th anniversary of the adoption of UNSCR 1325, which reaffirmed role of women in conflicts resolution and peace building. The ESIA Book Launch Series, the Gender Equality Initiative in International Affairs and Women in International Security (WIIS) partnered to present a panel featuring seven speakers and Professor Michael Brown's new book.

The ESIA Book Launch Series and the Institute for International Science and Technology Policy teamed up for a talk featuring Associate Research Professor Vincent Ialenti, who spoke on his anthropological work in Finland among ecologists, as well as the importance of environmental governance and societal time-literacy.

The ESIA Book Launch Series and the Sigur Center for Asian Studies hosted the author, Professor Benjamin Hopkins, for a book talk moderated by Professor of History Dane Kennedy. In his book, Professor Hopkins argues that in the past, empires sought to keep the “savage” just close enough to take advantage of, creating lasting ramifications for the global nation-state order.

In What Remains, GWU Professor of Anthropology Sarah Wagner tells us the stories of America’s missing service members and the families, scientists and communities that continue to search for them. The book would go on to win 1st prize in the Victor Turner award competition for outstanding writing in anthropology.

Edited by Professor David Shambaugh with chapters by 15 other leading experts, this volume covers China’s contemporary relations with all regions, with other major powers, and across multiple arenas of international interactions. It also explores the sources of China’s grand strategy, how its history shapes present policies, and the impact of domestic factors on China’s external behavior. The event was co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies.

Our first book talk of the year featured Professor Alexa Alice Joubin's new book, Race: The New Critical Idiom. A concise guide offering new insights, Race addresses issues as diverse as the intersections of race and gender; race and social theory; identity, ethnicity, and migration; the concept of whiteness; the legislative and judicial markings of difference; blackness in a global context; race in the history of science, and critical race theory.

From Elliott School Professor of Practice Robert Sutter comes the second edition of his book, The United States and Asia: Regional Dynamics and Twenty-First-Century Relations. Now fully revised and updated, this book describes how the United States has tried to maintain its leading position as a power in Asia despite China's rising influence. The lecture is co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies and was followed by a Q&A moderated by NBR President Roy Kamphausen.

With After the Berlin Wall: Memory and the Making of the New Germany, 1989 to the Present, Elliott School Associate Professor of History and International Affairs Hope M. Harrison draws on conceptions of national identity in contemporary Germany as an approach to the history and commemoration of the Berlin Wall over the past 30 years.

Elliott School Associate Professor of History and International Affairs Nemata Blyden discusses this relationship between African Americans and Africa by mapping overlapping diasporas from the era of slavery to the present day in her new book African Americans & Africa: A New History.

Dr. Amitai Etzioni, University Professor and Professor of International Affairs, has released his latest book: Reclaiming Patriotism. His new book offers a hopeful and pragmatic solution to our current crisis in democracy—a patriotic movement that could have a transformative, positive impact on our foreign policy, the world order and the future of capitalism.

In an event partnered with the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies (IERES), editors Kathryn Kleppinger and Laura Reeck explored French post-migratory postcolonial minorities’ influence on French national identity and contemporary cultural production. Topics ranged from hip-hop to institutional memory, laïcité and modern literature.

Co-sponsored by the Elliott School's Space Policy Institute, this event celebrated Ronald Reagan and the Space Frontier, the newest publication from renowned historian, award-winning author, and Professor Emeritus John M. Logson. The book covered the influence of Reagan's space shuttle, international space station, and spacy policy on the world.

A packed house greeted Elliott School Professor of Practice Robert G. Sutter when he commemorated his latest book, Foreign Relations of the PRC, with an event entitled: Xi Jinping's Foreign Policy Vision—Powerful Image versus Restricted Reality. The event was co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies, and kicked off by Sigur Center Associate Director and Elliott School Research Professor Deepa Ollapally.

Audience members braved the rain to uncover the evolution of US science policy research when author and Elliott School Research Professor Al Teich introduced his latest monograph. Co-sponsored by the Institute for International Science and Technology Policy (IISTP), the book launch also featured an introduction from RTI Senior Manager Jeff Alexander and a welcome from IISTP Director, Allison Macfarlane.

Co-sponsored by the Institute for Middle East Studies (IMES), the launch of Elliott School Professor Ilana Feldman's new book, Live Lived in Relief: Humanitarian Predicaments and Palestinian Refugee Politics, brought together a diverse audience eager to learn more about Palestinian refugees' engagement with humanitarian assistance. The talk was moderated by Elliott School University Professor Michael Barnett.

Author and Elliott School Research Professor Marlene Laruelle and her co-author Jean Radvanyi launched their new book, Understanding Russia: The Challenges of Transformation. Co-sponsored by the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies (IERES), this event was moderated by Virginia Tech Professor Gerard Toal.

It was standing room only when Assistant Dean Tobias Greiff launched his new book: Violent Places : Everyday Politics in Post-Dayton Bosnia and Herzegovina. Co-sponsored by the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies (IERES), this event also featured opening remarks from University of Baltimore Assistant Professor Sarah Federman and a spirited Q&A.

With a lecture on her new book, The Kingdom of God Has No Borders, Professor Melani McAlister introduced the audience to the transnational face of American evangelicals. Co-sponsored by the Institute for African Studies (IAfS), this event also featured an engaging Q&A led by IAfS Director Jennifer Cooke.

The path breaking Mr. X and the Pacific began many decades ago when Adjunct Professor Paul Heer was a GW PhD candidate in the 1990s. Heer chose to bring the book home for its launch and colleagues, media, staff, and students turned out to both support the publication and better understand George Kennan's influence on American East Asia policy.

Elliott School Associate Professor Paul D. Williams offered a fascinating history and analysis of AMISOM in the introduction of his new book. Deftly moderated by Institute for African Studies (IAfS) Director Jennifer Cooke and co-sponsored by IAfS and the Institute for Security and Conflict Studies, the event captured an audience keen to learn more about this often overlooked mission in Somalia.

Co-sponsored by the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, this launch featured a book talk from Elliott School Professor Emeritus and distinguished scholar of Soviet and post-Soviet government and politics Peter Reddaway; commentary from Russia experts Robert Orttung and Donald Jensen; and a Q&A. For more, see GWToday's coverage of the event.

Chapter authors Lily Gardner Feldman, Christine Kim, and Robert Sutter, as well as author-editors Daqing Yang and Mike Mochizuki reunited to discuss their edited volume. Co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies, this event welcomed an audience eager to learn about the first large-scale analysis of how countries in the Asia Pacific and beyond commemorated the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII.