Elliott School Book Launch Series

Catastrophic Successes: Why Foreign-Imposed Regime Change Goes Wrong

Challenges of Tech and Econ Catch-Up book cover

January 18th, 2022

In Catastrophic Success, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs Alexander Downes compiles all instances of regime change around the world over the past two centuries. Drawing on this impressive data set, Downes shows that regime change increases the likelihood of civil war and violent leader removal in target states and fails to reduce the probability of conflict between intervening states and their targets.

The event will be held in-person and online simultaneously. After a lecture by Dr. Downes, there will be a moderated Q&A with the audience.

RSVP link forthcoming

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Past Launches

Vonortas Book Cover

In his latest book, Professor of Economics and International Affairs Nicholas Vonortas synthesized the existing knowledge on technology upgrading failures among emerging economies. By exploring this phenomenon at the firm, sector, and macro levels, he emphasizes the importance of understanding multi-dimensional challenges such as COVID-19, geopolitical struggles, and environmental sustainability.

In his latest book, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs Nathan Brown analyzed crucial developments in Egyptian politics, society, and economics from the 20th century to the present day. Audience questions flew in during the hour-long virtual event on the interactions between regime, state, military, diaspora and civilians.

How are diasporas formed and run? And how do actors within and beyond a state shape diasporas over time? Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs Harris Mylonas of the ESIA and Associate Professor of Global Studies Alexandra Délano Alonso of the New School explored the various actors within and beyond the state that participate in the creation of diaspora policies.

In China's Leaders: From Mao to Now, renowned Sinologist David Shambaugh offers a refreshing account of China’s dramatic post-revolutionary history through the prism of those who ruled it. Exploring the persona, formative socialization, psychology, and professional experiences of each leader, he shows how their differing leadership styles and ruling tactics shaped China domestically and internationally.

Central Peripheries explores post-Soviet Central Asia through the prism of nation-building. It shows how states in the region have been navigating the construction of a nation in a post-imperial context, where Russia remains the dominant power and cultural reference. The launch was led by Marlene Laruelle, Research Professor of International Affairs, and featured a discussion with three panelists.

The Book Launch Series teamed up with the Sigur Center for Asian Studies to feature Professor of History and International Affairs Shawn McHale, who laid out the complex factions, motivations and events that underpinned a civil war wrapped within Vietnam's war of independence against France.

In a talk co-sponsored by the Institute for International Economic Policy, Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs Lucia Rafanelli addressed the delicate interplay between a society's ideas about justice in another society, and the recipient society's capacity for self-determination.

The Book Launch Series held a discussion on how Kazakh filmmakers struggled to develop their distinctive voices under Soviet mentorship, and how their works deserve to be rediscovered. The event featured Dr. Peter Rollberg, Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs and Professor of Slavic Languages, Film Studies and International Affairs, and was co-sponsored by the Central Asia Program.

In an event co-sponsored by the Sigur Center for Asian Studies, Professor Bruce Dickson explored how the CCP maintained control over China throughout various upheavals, by combining repressive tactics with responsiveness to the public. The subsequent Q&A with the audience was led by Alyssa Ayres, Dean of the Elliott School.

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.

Understanding Peacekeeping book cover

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, 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.