Africa Unite!

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Ian Talbot

"India and Pakistan provides an historical understanding of the chequered process of nation-building in the subcontinent. In particular, Talbot examines the role of 'parochial' loyalties and the impact of contemporary processes of economic and cultural globalization on national and local allegiances. And, in introducing the increasingly important function of overseas South Asian communities in the political mobilization of the homeland, the reader is shown the complexities of South Asian society and the effects of its relationship with the state on the process of nation-building in India and Pakistan."--Jacket.

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Colin Legum

"This study consists of two chapters which appear in the current volume of the Africa Contemporary Record (1974-5). The first is an essay which attempts to recontruct the history of the secret diplomacy that produced the historic Lusaka Declaration of December 1974. ... The second part consists of an analysis of economic, political and social developments in the Republic of South Africa during the period covered by the previous essay."

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Vladislav Zubok, Constantine Pleshakov

Using recently uncovered archival materials, personal interviews, and a broad familiarity with Russian history and culture, two young Russian historians have written a major interpretation of the Cold War as seen from the Soviet shore. Covering the volatile period from 1945 to 1962, Zubok and Pleshakov explore the personalities and motivations of the key people who directed Soviet political life and shaped Soviet foreign policy. They begin with the fearsome figure of Joseph Stalin, who was driven by the dual dream of a Communist revolution and a global empire. They reveal the scope and limits of Stalin's ambitions by taking us into the world of his closest subordinates, the ruthless and unimaginative foreign minister Molotov and the Party's chief propagandist, Zhdanov, a man brimming with hubris and missionary zeal. The authors expose the machinations of the much-feared secret police chief Beria and the party cadre manager Malenkov, who tried but failed to set Soviet policies on a different course after Stalin's death. Finally, they document the motives and actions of the self-made and self-confident Nikita Khrushchev, full of Russian pride and party dogma, who overturned many of Stalin's policies with bold strategizing on a global scale. The authors show how, despite such attempts to change Soviet diplomacy, Stalin's legacy continued to divide Germany and Europe, and led the Soviets to the split with Maoist China and to the Cuban missile crisis. Zubok and Pleshakov's groundbreaking work reveals how Soviet statesmen conceived and conducted their rivalry with the West within the context of their own domestic and global concerns and aspirations. The authors persuasively demonstrate that the Soviet leaders did not seek a conflict with the United States, yet failed to prevent it or bring it to conclusion. They also document why and how Kremlin policy-makers, cautious and scheming as they were, triggered the gravest crises of the Cold War in Korea, Berlin, and Cuba.

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David E. Sanger

Inside the White House Situation Room, the newly elected Barack Obama immerses himself in the details of a remarkable new American capability to launch cyberwar against Iran--and escalates covert operations to delay the day when the mullahs could obtain a nuclear weapon. Over the next three years Obama accelerates drone attacks as an alternative to putting troops on the ground in Pakistan, and becomes increasingly reliant on the Special Forces, whose hunting of al-Qaeda illuminates the path out of an unwinnable war in Afghanistan. Confront and Conceal provides readers with a picture of an administration that came to office with the world on fire. It takes them into the Situation Room debate over how to undermine Iran's program while simultaneously trying to prevent Israel from taking military action that could plunge the region into another war. It dissects how the bin Laden raid worsened the dysfunctional relationship with Pakistan. And it traces how Obama's early idealism about fighting "a war of necessity" in Afghanistan quickly turned to fatigue and frustration. One of the most trusted and acclaimed national security correspondents in the country, David Sanger of the New York Times takes readers deep inside the Obama administration's most perilous decisions: The president dispatches an emergency search team to the Gulf when the White House briefly fears the Taliban may have obtained the Bomb, but he rejects a plan in late 2011 to send in Special Forces to recover a stealth drone that went down in Iran. Obama overrules his advisers and takes the riskiest path in killing Osama bin Laden, and ignores their advice when he helps oust Hosni Mubarak from the presidency of Egypt. "The surprise is his aggressiveness," a key ambassador who works closely with Obama reports. Yet the president has also pivoted American foreign policy away from the attritional wars of the past decade, attempting to preserve America's influence with a lighter, defter touch--all while focusing on a new era of diplomacy in Asia and reconfiguring America's role during a time of economic turmoil and austerity. As the world seeks to understand whether there is an Obama Doctrine, Confront and Conceal is a fascinating, unflinching account of these complex years, in which the president and his administration have found themselves struggling to stay ahead in a world where power is diffuse and America's ability to exert control grows ever more elusive. Examines Obama's aggressive use of innovative weapons and new tools of American power to manage a rapidly shifting world of global threats and challenges.