Books

For the United States, the dominant approach has been economic coercion. Despite applying stringent sanctions, the United States has been ineffective in convincing North Korea to give up its nuclear arsenal in return for a brighter economic and diplomatic future. The myriad U.S. sanctions have also failed to halt major progress in North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. However, these setbacks have not caused the United States to change its strategy of economic coercion. On the contrary, the United States has considerably increased its use of this economic statecraft tool. In contrast, China has deepened its economic engagement with the North Korean regime since the late 2000s. Through the relationship between the Chinese Communist Party and its counterpart the Workers’ Party of Korea, China has cultivated and monetized political ties. Doing so has provided a powerful mechanism through which the Kim family regime—leaders of North Korea’s ruling and prosperous 1 percent—has shored up stability and thrived.

• Includes chapters written by a distinguished cast of experts on democracy and comparative political regimes
• Presents new case studies of democratic survival in the developing world
• Offers theoretically incisive debates about what enables democracy to survive under difficult conditions
• Provides new interpretations of the recent political histories of key "Third Wave" democracies

In Transforming Nuclear Safeguards Culture, Trevor Findlay investigates the role that organizational culture may play in preventing the spread of nuclear weapons, examining particularly how it affects the nuclear safeguards system of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the paramount global organization in the non-proliferation field. Findlay seeks to identify how organizational culture may have contributed to the IAEA's failure to detect Iraq's attempts to acquire illicit nuclear capabilities in the decade prior to the 1990 Gulf War and how the agency has sought to change safeguards culture since then. In doing so, he addresses an important piece of the nuclear nonproliferation puzzle: how to ensure that a robust international safeguards system, in perpetuity, might keep non-nuclear states from acquiring such weapons.

Findlay, as one of the leading scholars on the IAEA, brings a valuable holistic perspective to his analysis of the agency's culture. Transforming Nuclear Safeguards Culture will inspire debate about the role of organizational culture in a key international organization—a culture that its member states, leadership, and staff have often sought to ignore or downplay.

Escaping Gravity is Belfer Center Senior Fellow and former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver's first-hand account of the transformation of the space agency. She describes how a handful of "revolutionaries" helped transform NASA through changes that enabled competition and challenged the traditional systems at the same time the capabilities and  resources of the private sector began to mature. 

This chapter investigates the durability of partnership arrangements and their adaptability as a key condition for partnership effectiveness and long-term sustainability. Using a 16-year database consisting of partnership initiatives selected as finalists for the Roy Family Award for Environmental Partnership, as well as case studies of the Noel Kempff Climate Action Project, Mexico City Metrobús, and Alianza Shire, Amanda Sardonis and Henry Lee show that partnership adaptability is a determinant of partnership effectiveness and is intrinsically linked to partnership structuring.

This chapter in The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Futures presents a taxonomy of photovoltaic installations based on who owns them and uses their electricity, making it easier to identify solar energy communities in urban environments and map their economic, environmental and social benefits. 

In his new book, The Avoidable War?, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd demystifies the actions of the U.S. and China, explaining and translating them for the benefit of the other. Geopolitical disaster is still avoidable, but only if these two giants can find a way to coexist without betraying their core interests through what Rudd calls “managed strategic competition.” Should they fail, down that path lies the possibility of a war that could rewrite the future of both countries, and the world.

Number One Realist illuminates Bernard Fall's study of political reconciliation in Indochina, while showing how his profound, humanitarian critique of war continues to echo in the endless conflicts of the present. It will challenge and change the way we think about the Vietnam War.

In The Devil Never Sleeps,  Juliette Kayyem lays the groundwork for a new “fail safely” approach to dealing with disasters. The book shares lessons on how to better prepare for that moment. Kayyem examines notable crises, like the Challenger explosion, California wildfires, and the power outage at Super Bowl XLVII, detailing the choices people made along the way and how they impacted outcomes.

An excerpt from a chapter in the forthcoming Lincoln Institute book Infrastructure Economics and Policy: International Perspectives, which includes contributions from leading international academics and practitioners addressing the latest approaches to infrastructure policy, implementation, and finance.