The Book Review delves into the many books on national security and related fields published each year. It offers reviews that range widely across subjects and disciplines, from domestic and international law to history, strategic and military studies, from national security journalism to terrorism and counterterrorism, ethics, and technology. Contributors include scholars, serving or former government officials or military personnel, journalists, experts of many kinds, and students in law school or university.
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The Center of the Jihadist Universe
PDF version A review of Charles Lister's The Syrian Jihad: Al-Qaeda, the Islamic State and the Evolution of an Insurgency (Oxford, 2015). *** -
Culture War or Common Heritage? On Recent Critics of Global Religious Freedom
PDF version A review of Elizabeth Shakman Hurd's Beyond Religious Freedom: The New Global Politics of Religion (Princeton, 2015) and Saba Mahmood's Religious Difference in a Secular Age: A Minority Repo... -
An American (Diplomat Not) in Paris
PDF version A review of To the Secretary: Leaked Embassy Cables and America's Foreign Policy Disconnect by Mary Thompson-Jones (W.W. Norton 2016) *** -
Out of the Blue and into the Black?
PDF version A review of Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War by Fred Kaplan (Simon & Schuster 2016) -
Popularizing the History of International Criminal Law
PDF VERSION A review of Phillippe Sands' East West Street: On the Origins of "Genocide" and "Crimes Against Humanity" (Knopf, 2016). -
Chalked Spikes and Bush-Era Intelligence
PDF version A Review of Michael V. Hayden, Playing to the Edge: American Intelligence in the Age of Terror (Penguin 2016). -
Here Be Dragons
PDF version A Review of Adam Segal's The Hacked World Order (PublicAffairs, 2016). -
Originalism and the Executive
PDF version A review of Saikrishna Prakash's Imperial from the Beginning: The Constitution of the Original Executive (Yale, 2015). -
Book Review: Cully Stimson Takes on Power Wars
“Governing had turned out to be more complicated than criticizing from the private sector or campaigning.” –a senior Obama administration official. -
A True Cold War Spy Thriller with Contemporary Relevance
The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal David Hoffman Doubleday (2015) 336 pages I didn’t pick up The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal ... -
From Al Qaeda in Iraq to ISIS, From al Zarqawi to al Baghdadi
Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS Joby Warrick Doubleday (2015) Reviewed by Bruce Riedel -
How Anwar al-Awlaki Came to Be Targeted With an Armed Drone
Objective Troy: A Terrorist, a President, and the Rise of the Drone By Scott Shane Published by Tim Duggan Books (2015) Nearly three years ago, testifying before a congressional hearing, I observed t...