Roundtables

In this roundtable, our contributors look back on the life and work of Robert Jervis. A towering figure in international relations, Jervis made crucial contributions to multiple academic fields as well as the U.S. government. He is remembered for his scholarly work as well as his generosity as a teacher, mentor, and colleague.

The contributors re-assess Alexander Haig’s stint as secretary of state and his impact on President Ronald Reagan’s early foreign policy, especially toward Cuba, the Soviet Union, and Afghanistan. His legacy offers insight into whether individual agency or deeper structures drive history.

Our contributors review Jon Lindsay’s book “Information Technology,” in which the author looks at military innovation and effectiveness and offers a framework for charting how organizations adapt and reform their information systems as new technologies emerge.

In this roundtable, Stephen Tankel, Craig Whiteside, Colin Clarke, and Megan Stewart discuss Jenna Jordan’s book on the tactic of leadership decapitation of terrorist groups and why some organizations are able to survive leadership decapitation, while others are not.

1. Introduction: Integrating Extractive Resource Politics into Broader International Political Economy By Sarah Bauerle Danzman   When, why, how, and to what effect do leaders nationalize their natural resources? Scholars of resource nationalism have grappled with these questions at least since the (in)famous wave of oil sector nationalizations that started in the 1950s and peaked […]

This January, Perry World House hosted a two-day workshop titled “Transatlantic Disruption: Challenges and Opportunities.” The essays in this roundtable emerged from a panel on the future of trans-Atlantic nuclear deterrence.

In this roundtable, our contributors review Mira Rapp-Hooper’s book “Shields of the Republic,” which looks at America’s alliances — past, present, and future.

In this roundtable, our contributors review Daniel Byman’s book “Road Warriors: Foreign Fighters in the Armies of Jihad,” which provides a sweeping history of jihadist foreign fighters from Afghanistan in the 1980s to the civil war in Syria.

In this book review roundtable, our reviewers discuss Martyn Frampton’s “The Muslim Brotherhood and the West,” in which Frampton gives a comprehensive history of the organization through the lens of the West.