Internationale relationer

As US-Russian relations scrape the depths of cold-war antagonism, the promise of partnership that beguiled American administrations during the first post-Soviet decades increasingly appears to have been false from the start. Why did American leaders persist in pursuing it? Was there another path that would have produced more constructive relations or better prepared Washington to face the challenge Russia poses today?With a practitioner's eye honed during decades of work on Russian affairs, Thomas Graham deftly traces the evolution of opposing ideas of national purpose that created an inherent tension in relations. Getting Russia Right identifies the blind spots that prevented Washington from seeing Russia as it really is and crafting a policy to advance American interests without provoking an aggressive Russian response. Distilling the Putin factor to reveal the contours of the Russia challenge facing the United States whenever he departs the scene, Graham lays out a compelling way to deal with it so that the United States can continue to advance its interests in a rapidly changing world.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Unapologetically optimistic and bracingly realistic, this is the most inspiring book on ';ethical living' I've ever read.' Oliver Burkeman, Guardian ';A monumental event.' Rutger Bregman, author of Humankind ';A book of great daring, clarity, insight and imagination. To be simultaneously so realistic and so optimistic, and always so damn readable well that is a miracle for which he should be greatly applauded.' Stephen Fry Humanity is in its infancy. Our future could last for millions of years or it could end tomorrow. Astonishing numbers of people could lead lives of great happiness or unimaginable suffering, or never live at all, depending on what we choose to do today. As we approach a critical juncture in our history, we can make profound moral decisions about how humanity's course plays out. We can create positive change on behalf of future generations, to prevent the use of catastrophic weapons and maintain peace between the world's great powers. We can improve our moral values, navigating the rise of AI and climate change more fairly for generations to come. The challenges we face are enormous. But so is the influence we have. If we choose wisely, our distant descendants will look back on us fondly, knowing we did everything we could to give them a world that is beautiful and just.

Is the West prepared for a world where power is shared with China? A world in which China asserts the same level of global leadership that the USA currently assumes? And can we learn to embrace Chinese political culture, as China learned to embrace ours?Here, one of the world's leading voices on China, Kerry Brown, takes us past the tired cliches and inside the Chinese leadership - as they lay out a roadmap for working in a world in which China shares dominance with the West.From how, and why, China as a dominant superpower has been inevitable for many years, to how the attempts to fight the old battles are over, Brown digs deeper into the problematic nature of China's current situation - its treatment of dissent, of Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and the severe limitations on its management of relations with other cultures and values. These issues impact the way the West sees China, China sees the West, and how both see themselves.There are obstacles to the West accepting a more prominent place for China in the world - but just because this will be a difficult process does not mean that it should not happen. As Kerry Brown writes: history is indeed ending, but not how the West thought it would.

We need to act five times faster to tackle climate change before it is too late. A policy insider, Simon Sharpe provides compelling ideas on how to rethink our strategies and reorganise our efforts in the fields of science, diplomacy, and economics to speed up progress in addressing climate change.

"Witnesses were mysteriously murdered, and the FBI, NSA, CIA, and even the IRS were on a rampage. It was 1975, and a senator named Frank Church stood almost alone in the face of extraordinary abuses of power. ... Drawing upon hundreds of interviews, thousands of pages of recently declassified documents, and reams of unpublished letters, notes, and memoirs, ... Risen presents [an] untold story of truth and integrity standing against unchecked power--and winning"--Dust jacket flap.

*Apple Book of the Month for January*The incredible true story of Ana Montes, the most damaging female spy in US history, drawing upon never-before-seen material and to be published upon her release from prison, for readers of Agent Sonya and A Woman of No Importance.Just days after the 9-11 attacks, a senior Pentagon analyst eased her red Toyota Echo into traffic and headed to work. She never saw the undercover cars tracking her every turn. As she settled into her cubicle on the 6th floor of the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington, FBI Agents and twitchy DIA officers were hiding in nearby offices. For this was the day that Ana Montes--the US Intelligence Community superstar who had just won a prestigious fellowship at the CIA--was to be arrested and publicly exposed as a secret agent for Cuba.Like spies Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen before her, Ana Montes blindsided her colleagues with brazen acts of treason. For nearly 17 years, Montes succeeded in two high-stress jobs. By day, she was one of the government's top Cuba experts, a buttoned-down GS-14 with shockingly easy access to classified documents. By night, she was on the clock for Fidel Castro, listening to coded messages over shortwave radio, passing US secrets to handlers in local restaurants, and slipping into Havana wearing a wig. Montes didn't just deceive her country. Her betrayal was intensely personal. Her mercurial father was a former US Army Colonel. Her brother and sister-in-law were FBI Special Agents. And her only sister, Lucy, also worked her entire career for the Bureau. The highlight of her distinguished 31 years as a Miami-based language specialist: Helping the FBI flush Cuban spies out of the United States. Little did Lucy or her family know that the greatest Cuban spy of all was sitting right next to them at Thanksgivings, baptisms, and weddings.In Code Name Blue Wren, investigative journalist Jim Popkin weaves the tale of two sisters who chose two very different paths, plus the unsung heroes who had to fight to bring Ana to justice. With exclusive access to a "Secret" CIA behavioral profile of Ana, family memoirs, and Ana's incriminating letters from prison, Popkin reveals the making of a traitor-a woman labelled "one of the most damaging spies in U.S. history" by America's top counter-intelligence official.After more than two decades in federal prison, Montes will be freed in January 2023. Code Name Blue Wren is a thrilling detective tale, an insider's look at the clandestine world of espionage, and an intimate exploration of the dark side of betrayal.

"Stunning. Sean McFate is a new Sun Tzu." -Admiral James Stavridis (retired), former Supreme Allied Commander at NATOAn Economist Book of the Year 2019Some of the principles of warfare are ancient, others are new, but all described in The New Rules of War will permanently shape war now and in the future. By following them Sean McFate argues, we can prevail. But if we do not, terrorists, rogue states, and others who do not fight conventionally will succeed?and rule the world.The New Rules of War is an urgent, fascinating exploration of war?past, present and future?and what we must do if we want to win today from an 82nd Airborne veteran, former private military contractor, and professor of war studies at the National Defense University.War is timeless. Some things change?weapons, tactics, technology, leadership, objectives?but our desire to go into battle does not. We are living in the age of Durable Disorder?a period of unrest created by numerous factors: China's rise, Russia's resurgence, America's retreat, global terrorism, international criminal empires, climate change, dwindling natural resources, and bloody civil wars. Sean McFate has been on the front lines of deep state conflicts and has studied and taught the history and practice of war. He's seen firsthand the horrors of battle and understands the depth and complexity of the current global military situation. This devastating turmoil has given rise to difficult questions. What is the future of war? How can we survive? If Americans are drawn into major armed conflict, can we win? McFate calls upon the legends of military study Carl von Clausewitz, Sun Tzu, and others, as well as his own experience, and carefully constructs the new rules for the future of military engagement, the ways we can fight and win in an age of entropy: one where corporations, mercenaries, and rogue states have more power and 'nation states' have less. With examples from the Roman conquest, World War II, Vietnam, Afghanistan and others, he tackles the differences between conventional and future war, the danger in believing that technology will save us, the genuine leverage of psychological and 'shadow' warfare, and much more. McFate's new rules distill the essence of war today, describing what it is in the real world, not what we believe or wish it to be.

To danske efterretningsfolk bliver brikker i et farligt, internationalt spil.1965. I den kolde krigs mest intense periode er fronterne trukket skarpt op, og mens alle frygter atomkrig, bliver kampene i skyggerne stadig mere beskidte. Det svageste led kan omstyrte hele den skrøbelige balance, og verden holder vejret. Et af de svageste led i den vestlige alliance er danske kaptajn Sloth. Den uheldige kaptajn sætter gang i en række begivenheder, som får klokkerne til at ringe både i Kreml, Washington og London. I København bliver kriminalkommissær Krog og hans højre hånd Bauer fra PET kaldt ud til et uhyggeligt fund. En ung kvinde er død, og efterforskningen af hendes identitet bringer de to PET-folk i nærkontakt med den fantastiske Malin, men også uhyggelig tæt på lejemorderen Albert, som styres af den iskolde general Petrov i Moskva. Krog og Bauer må sammen med en broget flok agenter og gamle modstandsfolk tage utraditionelle metoder i brug, da alle sagens tråde samles i København. Den dansende spion er baseret på virkelige karakterer og hændelser.

'History is made up of myths,' writes the renowned Russian dissident journalist Mikhail Zygar. 'Alas, our myths led us to the fascism of 2022. It is time to expose them.' Drawing from his perilous career investigating the frontiers of the Russian empire, Zygar reveals how 350 years of propaganda, bad historical scholarship, folk tales and fantasy spurred his nation into war with Ukraine.A noted expert on the Kremlin with unparalleled access to hundreds of players in the current conflict - from politicians to oligarchs, gangsters to comedians (not least Zelensky himself) - Zygar chronicles the power struggles from which today's politics grew, and digs out the essential truths from behind layers of seductive legend. By surveying the strange, complex record of Russo-Ukrainian relations, WAR AND PUNISHMENT reveals exactly how the largest nation on Earth lost its senses. A work of history can't undo the past or transform the present, but sometimes it can shape the future.

Historically, the papacy has had - and continues to have - significant and sustained influence on society and culture. In the contemporary world, this influence is felt far afield from the traditional geographic and cultural center of papal authority in western Europe, notably in the Global South. Volume 3 frames questions around the papacy's cultural influence, focusing on the influence that successive popes and various vectors of papal authority have had on a broad range of social and cultural developments in European and global societies. The range of topics covered here reflects the vast and expanding scope of papal influence on everything from architecture to the construction and contestation of gender norms to questions of papal fashion. That influence has waxed and waned over time as successive popes have had access to greater resources and have had stronger imperatives to use their powers of patronage and regulation to intervene in society at large.

A narrative seamlessly blending entrepreneurial prowess with covert government operations. As the visionary founder of Overstock.com, Byrne, once lauded as the "National Entrepreneur of the Year 2011" and hailed as the "Messiah of Bitcoin," reveals an astonishing twist in August 2019-his role as a secret operative for the U.S. Government.This memoir lays bare Byrne's integral involvement in the "Russian Collusion Delusion" and the Clinton Investigation, exposing them as deceptive maneuvers orchestrated on an unsuspecting public. As the story unfolds, Byrne becomes a national lightning rod, branded the "kingpin" by PBS in 2021 and identified as the Department of Homeland Security's top domestic threat in August 2022.Byrne comes clean on the intricacies of his covert life, challenging perceptions and unraveling the delicate balance between public persona and clandestine operations. Unveiling his second life with the U.S. Government, from facilitating a bribe for Hillary Clinton to romancing a Russian spy, Byrne argues that these were early elements in a Deep State soft-coup against America, culminating in the alleged rigging of Election 2020, challenging fundamental principles of just governance.Brace yourself for an explosive memoir redefining trust, challenging conventional wisdom, and reshaping the boundaries between government, business, and individual truth.

The war in Ukraine has altered the course of global history. These authors explore how.When Vladimir Putin's forces sought to conquer Ukraine in February 2022, they did more than threaten the survival of a vulnerable democracy. The invasion unleashed a crisis that has changed the course of world affairs. This conflict has reshaped alliances, deepened global cleavages, and caused economic disruptions that continue to reverberate around the globe. It has initiated the first great-power nuclear crisis in decades and raised fundamental questions about the sources of national power and military might in the modern age. The outcome of the conflict will profoundly influence the international balance of power, the relationship between democracies and autocracies, and the rules that govern global affairs. In War in Ukraine, Hal Brands brings together an all-star cast of analysts to assess the conflict's origins, course, and implications and to offer their appraisals of one of the most geopolitically consequential crises of the early twenty-first century. Essays cover topics including the twists and turns of the war itself, the successes and failures of US strategy, the impact of sanctions, the future of Russia and its partnership with China, and more.Contributors: Anne Applebaum, Joshua Baker, Alexander Bick, Hal Brands, Daniel Drezner, Peter Feaver, Lawrence Freedman, Francis Gavin, Brian Hart, William Inboden, Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Michael Kimmage, Michael Kofman, Stephen Kotkin, Mark Leonard, Bonny Lin, Thomas Mahnken, Dara Massicot, Michael McFaul, Robert Person, Kori Schake, and Ashley Tellis.

For years, one group of Americans has worked as foot-soldiers for the most authoritarian regimes around the planet. In the process, they've not only entrenched dictatorships and spread kleptocratic networks, but they've secretly guided U.S. policy without the rest of America even being aware. And now, journalist Casey Michel contends some of them have begun turning their sights on American democracy itself.These Americans are known as foreign lobbyists, and many of them spent years ushering dictatorships directly into the halls of Washington, all while laundering the reputations of the most heinous, repressive regimes in the process. These lobbyists include figures like Ivy Lee, the inventor of the public relations industry - a man who whitewashed Mussolini, opened doors to the Soviets, and advised the Nazis on how to sway American audiences. They include people like Paul Manafort, who invented lobbying as we know it - and who then took his talents to autocrats from Ukraine to the Philippines, and then back to the White House. And they now include an increasing number of Americans elsewhere: in law firms and consultancies, among PR specialists and former lawmakers, and even within think tanks and universities.Many of these lobbyists have transformed into proxies for dictators and strongmen wherever they can be found. And for years, they've escaped scrutiny.In Foreign Agents, Casey Michel shines a light on these foreign lobbyists, and all the damage and devastation they have caused in Washington and elsewhere. From Moscow to Beijing, from far-right nationalists to far-left communists, from anti-American autocrats to pro-Western authoritarians, these foreign lobbyists have helped any illiberal, anti-democratic government they can find. And after decades of success in installing dictator after dictator, and in tilting American policy in the process, some of these lobbyists have now begun trying to end America's democratic experiment, once and for all.

"The political and cultural lessons drawn from the collapse of the Weimar Republic are invoked in order to understand contemporary threats to democracy. The contributors challenge the validity of these lessons, the extent to which they reflect political agendas, and how they are brought to bear on contemporary political problems"--

Bogdan Staschinski war ein begabter aber innerlich zerrissener KGB-Agent. Seine Geschichte ist - genauso wie die Geschichte seiner Opfer - zutiefst mit der Geschichte Deutschlands und der Ukraine im Kalten Krieg verbunden. Auf Befehl des KGB-Leiters in Moskau und des Vorsitzenden der Kommunistische Partei der Sowjetunion verübte Staschinski 1957 und 1959 in München Attentate auf die ukrainischen Exilanten Lew Rebet und Stepan Bandera. In seinen Erinnerungen erzählt der westukrainische KGB-Agent, warum er sich dem sowjetischen Geheimdienst anschloss, wie seine Ausbildung in Kiew und Moskau verlief, wie er den nationalistischen Untergrund in der Westukraine ausspionierte und den Attentäter des ukrainisch-sowjetischen Kultschriftstellers Jaroslaw Halan aufgespürte, warum ihn die Attentate in München auf seine Landesgenossen angeblich psychisch belasteten, wie die Liebe zu Inge Pohl seine Einstellung zu der Sowjetunion veränderte und was ihn dazu bewog, dem wohl brutalsten Geheimdienst dieser Zeit den Rücken zu kehren.

Focusing on the character and personality of Menachem Begin, Gerald Steinberg and Ziv Rubinovitz offer a new look into the peace negotiations between Israel and Egypt in the 1970s. Begin's role as a peace negotiator has often been marginalized, but this sympathetic and critical portrait restores him to the center of the diplomatic process. Beginning with the events of 1967, Steinberg and Rubinovitz look at Begin's statements on foreign policy, including relations with Egypt, and his role as Prime Minister and chief signer of the Israel-Egypt peace treaty. While Begin did not leave personal memoirs or diaries of the peace process, Steinberg and Rubinovitz have tapped into newly released Israeli archives and information housed at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and the Begin Heritage Center. The analysis illuminates the complexities that Menachem Begin faced in navigating between ideology and political realism in the negotiations towards a peace treaty that remains a unique diplomatic achievement.

With a new Afterword for the paperback edition, Jerusalem Post reporters Bob and Evyatar draw on confidential sources in Mossad, Israel's equivalent to our CIA, to tell the remarkable story of how Israel has used sabotage, assassination, cyberwar -- and, remarkably, diplomacy -- to forge a new Middle East and slow Iran's development of a nuclear weapon.

In this first comprehensive history of India's secret Cold War, Paul McGarr tells the story of Indian politicians, human rights activists, and journalists as they fought against or collaborated with members of the British and US intelligence services. The interventions of these agents have had a significant and enduring impact on the political and social fabric of South Asia. The spectre of a 'foreign hand', or external intelligence activity, real and imagined, has occupied a prominent place in India's political discourse, journalism, and cultural production. Spying in South Asia probes the nexus between intelligence and statecraft in South Asia and the relationships between agencies and governments forged to promote democracy. McGarr asks why, in contrast to Western assumptions about surveillance, South Asians associate intelligence with covert action, grand conspiracy, and justifications for repression? In doing so, he uncovers a fifty-year battle for hearts and minds in the Indian subcontinent.

- What if the sun truly is setting on the Western world's outsized influence over the rest of the planet? - The receding of Western power is speeding up, shaking the ground under our feet- In Westlessness, Dr Puri vividly demonstrates how in demographic, economic, military and cultural terms, we are hurtling into a far more diverse global future- Many of our certainties about the present, built on centuries of massive Western global impact, are increasingly fragile. Nothing is linear and nothing is predictable. - Untold wealth is moving from the West to the East, as nations like India and Indonesia are set to reach new heights of growth and confidence. -China continues its ascent to the peak of the economic mountain - but are cracks appearing?. - BUT will the Western world, (under the aegis of US global military, economic, technological and cultural power) give up its privileged position willingly?- Are we ready, professionally and personally, to adapt to a much more diverse global future? - Prepared or unprepared, Westlessness is essential reading for us all.