New Books in National Security

By Marshall PoeScience Social Sciences

New Books in National Security episodes

September 29 The Return of the Great Powers with Brendan Simms (Basic Books, 2026)
From the dawn of the modern era to the end of the Cold War, global history was defined by rivalries between Great Powers. In the West, this meant the struggle for supremacy in Europe and the Americas, while in the East, it encompassed those vying for control over the successor states to Genghis Khan’s empire. Between 1989 and the year 2000, Great Power rivalry temporarily gave way to globalization, with liberal democracy on the march and national chauvinism seemingly in retreat. But events of the past decade have made one thing abundantly clear: The Great Powers are back.
In The Return of the Great Powers (Basic Books, 2026), renowned historian Brendan Simms offers a new history of the rise, fall, and return of the Great Powers in our time. He shows that over the past ten years or so, the major global actors have already resumed making decisions based on geopolitical rather than global economic considerations.

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35 min
September 29 Compromised Coalitions: The Paradox of Postconflict Power Sharing in Africa with Alexander Noyes (U Pennsylvania Press, 2026)
When an election turns violent and neither side will concede, why is the usual answer to put both sides in the same government?
Alex Noyes has spent nearly two decades asking whether that reflex works. Compromised Coalitions: The Paradox of Post-Conflict Power Sharing in Africa out in 2026 from the University of Pennsylvania Press, draws on more than 120 interviews with senior politicians and stakeholders in Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Togo to give an unsettling answer.
Power sharing can advance democratic reform, but only when two conditions hold: inclusive politics among the parties, and outside enforcers willing to hold them to the deal. Both are rare. And even where the deal ends the killing, it rewards a losing incumbent with unearned power and sets a precedent.
In our conversation, Noyes explains why more than 600 such pacts have been struck since the Cold War, what the neglected Togo case reveals, and why he argues these arrangements should almost never be used after election violence.
Against the scholarly consensus, Noyes finds these pacts can deliver real democratic reform, but only under conditions that rarely hold, and always at the cost of a compromised start. The costs outweigh the gains, and policymakers should stop defaulting to the model.
Our guest is Alex Noyes, a fellow at the Brookings Institution's Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology.
Our host is Eleonora Mattiacci, an Associate Professor of Political Science at Amherst College. She is the author of "Volatile States in International Politics" (Oxford University Press, 2023).

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30 min
September 20 Stefano Recchia, "Strategies for Approval: Building Support for Military Intervention at the UN Security Council" (Yale UP, 2025)
When powerful states go to war, why do they bother asking permission? In Strategies for Approval: Building Support for Military Intervention at the UN Security Council (Yale University Press, 2025), Stefano Recchia argues that the answer reveals something surprising about how power actually works.
Drawing on hundreds of declassified documents and more than fifty interviews with senior diplomats, among them Andrei Kozyrev, Brent Scowcroft, and Colin Powell, Recchia shows that money and muscle are rarely enough to move a reluctant Security Council. States that succeed also reassure: they accept time limits, geographic restrictions, and multilateral oversight written directly into the resolutions they seek.
Our conversation traces that logic through France's controversial 1994 intervention in Rwanda, the six-week "pause for peace" the United States conceded to Gorbachev and Mitterrand before the First Gulf War, and the very different failure of 2003. Recchia also discusses what his interviews revealed about the real aims behind the 2011 intervention in Libya.
The more powerful a state becomes, this book shows, the more its power frightens others, and the more it must bind itself to get anything done.

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52 min
September 11 Francesca Lessa and Sebastián Santana, "Operation Condor: The Pact That Terrorized a Continent" (Storia, 2025)
In Operation Condor: The Pact That Terrorized a Continent (Storia, 2025), Francesca Lessa uncovers the shadowy machinery behind one of the most chilling transnational terror campaigns of the twentieth century. What began as a secret pact among South America's military dictatorships quickly grew into a coordinated system of surveillance, kidnappings, torture, and disappearances that reached across borders and oceans. Through meticulous research and newly unearthed documents, Lessa reveals how those in power built a network designed to eliminate dissent wherever it dared to surface, turning exile into a false refuge and entire nations into hunting grounds.
This book is not simply a reconstruction of clandestine meetings and sealed orders, though it excels at that. It is a deeply human story that follows the lives interrupted and the families who refused to surrender to silence. Lessa brings to light parents who never stopped searching, survivors who fought to be heard, and investigators who chipped away at decades of denial. Their voices and struggles give this history its pulse, reminding us that truth is often preserved not by institutions but by ordinary people who refuse to forget.
Translated with clarity and grace by Alejandro Reyes, and enriched by Sebastián Santana Camargo's haunting illustrations, this authorized English edition of the acclaimed Plan Cóndor: Viejos secretos y nuevos hallazgos is both a work of history and an act of witness. It confronts a past many hoped would remain in the shadows and insists on remembering, not out of vengeance, but as a defense of democracy and dignity. The result is a gripping, sobering, and ultimately hopeful testament to the enduring power of memory and justice.
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1 hr 6 min
September 05 Meghan Garrity, "Mass Expulsion: The Politics of Forced Population Removal" (Oxford UP, 2026)
Since the beginning of the twentieth century, governments around the world have expelled, en masse, more than 30 million people. Yet despite its prevalence, mass expulsion remains an understudied phenomenon as scholarly attention has been directed toward the gravest atrocities—genocide and mass killing—or toward forced migration more broadly.
Mass Expulsion: The Politics of Forced Population Removal (Oxford UP, 2026) by Dr. Meghan Garrity examines why and how governments expel, providing a systematic, cross-regional account of mass expulsion over the longue durée. Using the original Government-Sponsored Mass Expulsion (GSME) dataset, the book explains when and where expulsion occurs, who is targeted, and what regimes are most likely to expel. The book identifies two overarching categories of mass expulsion—security and economic—and develops a typology of four corresponding types: counter-irredentist, counter-subversive, reprisal, and nativist. It advances a theory of mass expulsion that traces the decision-making process, showing how key structural, proximate, precipitating, and intervening factors combine to shape the conditions under which governments expel or are restrained. Evidence is drawn from archival research conducted at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the League of Nations archives in Geneva, Switzerland.
This research contributes to the fields of international peace and security, political violence, and forced migration. Conceptually, it fills a gap in the literature by systematically examining mass expulsion as a distinct eliminationist policy aimed at the intentional removal of ethnic groups. Theoretically, it extends existing explanations beyond war and security threats, highlighting an entire class of expulsions targeting perceived economic threats. The book deepens our understanding of critical atrocity restraints, demonstrating the importance of alliances, the “homeland” state of the target group, and international organizations. These restraints generate core policy recommendations that seek to spur greater attention to deterring mass expulsion as a priority for atrocity prevention.
This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/national-security

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42 min
August 29 Reinhold Kramer and Tom Mitchell, "'PS: Burn after Reading': The Kellock-Taschereau Commission and Soviet Espionage" (U Toronto Press, 2026)
After
Soviet cipher clerk Igor Gouzenko defected in 1945, Canada was shocked
by the revelation that its own citizens were engaged in espionage for
the Soviet Union. "P.S. Burn after Reading": The Kellock-Taschereau Commission and Soviet Espionage in Canada
(University of Toronto Press, 2026) explores how the Canadian
government used the controversial Kellock-Taschereau
Commission—sometimes judiciously, sometimes not—to uncover and thwart
domestic
spies during the early days of the Cold War.
Drawing
on a wealth of sources, including the Commission’s extensive records,
GRU documents turned over by Gouzenko, American Venona decrypts, Soviet
KGB archives, and newly released British MI5 and MI6 files, authors Dr.
Reinhold Kramer and Dr. Tom Mitchell provide a comprehensive account of
the crisis. They reveal that, despite some civil liberties missteps, the
government’s suspicions were largely justified.
The
book weaves together the evidence against the spies, the tradecraft of
Soviet espionage, complex legal challenges faced by the state, and the
political fallout. With access to hundreds of newly released British
intelligence files, P.S. Burn After Reading
offers both specialists and general readers fresh insights into the
espionage crisis of 1945–46 and the pivotal role it played in exposing
Canada’s postwar security and intelligence vulnerabilities.
This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book
focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty
negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative
analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find
Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/national-security

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1 hr 1 min
August 24 Edward Goldring, "Purges: How Dictators Fight to Survive" (Cornell UP, 2026)
Purges: How Dictators Fight to Survive
(Cornell University Press, 2026) by Dr. Edward Goldring delves into one
of the key tactics that autocrats deploy to maintain power: the removal
of individuals from within the regime.
From Kim Jong Un's
execution of his uncle to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's removal of over a
hundred Turkish generals, purges bear significant consequences for the
survival and endurance of autocrats. Yet much remains unknown about why
dictators use purges and whether they achieve their intended effects.
Drawing
on an original global dataset on civilian and military elite purges in
dictatorships in addition to case studies spanning North and South Korea
as well as Turkey, Dr. Goldring examines the logic behind purges and
their consequences. He shows that dictators purge to consolidate power,
punish disloyalty, and scapegoat elites to alleviate popular threats.
But even as purges help dictators consolidate power early in their
tenure, purges actually weaken
their position when they have been in power for a long time, prompting
pushback. In the face of an increasing global shift toward authoritarian
norms, Purges offers critical insight into how autocrats maintain—and sometimes lose—power.
This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book
focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty
negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative
analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find
Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/national-security

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38 min
August 23 Steve Feldstein, "Bytes and Bullets: Global Rivalries, Private Tech, and the New Shape of Modern Warfare" (St. Martin's Press, 2026)
Steve Feldstein's Bytes and Bullets: Global Rivalries, Private Tech, and the New Shape of Modern Warfare (St. Martin's Press,
2026) opens with a juxtaposition: China spending vast sums to reach the
far side of the moon, and Ukraine using cheap drones to blunt a far
larger military. Both are stories about technology and power, but they
point in opposite directions.
In our conversation, Feldstein
argues that the outcome of technological competition is not
predetermined. Small states, non-state actors, and private companies
with the right engineers can now challenge much stronger adversaries. We
discuss Iran, whose military innovation grew out of decades of
sanctions rather than in spite of them, and why Western analysts
dismissed what was in plain sight. We then turn to China and Feldstein's
concern that the United States is making unforced errors, hollowing out
the basic research on which its edge depends.
Bytes and Bullets
resists both technological determinism and the claim that nothing has
changed. But this book is also candid about what cannot be predicted: as
machines take on decisions humans once made, who, if anyone, will set
the limits?
Our guest is Steven Feldstein, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program.
Our host is Eleonora Mattiacci, an Associate Professor of Political Science at Amherst College. She is the author of "Volatile States in International Politics" (Oxford University Press, 2023).
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/national-security

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42 min
August 21 A. J. Murphy, "Pentagon Capitalism: How the Cold War US Military Modeled Itself on Private Business" (Harvard UP, 2026)
The strategic landscape of the Cold War generated political support for a permanent US military force of unprecedented scale. Faced with the problem of managing this behemoth, leaders of the defense bureaucracy looked to private industry for inspiration: since the military now resembled a huge industrial conglomerate, they reasoned, it should be run like a business. In Pentagon Capitalism: How the Cold War US Military Modeled Itself on Private Business (Harvard UP, 2026), Dr. A. J. Murphy explores the profound consequences of translating military structures of command, logistics, and warfare into capitalist terms.
In the realm of budgeting and finance, defense reformers refashioned the supply process as a buy-and-sell transaction between units, requiring officers to express their need for equipment and labor in dollar terms. Bureaucrats embraced Taylorist work measurement to supervise everything from clerical filing to the production of massive weapons systems. The services even engaged management consultants to establish officer-training academies modeled on the Harvard Business School.
After the Vietnam War, many military leaders pushed back, questioning “managerialism” and calling for a return to traditional concepts of command. Civilian critics also chimed in, protesting the callousness of the business-minded secretary of defense, Robert McNamara, who famously measured success and failure in body counts. By this time, however, the language and values of management had thoroughly infiltrated the military’s institutional structure and daily operations. As Pentagon Capitalism makes clear, the reorganization of the defense bureaucracy along the lines of a for-profit firm durably altered the experience of military work and facilitated the lasting privatization of US national security.
This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts.
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/national-security

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42 min
August 18 Jacob Hagstrom, "Asymmetric Warfare: Politics and Cultures of Violence in the Modern Era" (Cambridge UP, 2025)
Asymmetric Warfare: Politics and Cultures of Violence in the Modern Era (Cambridge University Press, 2025).
The forces that fight asymmetric wars are so distinct that one side
avoids direct military confrontation in favor of political, social, or
otherwise unorthodox means of resistance. These conflicts have been a
mainstay of modern times, though scholars have often separated them into
various designations by era. Observers have referred, in chronological
order, to Indian warfare, petite guerre (small war), guerrilla warfare,
irregular or revolutionary war, and terrorism. The proliferation of
labels over time has obscured the continuity of asymmetric wars
throughout modernity. Stark distinctions in resources and capabilities
have shaped the reasons why states and societies have decided to fight,
and the manner in which they have fought. Across the modern era,
mismatches arose in the domains of technology, intelligence production,
and law. But in recent decades, so-called weak powers have neutralized
many of the typical advantages of strong military states.
Jacob Hagstrom is an army veteran and historian. He earned a PhD in
history from Indiana University, Bloomington, and taught courses at the
Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina.
Chris Millington is Professor of Modern European History and lead of the Histories and Cultures of Conflict research group at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. He is the author of eight books including Murder in Marseille: Right-Wing Terrorism in 1930s Europe ((Manchester University Press, 2025), The Invention of Terrorism in France, 1904-1939 (Stanford University press, 2023), and France in the Second World War Collaboration, Resistance, Holocaust, Empire (Bloomsbury Academic, 2020).
Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/national-security

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24 min

About New Books in National Security

From the publisher's feed

This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field.