Global Politics Audiobooks | Politics

The United States and the Armenian Genocide: History, Memory, Politics

During the first World War, over a million Armenians were killed as Ottoman Turks embarked on a bloody campaign of ethnic cleansing. Scholars have long described these massacres as genocide, one of Hitler's prime inspirations for the Holocaust, yet the United States did not officially recognize the Armenian Genocide until 2021. This is the first book to examine how and why the United States refused to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide until the early 2020s. Although the American government expressed sympathy towards the plight of the Armenians in the 1910s and 1920s, historian Julien Zarifian explores how, from the 1960s, a set of geopolitical and institutional factors soon led the United States to adopt a policy of genocide nonrecognition which it would cling to for over fifty years, through Republican and Democratic administrations alike. He describes the forces on each side of this issue: activists from the US Armenian diaspora and their allies, challenging Cold War statesmen worried about alienating NATO ally Turkey and dealing with a widespread American reluctance to directly confront the horrors of the past. Drawing from congressional records, rare newspapers, and interviews with lobbyists and decision-makers, he reveals how genocide recognition became such a complex, politically sensitive issue.

Julien Zarifian (Author), Jonathan Todd Ross (Narrator)

Audiobook

New Cold Wars: China's Rise, Russia's Invasion, and America's Struggle to Defend the West

A fast-paced account of America's plunge into simultaneous Cold Wars against two very different adversaries-Xi Jinping's China and Vladimir Putin's Russia-based on deep reporting from inside the White House, U.S. intelligence agencies, technology firms, and foreign governments. More than thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the United States finds itself in a volatile rivalry against the world's other two great nuclear powers. Yet this era bears very little resemblance to the old Cold War. As Putin and Xi increasingly threaten to team up, this moment grows far more complex-and undeniably more dangerous-than the world of a half century ago. New Cold Wars-the latest from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author of The Perfect Weapon, David E. Sanger-tells the riveting story of America at a crossroads. At the turn of the millennium, the United States was confident that a democratic Russia and a newly wealthy China could gradually be pulled into the Western-led order. That proved a fantasy. By the time Washington emerged from the age of terrorism, the three nuclear powers were engaged in a new, high-stakes struggle for military, economic, and technological supremacy-with nations around the world forced to take sides. Based on a remarkable array of interviews with top officials in the United States, foreign leaders, andtech companies thrust onto the front lines, Sanger unfolds a riveting narrative spun around the era's critical questions: Will the mistakes Putin made in his ill-considered invasion of Ukraine prove his undoing, and will he reach for his nuclear arsenal? Will China strike back at the U.S. chip embargo, or seize Taiwan, the world's semiconductor capital? Taking readers from the battlefields of Ukraine-where trench warfare and cyberwarfare are fought side by side-to the back rooms and boardrooms where diplomats, spies, and tech executives jockey for geopolitical advantage, New Cold Wars is a remarkable first draft history chronicling America's return to superpower conflict, the choices that lie ahead, and what is at stake for the United States and the world.

David E. Sanger (Author), TBD (Narrator)

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World on the Brink: How America Can Beat China in the Race for the Twenty-First Century

A leading national security expert lays out how the U. S. can keep its place as the world's top superpower in the face of a rising China. Over the past few decades, China has climbed the ranks of the global powers with staggering speed. Its vast economy and growing regional aggression make it a threat to supersede the United States as the world's dominant power. But this outcome is far from inevitable. Like neighboring Russia-which harbors global ambitions of its own-right now China is at a turning point. Whereas international sanctions and a turn away from fossil fuels are steadily smothering Russia, China's downfall will be its shrinking population. Its chance to achieve global hegemony will soon disappear, making its quest for power both less certain and more dangerous. In World on the Brink, security expert Dmitri Alperovitch breaks down not only the significant weaknesses that have so far prevented China from surpassing the United States, but also the key strategies that will enable the U. S. to maintain primacy even as China ramps up its efforts. The US must cultivate crucial alliances, foster domestic innovation in emerging tech fields, and stabilize international relations with adversarial nations in anticipation of a new cold war that seems more likely every day. As Alperovitch explains, we must play to our strengths and address our weaknesses, using our leverage as the strongest nation on the planet to tactfully navigate the next cold war. This sharp, timely book is the essential blueprint for doing just that.

Dmitri Alperovitch, Garrett M. Graff (Author), TBD, Will Collyer (Narrator)

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Kennan: A Life between Worlds

The diplomat and historian George F. Kennan (1904-2005) ranks as one of the most important figures in American foreign policy. Drawing on many previously untapped sources, Frank Costigliola's biography offers a new picture of a man of extraordinary ability and ambition whose idea of containing the Soviet Union helped ignite the Cold War but who spent the next half century trying to extinguish it. Always prescient, Kennan in the 1990s warned that the eastward expansion of NATO would spur a new cold war with Russia. Even as Kennan championed rational realism in foreign policy, his personal and professional lives were marked by turmoil. And though he was widely respected and honored by presidents and the public, he judged his career a failure because he had been dropped as a pilot of US foreign policy. Kennan was a trenchant critic of both communism and capitalism, and a pioneering environmentalist. Living between Russia and the US, he witnessed firsthand Stalin's tightening grip on the Soviet Union, the collapse of Europe during WWII, and the nuclear arms race of the Cold War. An absorbing portrait of an eloquent, insightful, and sometimes blinkered iconoclast whose ideas are still powerfully relevant, Kennan invites us to imagine a world that Kennan fought for but was unable to bring about-one not of confrontations and crises but of dialogue and diplomacy.

Frank Costigliola (Author), Paul Brion (Narrator)

Audiobook

Balcony Over Jerusalem: A Middle East Memoir - Israel, Palestine and Beyond

An intimate account of the Israel-Palestine conflict and beyond, from one of Australia's most experienced foreign correspondents. Now updated with a foreword by Stan Grant and a new author's note. 'Lyons knows if you stand with the suffering, you're closer to the truth' Stan Grant, award-winning journalist and bestselling author 'A penetrating analysis of power with empathy for the human story' Sarah Ferguson, presenter of 7.30 Leading Australian journalist John Lyons takes readers on a fascinating personal journey through the wonders and dangers of the Middle East. In this updated edition, Lyons draws from his years living in Jerusalem to give context to the devastating war between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza and gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. Having reported on the Middle East for three decades, Lyons has interviewed everyone from senior Israeli military and intelligence figures to key leaders from Hezbollah and Hamas. He's witnessed the brutal Iranian Revolutionary Guard up close, was kidnapped by Egyptian soldiers, and was one of the last foreign journalists in Iran during the violent crackdown on the 'Green Revolution'. He's confronted Hamas officials about why they fire rockets into Israel and Israeli soldiers about why they fire tear gas at Palestinian schoolchildren. Beyond the politics and headlines, Lyons explains the Middle East through everyday life and experiences: his son's school, the markets, and the conversations with friends on their balcony overlooking it all. Through Lyons' incisive reporting, you will develop an empathetic understanding of what brought us to this tragic impasse - and where it's headed next.

John Lyons (Author), Peter Houghton (Narrator)

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The Shortest History of Italy: From the Rise and Fall of Rome to Unification and Modernization— A Re

A concise, star-studded retelling of Italy's past, from Caesar and Augustus to da Vinci and Michelangelo, tracing the story of a country with prodigious global influence-from a foremost author of historic Italy. The calendar. The Senate. The university. The piano, the heliocentric model, and the pizzeria. It's hard to imagine a world without Italian influence-and easy to assume that inventions like these could only come from a strong, stable peninsula, sure of its place in the world. In this breakneck history, bestselling author Ross King dismantles this assumption, uncovering the story of a land rife with inner uncertainty even as its influence spread. As the Italian tale unfolds, prosperity and power fluctuate like the elevation in the Dolomites. If Rome's seven hills could talk, they might speak of the glorious time of Trajan-or bemoan the era of conquest and the Bubonic Plague that decimated Rome's population. Episodes of wealth like the First Triumvirate and the time of the Medicis are given fresh life alongside descriptions the Middle Ages, the early days of Venice, the invasion of Napoleon, and the long struggle for unification. King paints a colorful, fascinating portrait of a country that remains compelling not just to tens of millions of Italian Americans, but to the millions of Americans who visit Italy every year.

Ross King (Author), Liam Gerrard (Narrator)

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Lenin Lives?

Lenin's work and influence have often been written off as no longer relevant, and many today consider this to be so. Lenin has, they claim, had his day, even though he is still revered in China, the world's most populous country. However, Lenin, like his mentor Marx, has had a tendency to rise from apparent decline and oblivion to renewed force and influence. This study examines the key elements of Lenin's life and career, the consolidation of his ideas into the doctrines of 'Leninism,' the influence of Leninism in promoting revolutionary movements around the globe, and the currently disputed issue of whether his ideas still have any relevance today. In particular, while considering his views on the role of the revolutionary party, often seen as the centerpiece of his theory and practice, this account identifies the root of Lenin's global influence in his opposition to capitalist imperialism and as a bedrock foundation for the opposition of many to fascism and associated ideologies. While recognizing that Lenin's reputation has reached its lowest point, not least in his home country where his legacy is reviled by Vladimir Putin and other contemporary leaders, the book concludes by weighing up the contemporary arguments of those who believe that Lenin still lives.

Christopher Read (Author), Mike Cooper (Narrator)

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Goodbye Globalization: The Return of a Divided World

A bold new account of the state of globalization today-and what its collapse might mean for the world economy After the Cold War, globalization accelerated at breakneck speed. Manufacturing, transport, and consumption defied national borders, companies made more money, and consumers had access to an ever-increasing range of goods. But in recent years, a profound shift has begun to take place. Business executives and politicians alike are realizing that globalization is no longer working. Supply chains are imperiled, Russia has been expelled from the global economy after its invasion of Ukraine, and China is using these fissures to leverage a strategic advantage. Given these pressures, what will the future of our world economy look like? In this groundbreaking account, Elisabeth Braw explores the collapse of globalization and the profound challenges it will bring to the West. Drawing on interviews with prominent executives and policymakers from around the world, Braw poses the difficult questions all businesses and economies will face-and traces the intricate story of globalization from the exuberant 90s to the embattled present.

Elisabeth Braw (Author), Brigid Lohrey (Narrator)

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Fridays of Rage: Al Jazeera, the Arab Spring, and Political Islam

Fridays of Rage provides a glimpse into how Al Jazeera strategically cast its journalists as martyrs in the struggle for Arab freedom while promoting itself as the mouthpiece and advocate of the Arab public. In addition to heralding a new era of Arab democracy, Al Jazeera has become a major influence over Arab perceptions of American involvement in the Arab World, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the rise of global Islamic fundamentalism, and the expansion of the political far right. Al Jazeera's blueprint for 'Muslim-democracy' was part of a vision announced by the network during its earliest broadcasts. The network embarked upon a mission to reconstruct the Arab mindset and psyche. Al Jazeera introduced exiled Islamist leaders to the larger Arab public while also providing Muslim feminists a platform. The inclusion and consideration of Westerners, Israelis, Hamas, secularists, and others earned the network a reputation for pluralism and inclusiveness. Al Jazeera presented a mirror to an Arab world afraid to examine itself and its democratic deficiencies. But rather than assuming that Al Jazeera is a monolithic force for positive transformation in Arab society, Fridays of Rage examines the potentially dark implications of Al Jazeera's radical re-conceptualization of media as a strategic tool or weapon.

Sam Cherribi (Author), Shawn K. Jain (Narrator)

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The Yemen Model: Why U.S. Policy Has Failed in the Middle East

A close look at failed US policies in the Middle East, offering a fresh perspective on how best to reorient goals in the region In this book Alexandra Stark argues that the US approach to Yemen offers insights into the failures of American foreign policy throughout the Middle East. Stark makes the case that despite often being drawn into conflicts within Yemen, the United States has not achieved its policy goals because it has narrowly focused on counterterrorism and regional geopolitical competition rather than on the well-being of Yemenis themselves. She offers recommendations designed to reorient US policy in the Middle East in pursuit of US national security interests and to support the people of these countries in their efforts to make their own communities safe, secure, and prosperous.

Alexandra Stark (Author), Emily Durante (Narrator)

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The Alternative: And How We Build It

Owen Jones (Author), TBD (Narrator)

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A War Made in Russia

In this timely and incisive book, Sergei Medvedev argues that Russia's war in Ukraine was not merely a whim of Putin's obsession: rather, it was the result of two decades of authoritarian degradation and post-imperial ressentiment, a culmination of Putin's regime and of Russia's entire imperial history. Building on his prize-winning book The Return of the Russian Leviathan, Medvedev argues that it was not only Putin that started this war, but Russia itself, which, by and large, has imagined and embraced it with enthusiasm, seeking to relive its own military glory and colonial past.

Sergei Medvedev (Author), Daniel Henning (Narrator)

Audiobook

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