Thought Provokers

Separate Beds

In Afrikaans, ‘apartheid’ means apartness or separateness. Maureen Lux examines the history of medical apartheid in Canada in the book “Separate Beds: A History of Indian Hospitals in Canada, 1920s-1980s” (2016), published by the University of Toronto Press. The author is a professor of history. A few of the chapters draw on published materials (articles). […]

Tags: #Apartheid #Canada #Colonialism #Colonization #History #Power

Thought Provokers Jun 17

Remapping Ethiopia

At the International Conference of Ethiopian Studies in Japan in 1997, scholars proposed a book that would reflect on the transition from the Derg to the EPRDF era, and what the transitions meant for communities across the country. The result was a 2002 book, “Mapping Ethiopia: Socialism & After”, published by Ohio University Press and […]

Tags: #Development Studies #Ethiopia #History #International development #Power

Thought Provokers Jun 12

Nuclear War: A Scenario

This 2024 book by Annie Jacobsen, “Nuclear War: A Scenario” is not an academic press and the author has written a number of book-length deep drives into topics with a more journalistic form. This one gives a brief history of the development of nuclear technology and weapons use, however it primarily is a minute by minute […]

Tags: #Conflict #Jacobsen #Nuclear War #Security Policy #War

Thought Provokers Jun 6

Geopolitics for the End Time

Former Secretary of State for European Affairs for Portugal, political philosopher Bruno Macaes has penned several books (and is frequently a public commentator). These notes reflect on Geopolitics for the End Times: From the Pandemic to the Climate Crisis (2021). This is the first of his books I have read, and it may not have […]

Tags: #Bruno Macaes #Geopolitics #Political Philosophy

Thought Provokers Jun 2

The Dilemma of Retention

One of the challenges expatriate dependent nations face is how to attract global talent while building capacity nationally. This has often included a mix of nationalization policies along with attraction, development and recruitment policies for the entire workforce. Qatar has a minority citizen population and the large majority of its workforce is expatriate. To assess […]

Tags: #Human Resources #Policy #Qatar #Retention #Talent #Workforce

Thought Provokers May 28

The Edible Gardens of Ethiopia

Peveri undertook about a decade of visits to southern Ethiopia between 2004 and 2015, and upon which she basis the book The Edible Gardens of Ethiopia – An Ethnographic Journey into Beauty and Hunger (2020). This book is published by the University of Arizona Press. In these notes I share a couple of sociological insights […]

Tags: #Agriculture #Anthropology #Culture #Ethiopia #Sociology

Thought Provokers Jan 31

The Black Gold Spies

This is not an academic book, one of those random titles that gets mentioned and peaks curiosity. The author, Gilles Munier, has another book on Iraq and has multiple connections to the Middle East. He spent time in jail for being involved in violations on the sanctions on Iraq. An interesting character. This was published […]

Tags: #CIA #Espionage #Gilles Munier #Iran #Middle East #Spies

Thought Provokers Jan 23

The Structure of Scientific Revolution

Cited 165,000 times (as of today), this 1962 book on the history and sociology of science has been immensely influential. Thomas Kuhn argues that we don’t progress on a step-by-step process (a slow accumulation model to understanding change) but rather paradigm shifts change entire ways of thinking, working and doing (in understanding change, similar to […]

Tags: #History #Paradigm #Philosophy #Science #Sociology #The Structure of Scientific Revolution #Thomas Kuhn

Thought Provokers Jan 18

Building a Global Policy School in Asia

Last month I had the opportunity to visit the LKY Policy School, ranked #3 in the world for Policy Schools. In preparation for the visit, I picked up “Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy – Building a Global Policy School in Asia”. The book was published in 2012, meaning it reflected on the first […]

Tags: #LKY #LKY Policy School #LKY SPP #National University of Singapore #NUS #Policy Schools #Singapore

Thought Provokers Jan 12

Silencing the Past

Written by Michel-Rolph Trouillot in 1995, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History is a widely cited (more than 11,000 citations as of this post) critique of representation in history. The book brings power to the fore of history, which is often assumed to be apolitical or unbiased. The author passed away in […]

Tags: #Anthropology #History #Narrative #Power #Representation #Silences

Thought Provokers Jan 10

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About me

Logan Cochrane

Associate Professor at HBKU in the College of Public Policy. He is an Associate Fellow of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences and an Adjunct Professor at Hawassa University (Institute for Policy and Development Research). Over the last fifteen years, he has worked in Afghanistan, Benin, Burundi, Canada, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Logan acts as a consultant for governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations, seeking to create bridges between research and practice.

Logan Cochrane