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Poisoner in Chief
The use of a wide range of mind destroying drugs in secret sites around the world and doing so on non-consenting people by the CIA is detailed in the book “Poisoner in Chief Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control” (2019) by Stephen Kinzer. It took a long time for what was done to […]
Only the Paranoid Survive
Tech gurus have cited “Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company” (1996) by Andrew Grove as one of the most influential books they have read. Grove was the CEO of Intel. The book was written in 1996, several tech generations ago. In reading this, I was less interested […]
Poverty and Charity in Medieval Islam
Adam Sabra’s historical work “Poverty and Charity in Medieval Islam: Mamluk Egypt, 1250-1517” (2000) is a unique contribution of historical studies (shifting the gaze to everyday life). The book covers ideas regarding poverty (in contrast with forms of asceticism), an assessment of poverty of the era, forms of charitable giving (and the jurisprudence thereof), and […]
Zero to One
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future (2014) by Peter Thiel (founder of PayPal and major startup funder thereafter) and Blake Masters (who took a course with Peter at Stanford, and using the extensive course notes produced the basis for this book). The crux of the book is vertical innovation […]
The Asian Aspiration
The Asian Aspiration: Why and How Africa Should Emulate Asia (2020), written by two Brenthurst Foundation employees (Greg Mills and Emily Van Der Merwe) and two former African leaders (Olusegun Obasanjo and Hailemariam Desalegn). The bulk of the book is 10 chapters presenting country case studies from Asia (including: Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, the […]
The Act of Living
NOTE: This was a book review that was published in 2020. As a country with sustained levels of high macro-economic growth, Ethiopia has been suggested as amongst Africa’s Lions (Bhorat and Tarp, 2016), an economic grouping envisioned as potentially following the Asian Tigers of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. Macro-economic growth does […]
Rural Ethiopia in Transition
The WIDE project in Ethiopia is one of the few long-term qualitative projects following rural areas (starting rural research in 1994, and following the changes since). There are 20 communities being followed, unfortunately the so-called “emerging regions” are not included (Afar, Benishagul Gumuz, Gambella, Somali). The book “Rural Ethiopia in Transition – Selected Discussion Briefs, […]
Cobalt Red
Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives (2022) is a journalistic take on the mining of cobalt in DR Congo, written by Siddharth Kara (the author has published other books on modern slavery). This book focuses on cobalt, the mineral that is critical for nearly all of our rechargeable devices and […]
Gambling on Development
Dercon’s 2022 development studies book “Gambling on Development: Why Some Countries Win and Others Lose” will likely become one of the key readings for the field (and is endorsed by influential thinkers: Rory Stewart, Blattman, Yuen Yuen Ang). In a nutshell the argument is that development occurs when elites make a “development bargain”, taking various […]
Thomas Pogge and his critics
The edited collection, Thomas Pogge and His Critics (2010), edited by Alison Jaggar, is an excellent collection of chapters by an exceptional line up of philosophers focused on justice. The critics present a series of challenges, critiques and clarifications for Pogge’s work, such as on positive duties, the inclusion of rights protection, the causes of […]
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.
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