Politics
Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment
Ahmet Kuru’s Cambridge University Press book, “Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment: A Global and Historical Comparison” (2019) is a unique and provocative book. Parts of the data referenced are dated (e.g., 2009 and 2010 data in a 2019 publication) but this does not alter the argument being made (which is historically based). In essence, the author […]
Tags: #Authoritarianism #Democracy #Development #Development Studies #History #Islam #Participation #Politics #Power #Underdevelopment
Medieval Ethiopian Diplomacy with Latin Europe
Verena Krebs authored a unique and rich historical text on the rationale and motivation of Ethiopian leadership to send off international delegations, particularly to Europe, in the Middle Ages. “Medieval Ethiopian Kingship, Craft, and Diplomacy with Latin Europe” (2021, Palgrave) is extensively researched. The author has a PhD from both Germany and Ethiopia. For historians, […]
How The West Came To Rule
This is a 2015 book that seeks to reorient the history of capitalism by Anievas and Nisancioglu. Published by Pluto Press, “How the West Came to Rule: The Geopolitical Origins of Capitalism” offers depth of conceptual, historical and theoretical analysis to challenge dominant narratives (following the financial crisis, which – if the idea persisted – […]
Tags: #Capitalism #History #Politics #Power
The Dawn Of Eurasia
Bruno Macaes’ 2018 book, The Dawn of Eurasia: On the Trail of the New World Order, is mostly a travelog of Central Asia with a brief geopolitical introduction. Like his other book, it does not sweeten with time (similar to another of his books I read / reviewed). In the moment interesting, but approaching a […]
Tags: #Central Asia #Eurasia #International Relations #New World Order #Politics
Resilient Statehood
New book edited by myself and Alexandra Wilson. Full book is available as Open Access: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-92-0221-8 Introduction: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-92-0221-8_1 Framework: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-92-0221-8_8 Lessons for Resilience Today: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-92-0221-8_9
Tags: #Development Studies #International development #Politics
Singapore: A Very Short History
A widely read, and apparently common undergraduate reading text, on Singapore is Alvin Tan’s “Singapore: A Very Short History, From Temasek to Tomorrow”, which was first published in 2000 and updated in a 2022 edition. I picked this up in Singapore looking to understand more about the political economy, and this did not deliver much […]
Tags: #Development #History #Policy #Politics #Singapore #Strategy
Political Power and Environmental Sustainability in Gulf Monarchies
Tobias Zumbraegel completed a PhD with a focus on politics and sustainability in Qatar, Saudi and Kuwait, which was revised / expanded and published as “Political Power and Environmental Sustainability in Gulf Monarchies” in 2022 with Palgrave. The basis of the study is existing literature and 53 interviews. Given it is a doctoral dissertation at […]
Tags: #Arabian Gulf #GCC #Politics #Sustainability #Tobias Zumbraegel
Education in Afghanistan
From his doctoral work, Yahia Baiza wrote “Education in Afghanistan: Development, Influences and Legacies since 1901” (2013), published by Routledge. The book covers more than a century (1901-2012), structured around the political eras of the period. As much as this book is about education, it is equally about the context of each time period. This […]
The Politics of Ethnicity in Ethiopia
Part of the Reading Ethiopia series This book was written by Lovise Aalen in 2011 and it is unfortunate that I had not read this book until now, given the geography and topics covered (apologies Dr Aalen if you are out there). The author says this book explores a unique experiment in institutionalizing the politics of […]
Tags: #Ethiopia #Ethnicity #Ethnofederalism #Governance #Politics
The Power of Geography
Tim Marshall, a political-economy and geography journalist, has penned a number of best selling books related to geography (or using geography as an entry point to discuss nation-states). His 2021 book “The Power of Geography: Ten Maps That Reveal the Future of Our World” is the first I have read of his books. The book […]
Tags: #Future Studies #Geography #Geopolitics #Politics #Tim Marshall
About me
Logan Cochrane
Logan is a 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 twenty 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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