Power
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
On Grand Strategy
Written by a Yale professor who co-taught courses on grand strategy for nearly two decades, this book (Grand Strategy, 2019) had significant potential to bring together years of teaching into an accessible book (published by a mass market press, not academic press). John Lewis Gaddis is extremely well read, and from diverse fields. The book […]
Tags: #Grand Strategy #John Lewis Gaddis #On Grand Strategy #Power #Strategic Studies #Strategy
Russian Grand Strategy
An edited book published by Manchester University Press in 2022 attempted to gather together perspectives on Russian strategy, if there is one (a question the book starts off with). Andrew Monaghan is the editor of the book, Russian Grand Strategy in the Era of Global Power Competition. Some quotes: “Strategy is not simply about the […]
The Myth of the Lazy Native
Written in 1977, this classic work by Syed Hussein Alatas is an early critique of knowledge production that relies on colonial records, which shows how identity narratives were linked to colonialist action in Southeast Asia. Notes: “A colonial scholar, journalist, or author is one with a colonial mind whether refined or vulgar. The products of […]
Tags: #Alatas #Colonial gaze #Colonialism #Knowledge #Power #Status
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
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
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
On The Postcolony
Mbembe is a great philosopher who has made significant contributions, which are widely cited. This is notable because his work is largely in French and his books have had to be translated into English to reach broader audiences. Despite that delay, as of this writing he has amassed 70,000 citations to his work. This book, […]
The Invention of Africa
V. Y. Mudimbe, Congolese-born American philosopher, is probably most well known for this book “The Invention of Africa – Gnosis, Philosophy, and the Order of Knowledge” (1988). The book is a discourse analysis of sorts on the conceptualization of Africa and of African philosophy. With decades having passed since its writing, the novelty of this […]
Tags: #Africa #Invention of Africa #Knowledge #Mudimbe #Power
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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