What Are You Currently Reading? 2009

[Schmedlap]

I just bought a paperback copy of Ghost Wars by Steve Coll. I'm not sure of what the consensus opinion is of this book or the author's work in general. But I figured it would be interesting to read a book that discusses Afghanistan up to 9/10/01.

[bourbon]

I just bought a paperback copy of Ghost Wars by Steve Coll. I'm not sure of what the consensus opinion is of this book or the author's work in general. But I figured it would be interesting to read a book that discusses Afghanistan up to 9/10/01.

Coll won the Pulitzer prize for Ghost Wars. I thought it was very good and have yet to read or hear anything negative about the book. He's a sharp guy, and a great foreign correspondent. I recently purchased a copy of his 1994 On The Grand Trunk Road: A Journey into South Asia; so far, so good.

He runs a solid blog at The New Yorker called Think Tank covering national security issues; he's got SWJ on his blogroll so he cant be that bad a guy.

[ODB]

Just started, will post thoughts upon completion......

[Zack]

Just finished "The Coming Anarchy" by Robert Kaplan, and "Hezbollah" by Norton. Kaplan's book was very interesting to be sure. Now working on Waltz's "Man, the State, and War" as well as Asimov's "Foundation."

[Jedburgh]

Just finished "The Coming Anarchy" by Robert Kaplan, and "Hezbollah" by Norton....

Norton's Hezbollah is a good read, but I recommend it be preceded by the book he wrote twenty years earlier, Amal and the Shi'a. Although not intended as a set, they read well that way, and the first provides useful context for the second.

[Mack]

Well, as of now... my macroeconomics textbook (I have an exam in a couple days).

But I'm hoping to finish The Accidental Guerrilla and The Strongest Tribe before September.

Once all that is said and done, I'll begin research on my M.A. thesis and will do so by asking a big question (e.g. exactly what is security? - any book recommendations that addresses this question would be much appreciated) and work my way from there to a more specific question (e.g. how can "the state" co-exist with social organizations that provide for their own security?). Should be a good intellectual romp.

[Tukhachevskii]

exactly what is security? - any book recommendations that addresses this question would be much appreciated) .

When I was in your position a few years ago the following books really helped me and they contain very comprehensive bibliographies for further research:

Barry Buzan et al, Security: A New Framework for Analysis
Barry Buzan, People, States and Fear, 2nd Ed.
Ken Booth (Ed.), Critical Security Studies and World Politics (2005)
R. D. Lipshutz (Ed), On Security (1995)
K. Krause & M. C. Williams (Eds.), Critical Security Studies: Concepts and Cases

Hope thats useful

[Zack]

Norton's Hezbollah is a good read, but I recommend it be preceded by the book he wrote twenty years earlier, Amal and the Shi'a. Although not intended as a set, they read well that way, and the first provides useful context for the second.

Cool, I will check that out. Thanks