The Washington Post Books & Reviews

Missing the Point

Mearsheimer and Walt fail to capture the realities of policy formation.

Flawed but Still Important

Mearsheimer and Walt should have included more field work in their research. Yet their book still deserves to be read and discussed.

Big Ideas, Big Problems

Policy decisions suffer when the rational center remains silent and catchphrases take over the debate.

Revivalism, Shi‘a Style

Energized Shi‘a represent a powerful challenge to Sunni extremism and jihadism.

Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?

There is no shortage of books on security and strategy in a world beset by terror. "Fortunately," writes Harvey Sicherman, "most are short."

Banal and Dubious

Pedestrian books can sometimes serve salutary purposes.

An Ambiguous Legacy

Boris the Not-So-Great.

A Hedgehog After All

When Isaiah Berlin died last November, there was a cascade of adulatory essays and obituaries, all of them well deserved. Yet there is a sense in which the wrong Berlin was being celebrated; or if not exactly the wrong Berlin then only a half of h

Suddenly and Peacefully, Review of Michael Dobbs' Down With Big Brother: The Fall of the Soviet Empire

Gone is Churchill's "enigma wrapped in a mystery." Russia's media and many of its archives, along with its borders, have opened.

Right the First Time

Michael Mandelbaum, The Dawn of Peace in Europe (New York: Twentieth Century Fund Press, 1996)"We must fulfill the promise of our time: an undivided Europe of free nations.

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May 26, 2012