The administrations of Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy faced critical international challenges - including, most notably, using nuclear weapons against Japan, intervening militarily in Korea, toppling an emerging regime in Guatemala, restraining the actions of US allies during the Suez Canal Crisis, overthrowing Castro's Cuban regime, and forcing the USSR to remove nuclear missiles from Cuban soil. In this meticulously documented book, Alex Roberto Hybel tests the extent to which today's most important foreign policy decision-making models can explain the actions of the principal figures responsible for addressing each crisis. The book carefully analyses each president's cognitive system, the advisory structure each leader set up, and the pervading mindsets of Washington's insiders from each period. By evaluating the quality of each president's foreign policy decision-making process, readers will become familiar with core foreign policy decisions, how they were formulated, and the types of cognitive impediments that in certain instances undermined the quality of the decision-making process.

This text analyzes the foreign policy decision-making processes of Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama during military intervention by way of contemporary foreign policy decision-making models (FPDMs).

Fifty-two men and one woman have held the post of Prime Minister during the past three centuries - from Sir Robert Walpole to David Cameron. In this omnibus edition, which includes Eighteenth-Century British Premiers, Nineteenth-Century British Premiers, A Century of Premiers, plus new and updated chapters on Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron, Dick Leonard recounts the circumstances which took them to the top of the 'greasy pole', probes their political and personal strengths and weaknesses, assesses their performance in office and asks what lasting influence they have had. The author also recounts fascinating and often littleknown facts about the private lives of each of the Prime Ministers, for example who was suspected of being the illegitimate half-brother of George III, who was assassinated in the House of Commons, who spent his evenings prowling the streets of London, trying to 'reform' prostitutes, which two premiers, one Tory one Labour, were taught by the same governess as a child, and who was described by his own son as 'probably the greatest natural Don Juan in the history of British politics'?

Millions who have admired Volodymyr Zelensky's defiance during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will learn much from this up-to-date biography of the Ukrainian President. Zelensky's life to date has been packed with drama and action.

By the age of 20, the Jewish boy from the provincial town of Kryvyi Rih had become a star of the stage. At 30, he headed a multimillion-dollar TV company. At 40, he took on Ukraine’s corrupt political and business elite in a TV drama where he played a history teacher who becomes President. Then he launched a real-life political party named after the TV show, won a landslide victory and became Ukraine's real President.

When Russian troops flooded across the border, Zelensky refused Western offers to leave Kyiv. He has marshalled Ukraine's resistance and successfully obtained Western missile systems and anti-tank weapons. He said: ‘If I am elected, they will first sling mud at me. Then they will learn to respect me. And finally cry when I leave.’ Covering Zelensky’s background and bustling TV career through to his first, controversial years in office to Russia’s full-scale blitzkrieg, Zelensky is written by a long-standing Russia and Ukraine reporter and a Russian- and Ukrainian speaking researcher.

It’s a pithy biography of Zelensky for anyone who wants to understand Ukraine’s charismatic head of state, his complex country, and its vexed relationship with Russia. Covering Zelensky's life from his childhood to the Ukrainian presidency, Zelensky deals with: his background in a Russian-speaking region of Ukraine; his early career in TV taking part in KVN talent competitions; his rise through the Ukrainian and Russian television industry; and his breakthrough moment in the TV series Servant of the People playing a teacher, Vasyl Holoborodko, who dreams of reforming Ukraine and ending its corruption.

The show becomes a reality and Zelensky and his party, called Servant of the People, take power. Zelensky's presidency is dogged by controversy concerning his attempts to curry favour with the US President Donald Trump and the offshoring of tens of millions of dollars (used to buy luxury property in London). Zelensky battles political rivals and takes on powerful vested interests in Europe’s second-largest country – before fighting a superpower in a fight most assume Ukraine will quickly lose (but they don't).

Zelensky: Ukraine's President and His Country is the first major biography of Ukraine's leader written for a Western audience. Told with flair and authority, it is the gripping story of one of the most admired and inspirational leaders in the world.

Leadership and Coherence investigates how leaders justify their decisions, and how they bring about coherence amongst followers. Taking a cognitive approach, it builds on the work of Hannah Arendt to attempt a phenomenology of judgment, examining how the moral imperative experienced by leaders can be shared by their community so both leader and led are guided by a mutual purpose. Through biographical case studies of historical leaders, this book illustrates how successful leaders operate in a turbulent world, not only making their own decisions but also gathering likeminded followers to share in a common vision and shared sense of purpose.

What does the head of the Kremlin think about? What are his hopes and aims for the lands bordering Russia, for Europe, and even the world? In January 2014, the Kremlin sent its senior civil servants, governors and party bigwigs a special New Year's present: philosophy books, by 19th and 20th century Russian thinkers. This reading list is not optional: the president himself has cited these authors in landmark speeches, and they need to understand what he means. The most persistent of the bunch will find these great works strangely familiar, full of the national leader's role in an 'authentic' democracy, the importance of being conservative, the urgency of rooting morality in religion, and the historic struggle of the Russian people against the timeless hostility of the West. President Putin is the man who manages and manipulates these existential anxieties. And since the annexation of Crimea, the need to decrypt his vision for the nation-propelled by the Kremlin's Eurasian neo-imperialists and prophets of `Russian-way' conservatism-has become more pressing than ever. In this revealing and engrossing book, Michel Eltchaninoff invites us inside the psyche of the Russian president for a better understanding of his doctrine and geopolitical vision. He offers answers to an urgent question for our 21st century world: what is Vladimir Putin thinking?

In 1945, disguised in German greatcoat and helmet, Mussolini attempted to escape from the advancing Allied armies. Unfortunately for him, the convoy of which he was part was stopped by partisans and his features, made so familiar by Fascist propaganda, gave him away. Within 24 hours he was executed by his captors, joining those he sent early to their graves as an outcome of his tyranny, at least one million people. He was one of the tyrant-killers who so scarred interwar Europe, but we cannot properly understand him or his regime by any simple equation with Hitler or Stalin. Like them, his life began modestly in the provinces; unlike them, he maintained a traditonal male family life, including both wife and mistresses, and sought in his way to be an intellectual. He was cruel (though not the cruellest); his racism existed, but never without the consistency and vigor that would have made him a good recruit for the SS. He sought an empire; but, in the most part, his was of the old-fashioned, costly, nineteenth century variety, not a racial or ideological imperium. And, self-evidently Italian society was not German or Russian: the particular patterns of that society shaped his dictatorship. Bosworth's Mussolini allows us to come closer than ever before to an appreciation of the life and actions of the man and of the political world and society within which he operated. With extraordinary skill and vividness, drawing on a huge range of sources, this biography paints a picture of brutality and failure, yet one tempered with an understanding of Mussolini as a human being, not so different from many of his contemporaries. 'The definitive study of the Italian dictator.' - Library Journal

A political, critical, and analytical biography of Yitzhak Rabin, this book makes use of recently-opened archival material and provides explanations for the important episodes in Rabin's life. Leslie Derfler examines Rabin's longtime leadership of the Israeli military and state and Rabin's efforts to secure a peace with Egypt and the Palestinians. He reveals that, while Rabin's opposition to a two-state solution remained firm, Rabin had a longstanding belief in Palestinians' right to shape their own destiny and an underlying awareness of the need for a political rather than military solution to the problem of Israeli security.

It is often remarked that politicians' private lives are becoming a feature of political communication in many advanced industrial democracies. However, there have so far been no genuinely comparative studies examining the personalized nature of political communication. "Intimate Politics" provides for the first time a systematic comparative analysis of such developments in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the US. Drawing on a wide range of primary and secondary sources, it assesses the extent to which the private lives of politicians have become a feature of political communication in each democracy. The book provides a comprehensive account of the shifting boundaries between the public and private, and whether any developments are universal or more advanced in some democracies than others, and seeks to explain why this might be. "Intimate Politics" will be of great value for students and scholars of communication and media studies and political science and is required reading for anyone who wants a fuller understanding of the transformation of mediated politics in advanced industrial democracies.

The proliferation of social media has altered the way that people interact with each other - leveling the channels of communication to allow an individual to be 'friends' with a sitting president. In a world where a citizen can message Barack Obama directly, this book addresses the new channels of communication in politics, and what they offer.

Prominent in Barack Obama's political campaigns and presidency has been a promise to use social media tools to engage American citizens in the business of democratic governance, stirring the hopes of millions who believe in the democratizing potential of information and communication technology. Yet what has become of these promises? To what extent have they been realized? Shattering views of social media as a cure-all for limits on citizen deliberation and governmental representation, The Social Media President: Barack Obama and the Politics of Digital Engagement analyzes the White House's use of Twitter and other online tools for a wide range of policy initiatives and strategic campaigns. Drawing on interviews, case studies and social-media content, the authors provide a bold take on a subject too frequently prone to exaggerated expectations. By examining presidential campaigns since 1992 and the actions of President Obama since taking office in 2009, a clearer picture emerges about the strengths and weaknesses of social media for public engagement. In terms of setting national policy, or getting systematic citizen input, a social media-enabled future would not only be difficult to implement with foreseeable technology, it could actually erode democratic institutions of voting and representation. Yet social media's prominence continues to grow and it is destined to play an ever-larger role in political rhetoric, campaign strategies, governance appeals and public debate. The thoughtful attention the authors provide to the successes, limitations and missed opportunities of the Obama Administration should command the interest of concerned scholars, practitioners and citizens everywhere.

Since the end of the Cold War, the United Nations has become increasingly involved in peacebuilding. However, the often questionable results have led to much mistrust of the methods employed by international organizations. The current transition paradigm assumes that local leaders which participate in the process will assist in the democratic transition and are themselves an output of the process. This assumption appears to be fundamentally wrong. This book examines whether the inclusion of non-democratic leadership in post-conflict transition induces democratic principles and sustainable peace, or if it in fact undermines the values which the international community attempts to promote and contribute towards the solidification of non-democratic regimes.
Using an in-depth analysis of local leadership before, during and after democratic transition in three key case studies, namely Burundi, Cambodia and Liberia, the author provides a unique insight into the type of leadership required for transitioning a country to democracy. Delivering a new framework that assists scholars, policymakers and practitioners in understanding the roles of local leaders in democratic transition, it also includes recommendations for future peacebuilding operations.

This book, the result of more than a decade of research, focuses on the socio-political dynamics and civil-military relations in a little studied country: Mauritania, located in the troubled North-western part of Africa. Boubacar N'Diaye brings into light the political evolution of this country which holds lessons for African politics, and could affect the future of the West African sub-region. Mauritania's Colonels examines the personalities and policy of five military officers turned heads of state who ruled Mauritania for nearly forty years. After comparing and contrasting the personal traits, social origins, itineraries, and evolution as military officers, it critically evaluates the policies they enacted to address four key challenges their country faces. These are, namely, the difficult cohabitation between the country's ethno-cultural communities, the illusive democratization and military withdrawal from politics, the judicious management of the country's abundant natural resources to meet the socioeconomic needs of their people, and the prudent conduct of foreign policy given Mauritania's location, straddling Arab North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. Showing the impact that each Colonel has had on the evolution of Mauritania, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of West Africa, African politics, civil-military relations and democratization processes.

It is a well-known fact that Prime ministers are fond of talking, in fact at times it seems impossible to get them to do anything else. The reason for this constant talking is that Prime Ministers are all too aware of the importance of frequently talking to and communicating with the electorate. Political rhetoric has a central function that goes far beyond the need to rouse people at election time or in times of great crisis but rather persuasive political talk by prime ministers is central to the practice of modern government itself.This book argues that there are institutionalised patterns in the speeches that prime ministers give. Like an old-style jukebox, there are only a certain number of records in the prime ministerial machine. Inevitably, each prime minister will play the same songs in the same order as their predecessor. This repetitive rhetoric has an impact not just on the minds of voters, but also on day-to-day governance in Westminster system democracies.

Bringing together contributions from political, cultural, and literary historians, Leadership and Elizabethan Culture identifies distinctive problems confronting early modern English government during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. This diverse group of contributors examines local elites and church leadership, explores the queen, her councillors, as well as her struggles with Mary Stuart and Robert Devereux, earl of Essex, raises questions about Elizabeth's leadership, and the advice she received as well as the advice she rejected. Selected, influential works by Shakespeare, Marlowe, Jonson, Sidney, and Bacon are put in their Elizabethan and contemporary critical contexts, rounding off the study of Elizabethan culture and projecting forward to the images of leadership that form a conspicuous part of the Elizabethan legacy.

Those not enthralled with Donald Trump’s ascendance have been shocked and appalled by it -- and taken by surprise. Not Garry Trudeau, who honed in early, relentlessly and deftly highlighting The Donald’s profound character flaws since 1987.  It’s all there – the arrogance and narcissism, the callowness and sexism, the rudeness and condescension, the coarsening of public discourse; and a good portion of the Doonesbury cast has been tangled up in it.  Join Duke, Honey, Earl, J.J., Mike, Mark, Roland, Boopsie, B.D., Sal, Alice, Elmont, Sid, Zonker, Sam, Bernie, Rev. Sloan, and even Red Rascal as they cross storylines with the big, orange airhorn who’s giving the GOP such fits: Donald J. Trump.

'The Capitol riot was our Chernobyl.' (Guardian interview, Jan 19th 2021) 'An absolutely fascinating read.' Emily Maitlis James Comey, former FBI Director and Sunday Times number one bestselling author of A Higher Loyalty, uses his long career in federal law enforcement to explore issues of justice and fairness in the US justice system. James Comey might best be known as the FBI director that Donald Trump fired in 2017, but he's had a long, varied career in the law and justice system. He knows better than most just what a force for good the US justice system can be, and how far afield it has strayed during the Trump Presidency. In his much-anticipated follow-up to A Higher Loyalty, Comey uses anecdotes and lessons from his career to show how the federal justice system works. From prosecuting mobsters as an Assistant US Attorney in the Southern District of New York in the 1980s to grappling with the legalities of anti-terrorism work as the Deputy Attorney General in the early 2000s to, of course, his tumultuous stint as FBI director beginning in 2013, Comey shows just how essential it is to pursue the primacy of truth for federal law enforcement. Saving Justice is gracefully written and honestly told, a clarion call for a return to fairness and equity in the law.

Statesmanship and Progressive Reform provides a critical assessment of Herbert Croly's influential account of Abraham Lincoln in his book, The Promise of American Life (1909). As founder and editor of The New Republic, Croly was one of the premier intellectual architects of the American Progressive movement. A defining element of Croly's book was his claim that Progressivism was a continuation of the spirit of Lincoln's political thought. This identification of Progressive politics with the Lincoln legacy became a major component of Progressive and modern liberal political rhetoric, especially among presidents like Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Lyndon Johnson, and most recently, Barack Obama. Croly's account of Lincoln is crucial to his ideology of reform, yet Jividen and Alvis provide a brand-new argument that this praise and analysis of Lincoln is highly problematic. Statesmanship and Progressive Reform shows how Croly's depiction of Lincoln looks almost exclusively at his character or "spirit," rather than his speeches, writings, or deeds - all of which would not have aligned so easily to the principals of Progressivism. Despite his adulation of Lincoln, Croly rejects the first principles of American democracy as Lincoln understood them and arrives at a notion of American statesmanship that sharply departs from that of his seemingly ideal statesman.

A fresh take on the Manitoba schools question and the Conservative Coup that toppled Canada's fifth prime minister. When Mackenzie Bowell became Canada's fifth Prime Minister in December 1894, everyone -- including Bowell -- expected the job would involve nothing more than keeping the wheels on the Conservative wagon until a spring election. Plans for a quiet caretaker-ship were dashed in January 1895 when the courts ruled that the Manitoba government had violated Roman Catholics' constitutional rights by abolishing the provincial separate school system back in 1890. Catholics in Quebec demanded that Bowell force Manitoba to restore the schools, while Ontario Protestants warned him to keep his hands off. Backed into a corner, Bowell tried three times to negotiate a compromise with Manitoba over the course of 1895, but to no avail. By January 1896, seven of Bowell's cabinet ministers had had enough. Convinced Bowell had tarnished the Conservative brand, the caballers forced Bowell to resign and make way for a new leader who they believed could revive party fortunes in time for the coming election, the old Warhorse of Cumberland himself, Sir Charles Tupper. Ultimately, the coup didn't matter. Tupper and his conspirators plead their case in Parliament and on the hustings, but nothing could stand in the way of Wilfrid Laurier and his Liberals' historic rise to power in the June 1896 election. A Very Canadian Coup brings fresh sources and new perspectives to bear on the life and times of Canada's fifth -- and least understood -- Prime Minister and his Sixth Ministry.

'Glorious... Scurr is one of the most gifted non-fiction writers alive' Simon Schama, Financial Times A revelatory portrait of Napoleon written for our own time, exploring his love of nature and the gardens that gave his revolutionary life its light and shade. Napoleon's gardens range from his childhood olive groves in Corsica, to Josephine's menageries in Paris, to the walled garden of Hougoumont at the battle of Waterloo, and ultimately to St Helena, where he could sit and scan the sea in his final months. In this innovative biography, Ruth Scurr follows the dramatic trajectory of Napoleon's life through the land he cultivated and that offered him retreat from the manifold frustrations of war and politics. Seen through the eyes of those who knew him in the shade of his gardens, Napoleon emerges a giant figure made human - both as the Emperor hunting for glory and the man in an old straw hat, leaning on his spade. 'Immensely satisfying and captivating... Charming and intelligent' Andrew Roberts, TLS 'Grippingly original' The Times 'A delight to read' Daily Telegraph * A Book of the Year in The Times, Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph, Financial Times, Sunday Telegraph and History Today * Winner of a Society for Military History Distinguished Book Award 2022

The very idea of 'public service' came under fierce attack in the Thatcherite 1980s. This book takes the two key services, broadcasting and the NHS, and traces the heated debates and political pressures which radically transformed them both. It points to the parallels between them, and describes issues of health, sickness and the provision of medical care as they were reflected in the radio and television output. Across a wide range of programming, from popular drama to investigative journalism, the book captures the mood of the decade as it traces the politics of the NHS, from the Winter of Discontent to the Aids crisis; and the politics of broadcasting, from the coming of Channel Four to the increasing government attacks on the BBC. Concluding in 1990 with two pivotal Acts of Parliament, "Broadcasting and the NHS in the Thatcherite 1980s" traces the roots of the present crisis in the public services.

"A wonderfully vivid account of the momentous era they lived through, underscoring the chaotic, often improvisatory circumstances that attended the birth of the fledgling nation and the hardships of daily life." -Michiko Kakutani, New York Times In 1762, John Adams penned a flirtatious note to "Miss Adorable," the 17-year-old Abigail Smith. In 1801, Abigail wrote to wish her husband John a safe journey as he headed home to Quincy after serving as president of the nation he helped create. The letters that span these nearly forty years form the most significant correspondence-and reveal one of the most intriguing and inspiring partnerships-in American history. As a pivotal player in the American Revolution and the early republic, John had a front-row seat at critical moments in the creation of the United States, from the drafting of the Declaration of Independence to negotiating peace with Great Britain to serving as the first vice president and second president under the U.S. Constitution. Separated more often than they were together during this founding era, John and Abigail shared their lives through letters that each addressed to "My Dearest Friend," debating ideas and commenting on current events while attending to the concerns of raising their children (including a future president). Full of keen observations and articulate commentary on world events, these letters are also remarkably intimate. This new collection-including some letters never before published-invites readers to experience the founding of a nation and the partnership of two strong individuals, in their own words. This is history at its most authentic and most engaging.

A major and controversial new biography of one of the most compelling and contradictory figures in modern British life. Born Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, to most of us he is just ' Boris' - the only politician of the age to be regarded in such familiar, even affectionate terms. Uniquely, he combines comedy with erudition, gimlet-eyed focus with jokey self-deprecation, and is a loving family man with a roving eye. He is also a hugely ambitious figure with seemingly no huge ambitions to pursue - other than, perhaps, power itself. In this revealing biography, written from the vantage point of a once close colleague, Sonia Purnell examines how a shy, young boy from a broken home became our only box-office politician - and most unlikely sex god; how the Etonian product fond of Latin tags became a Man of the People - and why he wanted to be; how the gaffe-prone buffoon charmed Londonders to win the largest personal mandate Britain has ever seen; and how the Johnson family built our biggest - and blondest - media and political dynasty. The first forensic account of a remarkable rise to fame and power, Just Boris unravels this most compelling of political enigmas and asks whether the Mayor who dreams of crossing the Thames to Downing Street has what it takes to be Prime Minister.

The study of dictatorship in the West has acquired an almost exotic dimension. But authoritarian regimes remain a painful reality for billions of people worldwide who still live under them, their freedoms violated and their rights abused. They are subject to arbitrary arrest, torture, corruption, ignorance, and injustice. What is the nature of dictatorship? How does it take hold? In what conditions and circumstances is it permitted to thrive? And how do dictators retain power, even when reviled and mocked by those they govern? In this deeply considered and at times provocative short work, Alaa Al Aswany tells us that, as with any disease, to understand the syndrome of dictatorship we must first consider the circumstances of its emergence, along with the symptoms and complications it causes in both the people and the dictator.

These are the essential writings of a man who inspired a new, egalitarian socialist regime in the Middle East, which is currently fighting for survival against religious extremism and state violence. Abdullah Ocalan led the struggle for Kurdish liberation for more than 20 years until his capture in 1999. Now, writing from prison in Turkey, he has inspired a new political movement. Called Democratic Confederalism, this revolutionary model is developing on the ground in parts of Syria and Turkey; it represents an alternative to religious sectarianism, patriarchy, capitalism and chauvinistic nationalism, providing the blueprint for a burgeoning radical democratic society. This selection of Ocalan's writings is an indispensable introduction for anyone wanting to engage with his political ideas. His central concepts address the Kurdish question, gender, Democratic Confederalism and the future of the nation. With The Political Thought of Abdullah Ocalan, his most influential ideas can now be considered and debated in the light of his continuing legacy, most notably in the ongoing revolution in Rojava.