Old Politics, New Politics | July-August 2014

This summer’s reading issue is an antidote to our culture’s impulse to constantly hit refresh. The book excerpts in our collection are rooted in either what is new and must be noted or what is old but still relevant. Simon Head (Mindless) warns us to beware of the rise of data-driven management that threatens our ways of working, and Glenn Greenwald (No Place to Hide) points out the perils of ubiquitous digital surveillance. Bruce Jones (Still Ours to Lead) counters the school that sees American power in decline, and Robert Kaplan (Asia’s Cauldron) paints the competition in Asia as an old-fashioned nationalist struggle for economic power rather than a clash of new ideas. Each of these books carries insights for policy-makers wondering where we’re headed.