Human Rights in the ‘War on Terror’, Richard Ashby Wilson, ed., Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005, pp. xv, 347.

Given this book's title, I assumed that it would consist mainly of elaborations of already over-rehearsed debates about the “trade-offs” between “liberty” and “security.” And while it does include plenty of this, several chapters in this volume offer thoughtful, nuanced analyses which challenge the dichotomous rhetoric of the day, and force the reader to rethink not just the future, but also the nature, of contemporary human rights and security.

The Limits of Protectionism: Building Coalitions for Free Trade, Michael Lusztig, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2004, pp. xi, 272.

As the title suggests, Michael Lusztig offers a non-apologetic endorsement of liberal trade, coalition building, and the limitations of protectionism and rent seeking. Specifically, he argues that “flexible” rent seekers have a better opportunity to prosper than “inflexible” rent seekers. The goal, therefore, is for governments to reduce rents below a specific threshold to force sectoral interests to successfully adjust to or exit the market. Strategies include the big bang approach, divide and conquer, iteration, and the path of least resistance. Catalysts for change are periods of economic crisis, international obligations, and strategic considerations in which reform is linked to potential electoral success. Ultimately, in Lusztig's opinion, crisis and mandated international change offer the best opportunities for rent reduction, at least in terms of limited political backlash.

The Science and Politics of Global Climate Change: A Guide to the Debate, Andrew E. Dessler and Edward A. Parson, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006, pp. 190.

Among policy issues struggling for attention on political agendas, climate change is particularly consequential, by virtue of its large-scale negative consequences for all human communities and ecosystems and the high policy costs of remedial action. The stakes are singularly high, yet the general public is not well informed about the reality of climate change. Even the concerned citizen seeking information gets lost between tendentious sketches in the mass media, on the one hand, and practically illegible specialized literature, on the other. Dessler and Parson's work is a welcome middle ground that provides clearly comprehensible scientifically validated information on all aspects of the issue. The book summarizes and evaluates current information on climate change, focusing primarily on multilateral scientific assessments conducted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It offers a balanced review of the state of knowledge, and carefully delineates the bounds of scientific agreement and uncertainty.

La négation de la nation. L'identité culturelle québécoise et le fédéralisme canadien, Eugénie Brouillet, Sillery: Septentrion, 2005, 478 pages.

Compte tenu de la multitude d'ouvrages portant sur le fédéralisme canadien et son incapacité à reconnaître la spécificité nationale du Québec, est-il vraiment possible d'apporter un éclairage nouveau sur cette question ? Kenneth McRoberts a déjà démontré l'influence qu'a eue le trudeauisme sur la négation de la nation québécoise (Un pays à refaire : l'échec des politiques constitutionnelles canadiennes, Montréal : Boréal, 1999), alors que Guy Laforest a illustré les impacts similaires de la Constitution de 1982 sur le fonctionnement actuel du fédéralisme canadien (Trudeau et la fin d'un rêve canadien, Sillery : Septentrion, 1992). À première vue, il semble que la question ait déjà été discutée sous tous ses angles et qu'il soit impossible d'innover en la matière.

Pension Power: Unions, Pension Funds and Social Investment in Canada, Isla Carmichael, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005, pp. 219.

Isla Carmichael has been writing about union pensions for a decade. Over the past ten years, she has examined different aspects of union-based pension funds and labour-sponsored investment, including fiduciary responsibility, the role of union pension trustees, social accounting, collateral benefits and economically targeted investment. In this book, she brings together these, and other, arguments to make a case for the greater involvement of unions in directing and investing pension funds, not only to provide benefits to union members but also to shape economic growth and community development. Her analysis is comprehensive and her argument is persuasive.

The Quest for Modernity in the Middle East and the Islamic World Memories of State: Politics, History, and Collective Identity in Modern Iraq, Eric Davis, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005, pp. xi, 385.

The Future of Kurdistan in Iraq, Brendan O'Leary, John McGarry and Khaled Salih, eds., Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005, pp. xxi, 355

Nationalism and Minorities Identities in Islamic Societies, Maya Schatzmiller, ed., Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2005, pp. xiii, 346

Muslims and Modernity: An Introduction to the Issues and Debates, Clinton Bennett, London, New York: Continuum, 2005, pp. xviii, 286

These four books encapsulate a range of political issues that have shaped the formation of states and ideologies in the Middle East and North Africa since the beginning of the modern encounter between Europe and the Islamic world, from the Napoleonic invasion of Egypt through the post-World War I demise of the Ottoman world up to the American invasion of Iraq in 2003.