ON THE BRINK by Van
Jackson, former policy adviser and strategist in the Office of the Secretary of
Defense, will definitely be of interest to our students. Last year, I had several researchers
interested in foreign policy and I know that one in particular bemoaned the
difficulty in finding recent and accurate information about North Korea. Now, the
just published ON THE BRINK has been praised by retired military officials,
university professors and fellow scholars. Author Van Jackson speaks from
personal experience; he participated in nuclear negotiations with North Korea
and formulated deterrence policies with South Korea. In this text, he is not a
fan of Trump’s handling of the 2017 situation, but also indicates that “conditions
… made some kind of confrontation with North Korea plausible even under a
Clinton presidency.” Jackson notes that “any prospect of opening [the North]
took a backseat to nuclear survival in the initial years of his [Kim Jong Un’s]
rule.” The progress made in terms of nuclear capability meant that “America’s
historically preferred approach to North Korea (coercive diplomacy) was laden
with heightened risks.” This, in turn, was accelerated by the more hawkish
advisors and Trump’s own pre-dispositions. Jackson’s analysis which discusses
approaches during the Obama and Trump administrations, includes over 20 pages
of notes and references as well as a useful index. 
THE EMPTY THRONE by Ivo H. Daalder and James M. Lindsey focuses
on the broader idea of “America’s Abdication of Global Leadership.” Kirkus describes
this scholarly text as “accessibly written and has worth as a primer.” I
concur and believe that it will be of special interest to those students who
are researching the evolving roles of the
United States versus China as world leader. Daadler (the president of the
Chicago Council on Global Affairs) and Lindsay (senior vice president and
Maurice R. Greenberg chair at the Council on Foreign Relations) have collaborated
previously on a work about US foreign policy.
Here, they discuss a new world order and are focusing on more recent
events such as Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine or trade wars and tariffs, along
with the tenures of Secretary of State Tillerson and Secretary of Defense Mattis.
Learn more about the book and its authors through interviews with NPR's Mara Liasson and local radio station WBEZ's Steve Edwards. Look for THE EMPTY THRONE on our shelves soon.
