Geography Technology And The Flux Of Opportunity

GEOGRAPHY, TECHNOLOGY AND THE FLUX OF OPPORTUNITY takes up the issue of the rise and decline of British economic predominance in modern times. In its analysis it emphasizes the interaction of geography with other economic, technological and political forces amid a context of other actors similarly shaped by such interactions. It argues for this as the driver of Britain's ascent as maritime, trading and colonial power, and its strongly related industrialization, as well as its decreasing competitiveness as other states were favored by their own geographical situations, and the opportunities the evolving economic and technological situation afforded.

Military historians tend to pay much more attention to the triumphs and conquests that make empires than the management of their decline. The British Empire is no exception. Few have tried to provide a big-picture treatment of how Britain transitioned from military superpower in 1945 to the country it became a generation later. The pieces gathered together in THE LONG DRAWDOWN together endeavor to provide exactly that, filling in a crucial but too often overlooked portion of the modern history of Britain—and the world.

We are all familiar with the idea of the action hero as a latterday avenger with a gun—Dirty Harry, Chuck Norris' screen heroes, Rambo. Yet, how did the idea of such heroes emerge in the first place? Why did it explode as it did in the 1970s and, still more, the 1980s, defining the Hollywood action films of that decade? And why did it fall out of fashion? PARAMILITARY ACTION-ADVENTURE FICTION: A HISTORY examines all these questions, and much more, as it traces the rise of paramilitary action heroes in the tensions and fears underlying the civil image of the nineteenth century, through the stresses of the world wars and the Cold War, to the emergence by the 1960s of commandos fighting undeclared wars on the streets of urban America—and the evolution of that image in the half century since.

Nader Elhefnawy has been writing on the connections between complexity, economics and international security for nearly two decades. This book brings together the results of that research and what it means for our world in this age of economic, political and ecological crisis.

A CENTURY OF SPY FICTION: REFLECTIONS ON THE GENRE brings together Nader Elhefnawy's writings on that subject. From the birth of the spy story in the marriage of detective fiction with the invasion story to the genre's post-Cold War travails, from the forgotten but hugely important adventures of the original "international man of mystery" Duckworth Drew to the age of Jack Ryan, this revised and updated second edition of the book trace the broader history of the field while peering at many a keyhole to see just what has been going on all the while in this often mysterious genre about mystery.

What is neoliberalism? How does it stand in relation to the rest of the liberal tradition? Were Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, and the Democratic Party more generally, been neoliberals as many their critics charge? And what has neoliberalism meant for the world?Nader Elhefnawy's What is Neoliberalism? addresses, and answers, all of these questions—so critical to making sense of the world this past half century, and of currents events now.

THE MILITARY TECHNO-THRILLER: A HISTORY takes a close look at this widely read but still little studied genre, tracing its origins from the Victorian-era invasion story, to its 1980s heyday as king of the bestseller list in the hands of authors like Tom Clancy, down to today, considering its interaction with other genres and other media throughout. In the process, this book also tells the larger story of how the ways in which we think about, imagine and portray war have evolved during the last century.

The term neoliberal has been in wide academic use for decades but only fairly recently entered the conversation—and quickly become controversial as a result. Back in 2019 Nader Elhefnawy took up this controversy in his book What is Neoliberalism? In this follow-up he revisits the question, offering a new consideration of the word's different meanings, especially how neoliberalism has restructured the world economy and the model of growth policymakers follow in regard to it; the economic record that has followed from it, from what it has meant for international development to what it has meant for the middle class; and how neoliberalism has shaped our thinking about the world, extending even to the idea of the future itself.