I’m pleased to announce the publication of an article, "The View from the Peak", by Jerome Guillet (Jerome a Paris) in Survival, the quarterly journal of the International Institute for Strategic Studies. It is a review essay covering two recent books on Peak Oil, but is more of an op-ed than a book review.
As was the case for Jerome’s op-ed in the Financial Times a few months ago (see this comment), DailyKos was instrumental for us to identify Jerome as a potential author. In fact, it was through diaries and discussions on DailyKos that I first became aware of the concept of and debate about Peak Oil. As a thank-you to both Jerome and the DailyKos community, the IISS has made the article free-to-view (normally the on-line files are behind a subscription wall or available as pay-per-view).
More on the journal, the Institute and me over the fold...
Of course an ulterior motive is to introduce Survival to those of you who may not be aware of the journal. In some respects it's the UK or European equivalent of Foreign Affairs, and is, if I do say so myself, one of the top journals in the field in the world.
I am a member of the Survival editorial team; however, the usual disclaimers apply: I’m posting this in a personal capacity, not as a representative of the IISS. This is my first DKos diary, although I’ve been a member since just before the 2004 election. I tend to contribute short comments providing either information or snark; I haven’t diaried before because (1) my position makes overt political comment problematic; (2) most of what I would have to diary about comes from our publications, which are not normally free to view, and I don’t want to take advantage of Kos for what would in effect be advertising, and (3) in any case my personal views are outside the mainstream of the DKos community – for example, I’ve one of the 3% who consistently votes for Hillary in the straw polls.
Some background on the journal and the Institute, from the IISS website:
The IISS is the primary source of accurate, objective information on international strategic issues for politicians and diplomats, foreign affairs analysts, international business, economists, the military, defence commentators, journalists, academics and the informed public. The Institute owes no allegiance to any government, or to any political or other organisation.
The Institute’s high-profile publications are both timely and authoritative. They are universally regarded as providing the best independent, internationally sourced information and commentary on the main strategic events touching on national, regional and global security.
The Institute's conference activities are considered to be at the forefront of public policy development, especially given that its convening power is such that it can often bring government officials and others together in formats and circumstances that they could not easily manage for themselves.
The Institute’s staff and governing boards are international and its network of some 2,500 Individual Members and 450 Corporate and Institutional Members is drawn from more than 100 countries. The IISS, through its various activities, seeks to provide excellent information and analysis that can improve wider public understanding of international security problems and through its network, influence the development of sounder public policy.
Survival is a leading forum for analysis and debate of international and strategic affairs. With a diverse range of authors, eight to ten articles per issue, plus thoughtful reviews and review essays, Survival is scholarly in depth while vivid, well-written and policy-relevant in approach. Shaped by its editors to be both timely and forward-thinking, the journal encourages writers to challenge conventional wisdom and bring fresh, often controversial, perspectives to bear on the strategic issues of the moment.
At least one other Kossack, BRRubin, has published in Survival (and there’s a review of one of his books in the current issue). A number of the contributors to the foreign policy section of TPM Cafe are also Survival authors. I hope there will be more cross-pollination between the blogosphere and thinktankdom.
The current issue, with Jerome’s essay, also contains six papers that might be of interest, from a Council on Foreign Relations/IISS symposium last year on Iraq and US Power (three other articles were in the previous issue):
America and Iraq: The Case for Disengagement (Steven Simon, CFR)
The Causes of US Failure in Iraq (Toby Dodge, University of London and IISS)
America in Arab Eyes (Shibley Telhami, University of Maryland and Brookings Institution)
American Power and Allied Restraint: Lessons of Iraq (Dana Allin, IISS)
The United States and East Asia after Iraq (Phillip C. Saunders, National Defense University)
An Iraq Syndrome? (Ronald Steel, USC)
These are all behind the subscription wall, but read-only PDFs (can’t be printed or copy-and-pasted) are available free on the CFR website (scroll down for the abstracts and links to the PDFs).
As I said, I don't normally post the contents of new issues to DKos, since it would be a bit of a cheek to post pointers to a pay site. However, if you want to get free e-mail alerts of the contents of new issues, ande see the contents of previous issues, you can do so from the Survival page on our publisher's website.
Finally, I’ve got to put in a plug for my own Review Essay, in an earlier issue, on Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth (the book, not the film). This too is behind the subscription wall, but I can distribute a limited number of PDF offprints – anyone who wants a copy can e-mail me on "offprint @ hotmail.co.uk" and I will send out copies until I reach my limit, after which I'll send out read-only PDFs.
Update: Link now added directly to Jerome's article. Leave it to me to have left out the most important thing.