April 26, 2023

The History and Politics of “More Guns”

Patrick J. Charles

To those who emphatically support gun rights, having “more guns” is generally seen as the solution to society’s woes. The way these people see it, the more guns there are, the less likely it is that crimes will be committed...

April 18, 2023

Three Reforms That Congressional Committees Should Institute

Maya L. Kornberg

Committees are essential institutions in Congress. My book, Inside Congressional Committees: Function and Dysfunction in the Legislative Process, unpacks the contemporary legislative process to show what is working, what isn’t, and what can be changed. Based on my research, here...

November 15, 2022

Q&A: Reed Brody on To Catch a Dictator

What does it take to make a dictator answer for his crimes? Hissène Habré, the former despot of Chad, terrorized, tortured, and killed on a horrific scale while enjoying full American and Western support. After his overthrow, his victims and...

September 2, 2022

Announcing Our 2022-2023 Politics and International Affairs Catalog

Letter from the editors: We are proud to present this year’s selection of titles in political science, international relations, and political theory. Our American politics list is split between domestic politics and American foreign relations, but both lists consider issues...

June 15, 2022

The Role of Narrative and Narrative Activism in Social Movements

Michele Moody-Adams

It has often been said that “those who tell the stories rule the world.” Versions of this claim can be found in sources as varied as Plato’s dialogues, traditional Hopi wisdom, and a recent work such as Narrative Economics (2019)...

September 20, 2021

Announcing Our 2021-2022 Politics and International Affairs Catalog

Letter from the editors: Greetings and welcome to the Columbia University Press 2021–2022 catalog for politics and international affairs. In international relations, we are pleased to publish the first book in our series Columbia Studies in International Order and Politics,...

June 17, 2021

Which Way for the Biden/Blinken World Liberal Order?

By Leon Fink

In the spring 2017, Antony Blinken, then a resident fellow at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics, taught a seminar on America’s role in the world. Against a background of growing doubt among many Americans about the advantages of...

June 17, 2021

Browse Our SHAFR 2021 Virtual Exhibit Booth with Stephen Wesley

Hello there, I’m Stephen Wesley, the American history editor at Columbia University Press. Since the coronavirus pandemic has canceled most of the spring conferences—the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations annual program included—we are mounting virtual book exhibits on...

April 5, 2021

Not Doing Global Fieldwork (At Least Not Right Now)

By Jesse Driscoll

Many graduate students imagine their comparative advantage will be original data collection. Fieldwork, in this idealized conception, provides an opportunity to (try to) break free of the rigid, sometimes cruel, hierarchical status structures imposed by the ivory tower in a...

April 5, 2021

Q&A: Erin M. Kearns and Joseph K. Young on Tortured Logic

Experts in the intelligence community say that torture is ineffective. Yet much of the public appears unconvinced: surveys show that nearly half of Americans think that torture can be acceptable for counterterrorism purposes. In this Q&A, Erin M. Kearns and...

April 5, 2021

Browse Our ISA 2021 Virtual Exhibit Booth with Caelyn Cobb

Hello, and welcome to the second annual (and hopefully the last) Columbia University Press International Studies Association Virtual Exhibit Booth! I’m Caelyn Cobb, the editor for global and international politics, coming to you live from my apartment in Queens, New...

December 8, 2020

New Book Tuesday! Vineland Reread, Research Exposed, and More!

Our weekly list of new books is now available! From the Rereadings series Vineland Reread Peter Coviello Vineland is hardly anyone’s favorite Thomas Pynchon novel. However, for Peter Coviello, the oft-overlooked book opens up new ways of thinking about Pynchon’s writing...