States and Capital

The Project-State and Its Rivals: A New History of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries| by Charles S Maier (Harvard University Press)

Our understanding and writing of history in the 20th century has been like a roller-coaster ride. From history as a string of great men changing the course of events to mid-century “scientific” history writing to late century claims about the “end of history,” a complete circle of sorts has been made. If one extends the timeline from Karl Marx to Francis Fukuyama, the “driv­ers” of history have included immaterial forces, men to ideas. From the vantage of the third decade of the 21st century, the last century was a struggle between democracy and non-democracy.

Might there be another way of looking at history, one that moves away from this pernicious binary? Charles Maier, a Harvard University historian, looks at the last 125 odd years in terms of competition between four criss-crossing forces: resource-empires, project-states, capital and gover­nance. The first two being territorial entities and the last two, non-state—“across border”— forces. The project-state is loosely understood as one that mobilises its population to effect changes and mould society. The last 125 years are best understood in terms of how these four forces have waxed, waned and interacted with each other. This is a far richer history than what is increasingly a bare bones idea of the contest between “democracy” and “non-democracy”.

How States Think: The Rationality of Foreign Policy| by John J Mearsheimer and Sebastian Rosato (Yale University Press)

The authors seek to boldly build a theory of rational choice in foreign policymaking of different countries. At one level, all states try to calculate the payoffs from their actions. But this is a very thin theory of rational choice in this domain.

The reality is often far more complicated. The long-term effects of history— grievances, resentment, anger and a host of other emotions—often intrude in decision-making. It is a rare state that is able to separate these influences from the decision-making process. The authors seek what they describe as a Homo theoreticus: a man with a theory of how the world works. Alas, such a person exists only in economics textbooks.

There is an additional complication here. Most issues in inter­national relations—war for example—generated at the systemic level and not at the level of individual states. The absence of a global government creates anarchic conditions that allow states to do what they want. This is the core idea of realism in international relations. The presence of a global hegemon, the nearest one can get to world government—however imperfect the analogy—should reduce anarchic tendencies in the world. The au­thors do not examine those polar cases and the role of rationality in the more compli­cated terrain between them. The fact that one of the authors—Mearsheimer— is a leading realist theorist makes this all the more interesting.

Wahhabism: The History of a Militant Islamic Movement| by Cole M Bunzel (Princeton University Press)

The book is a thorough and systematic study of Wahhabism, a revivalist Islamic move­ment that originated in 18th-century Arabia and whose reverberations continue to be felt until the present day. The author traces the lineage of Wahhabism to the ideas of Ibn Taymiyya—a 13th century theologian— and how the founder of the movement, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703- 1792) sought to purge Islam of influences such as shrine worship and others that he thought had infected Islam.

The author’s dissection of Ibn Taymi­yya’s ideas, his influence on ibn Abd al- Wahhab and the features that distinguish the two scholars sheds interesting light on the aims of revivalist movements in Islam. Ibn Taymiyya was a controversial figure in his life and even in our times: he has been interpreted, appropriated and mis-interpreted by all manner of people from terrorists of Al-Qaeda to purists who seek “pristine” Islam. In reality he was a careful scholar who tried to use rational means—as well as recognising the limits of reason­ing—to understand theological issues such as the nature of god, infallibility of prophets and a host of other interesting subjects.

ULFA: The Mirage of Dawn| by Rajeev Bhattacharyya (HarperCollins)

At the peak of its power in the 1980s the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) had the backing of large sections of Assamese society but also came close to territorial control in the Eastern districts of the state. This combination of political and armed strength was formidable and it took the Indian army the better part of a decade to gain the upper hand over the secessionist movement. Today, of course, ULFA is a shell of its former self. Key leaders surrendered and now live quiet lives in Assam. The group continues to hold some influence in the Eastern-most district of the state but for all practical purposes, the battle for Swadhin Asom is over.

The author, a veteran journalist, has painstakingly collected facts, interviewed key ULFA leaders and observed the group over the decades. He traces the origins as well as the missteps that brought the group to a nought. It is a vivid portrait of how the inability of ULFA leaders to understand the strength of the Indian state led them to one miscalcula­tion after another. The problems they sought to solve continue to exist but the group has almost disappeared.

Economics in America: An Immigrant Economist Explores the Land of Inequality| by Angus Deaton (Princeton University Press)

Angus Deaton, the 2015 winner of the Economics Nobel Prize, is a conscience keeper for the profession. Professionally, his expertise is in household surveys but in recent years he has written extensively on inequality and the havoc wreaked by opioids in his adopted country, the US. In Economics in America, which is part memoir and part a reflection on Economics, Deaton casts a hard look at what economists do and how they do it. The great rise of inequal­ity in America and other Western nations is mirrored by the decline of economics in real-world questions and its excessive focus on theoretical ideas. Professionally, economists have begun careful studies of inequality only in recent times when the phenomenon became too hard to ignore. But that has not prevented Deaton from voicing these concerns for a long time.

Best of 2023 BooksCharles S MaierCole M BunzelJohn J Mearsheimerpolitics