What Is Russia Up To In The Middle East? by Dmitri Trenin

The Blurb On The Back:

The eyes of the world are on the Middle East. Today more than ever, this deeply troubled region is the center of power games between major global players vying or international influence. Absent from this scene for the past quarter century, Russia is now back with gusto. Yet its motivations, decision-making processes, and strategic objectives remain hard to pin down.

So just what is Russia up to in the Middle East? In this hard-hitting essay, leading analyst of Russian affairs Dmitri Trenin cuts through the hyperbole to offer a clear and nuanced analysis of Russia’s involvement in the Middle East and its regional and global ramifications. Russia, he argues, cannot and will not supplant the United States as the leading external power in the region, but its actions are accelerating changes that will fundamentally reshape the international system in the next two decades.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Dmitri Trenin is the Director of the Carnegie Moscow Center and in this timely and fascinating book that provides a much-needed counterpoint to Western media thought pieces that made me rethink my assumptions about Russian international policy, he examines Russia’s history and interests in the Middle East to assess its impact in the region and its wider strategy on the global stage.

WHAT IS RUSSIA UP TO IN THE MIDDLE EAST? was released in the United Kingdom on 27th October 2017. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.

Narcocapitalism by Laurent de Sutter

The Blurb On The Back:

What do the invention of anaesthetics in the middle of the nineteenth century, the Nazis’ use of cocaine, and the development of Prozac have in common? The answer is that they’re all products of the same logic that defines out contemporary era: ‘the age of anaesthesia’. Laurent de Sutter shows how large aspects of our lives are now characterised by the management of our emotions through drugs, ranging from the everyday use of sleeping pills to hard narcotics. Chemistry has become so much a part of us that we can’t even see how much it has changed us.

In this era, being a subject doesn’t simply mean being subjected to powers that decide our lives: it means that our very emotions have been outsourced to chemical stimulation. Yet we don’t understand why the drugs that we take are unable to free us from fatigue and depression, and from the absence of desire that now characterises our psycho-political condition. We have forgotten what it means to be excited because our only excitement has become drug-induced. We have to abandon the narcotic stimulation that we’ve come to rely on and find a way back to the collective excitement that is narcocapitalism’s greatest fear.

( The Review (Cut For Spoilers): )

The Verdict:

Laurent de Sutter is Professor of Legal Theory at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and in this book he aims to describe how contemporary life is characterised by the use of drugs to manage human emotions and how this is manipulated to benefit the capitalist system but although I enjoyed the historical sections, I found de Sutter’s arguments confusing and unconvincing, which ultimately made for a disappointing read.

NARCOCAPITALISM was released in the United Kingdom on 3rd November 2017. Thanks to the Amazon Vine Programme for the review copy of this book.