pdotb reviewed Losing Control by Paul Rogers
Weirdly feels like two books welded together
4 stars
I started reading this book partly because the author was interviewed about Ukraine on a couple of leftist podcasts, plus I've long been intrigued by the Peace Studies department at Bradford, ever since a school friend announced he was going to study there.
The book feels like an odd amalgam of two books, so I'm a bit torn when it comes to reviewing it. Rogers' main thesis seems to be that much post-Cold-War conflict is rooted in economic precarity, which he attributes to the rise of neoliberalism, combined with the increasing influence of climate breakdown. He characterizes the tendency to treat this as a purely security problem as 'liddism' -- the idea that we don't need to treat underlying causes but just put a lid on the ensuing violence through increased military activity and spending. All of this sounds really good, but much of the book feels like a reasonably …
I started reading this book partly because the author was interviewed about Ukraine on a couple of leftist podcasts, plus I've long been intrigued by the Peace Studies department at Bradford, ever since a school friend announced he was going to study there.
The book feels like an odd amalgam of two books, so I'm a bit torn when it comes to reviewing it. Rogers' main thesis seems to be that much post-Cold-War conflict is rooted in economic precarity, which he attributes to the rise of neoliberalism, combined with the increasing influence of climate breakdown. He characterizes the tendency to treat this as a purely security problem as 'liddism' -- the idea that we don't need to treat underlying causes but just put a lid on the ensuing violence through increased military activity and spending. All of this sounds really good, but much of the book feels like a reasonably 'straight' account of the US/UK/other involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq, together with the rise of ISIS, and strays dangerously close to just a blow-by-blow account of military operations, to the point at which I was wondering whether I was reading the right book and contemplated giving up. I'm glad I didn't, because the book really picks up in the last two chapters, but it remains a rather mixed experience.