New Books in Political Science

In this episode of International Horizons, RBI Acting Director Eli Karetny sits down with Alexis Cruz, founder of Enough Consulting and former strategic advisor for governance at Meta. Cruz explores how the proliferation of AI and digital platforms has shifted global politics into an "anocracy"—a precarious gray zone situated between traditional democracy and authoritarianism.
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This week on Democracy Dialogues, Frances Cayton speaks with four experts on Polish politics about the success of Poland’s opposition coalition in 2023, and the headwinds that democracy continues to face today.

What challenges do parties and civil society face in building pro-democracy electoral coalitions? If victorious, how do these challenges affect post-election governance and efforts at pursuing democratic renewal? This episode brings together politicians, political scientists, and civil society leaders who each played a critical role in the 2023 elections to examine what made Poland’s pro-democracy mobilization possible, the gains the 2023 coalition has achieved since entering power, and the challenges it continues to face in pursuing democratic renewal.This episode was originally recorded as a part of the Lessons from Global Democratic Resistance panel series. The series brings together frontline activists, civic leaders, institutional actors, and field‑informed scholars to examine how democratic actors have resisted, responded to, and learned from democratic backsliding across countries. The series aims to identify practical lessons and comparative insights for those defending democracy today and is organized in collaboration with the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University; Perry World House at the University of Pennsylvania; the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame; the Democratic Futures Project at the University of Virginia; Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law; and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Mikołaj Cześnik, Director of the Institute of Social Science at SWPS University, Chairman of the Council of the Stefan Batory Foundation

Michał Wawrykiewicz, Member of the European Parliament (MEP). Co-Founder of the civic initiative Wolne Sady (Free Courts)

Marek Tatała, President and Co-Founder of the Economic Freedom Foundation

Dominika Lasota, Student and Activist in the Youth Climate Strike Poland, Co-Founder of Inicjatywa WSCHÓD

Frances Cayton is a PhD Candidate in Government at Cornell University. Her research focuses on questions surrounding democratic backsliding, civil society, and political communication.
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Taking Territory: The Persistence of Conquest Since 1945 (Cornell University Press, 2026) is an eye-opening account of why territorial conquest persists today.

The end of World War II seemingly brought about a decline in territorial
conquest. Many have argued that a strong territorial integrity norm in
the postwar era explains this decline. Yet as Dan Altman shows, states
have seized territory numerous times since 1945. Large-scale conquests
have waned, but small, targeted seizures have persisted. The
relationship between conquest and war has also shifted. While states
attempting conquest before 1945 often initiated war and sought to occupy
large territories, challengers today more often seize small regions and
try to avoid war. This strategy, the fait accompli, has become the
predominant mode of conquest.

Drawing on his original data, which
include 175 conquest attempts between 1918 and 2024, Altman explains
why conquest persists, what motivates it, when it turns violent, and
when it succeeds. He shows how miscalculated fait accompli have sparked
many post-1945 wars, and why the motives behind many territorial grabs
are often about image, domestic politics, and the ambitions of military
officers. Incisive and illuminating, Taking Territory cuts against what we think we know about post-1945 conquest to reveal its true causes and consequences.

Our guest is Dan Altman, an Associate Professor of Political Science at Georgia State University.

Our host is Eleonora Mattiacci, an Associate Professor of Political Science at Amherst College. She is the author of Volatile States in International Politics (Oxford University Press, 2023).
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In early 2022, protests rocked Kazakhstan. Initially peaceful demonstrations turned violent after brutal government crackdowns, leaving at least 238 dead during "Bloody January." Many feared the unrest might fracture the country along ethno-linguistic lines—yet ethnicity played little role. It was deep socio-economic grievances and anti-regime sentiment that brought people onto the streets. In What Does It Mean to Be Kazakhstani?: Nation-Building in Post-Soviet Central Asia (Oxford University Press, 2024), Diana T. Kudaibergen asks why. Building on unpublished archival materials and hundreds of interviews, she examines how Kazakhstan developed a relatively stable inter-ethnic framework where others fractured, how regime elites and ordinary citizens have pulled that identity in different directions, and how Moscow's 2022 invasion of
Ukraine, and the Russian immigration it has prompted, is once again
transforming what it means to call oneself Kazakhstani.

Cholpon Ramizova is a London-based creator and researcher. She holds a Master's in Migration, Mobility and Development from SOAS, University of London. Her thematic interests are in migration, displacement, identity, gender and nationalism—and in the ways these intersect within the Central Asia context.
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In
the rich political landscape of Tamil Nadu, few movements have had as
profound and enduring an impact as the Dravidian movement. Vignesh
Rajahmani’s The Dravidian Pathway (Hurst
Publishers, 2025) offers a compelling and detailed account of how the
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) transformed a powerful socio-cultural
and anti-caste movement into a highly successful electoral political
force.

Focusing on the pivotal decades of the mid-20th century,
Rajahmani
traces the strategic leadership of key figures including Periyar E.V.
Ramasamy, C.N. Annadurai, M. Karunanidhi, and others. The book explores
how the DMK skilfully synthesised
anti-caste ideology, demands for linguistic pride and Tamil identity,
socioeconomic reforms, and educational mobility. This synthesis not only
resonated deeply with marginalised communities but also enabled the
party to translate ideological commitments into concrete welfare
policies and political power.

The Dravidian Pathway is
particularly valuable for its nuanced examination of the transition from
movement to party, shedding light on the organisational innovations —
such as the spread of reading rooms (padippakams)
— that helped build a robust Dravidian public sphere in the 1950s and
1960s. Rajahmani’s work provides fresh insights into one of modern
India’s most distinctive and influential regional political traditions.

This timely
study is essential reading for anyone interested in South Indian
politics, federalism, identity politics, and the enduring legacy of
social justice movements in India.

Host: Dhiren Swain is a joint PhD Candidate in Urban Studies at The University of Melbourne and IIT Madras.
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