Adapting in the Dust Is Ooooot!

Today, the book is officially released!  Why am I excited about it?  Why should Spew readers care? Why should other folks be interested?

The basic premise of the book is that we learn best about someone or someplace when they are under pressure--that crises reveal character.  And my guess is that no international effort caused more stress for the Canadian political system than the Afghanistan war.  Fighting in Afghanistan put many politicians, the parties, the media, and even the public in difficult positions of trying to understand and react to a confusing place and a confusing war.

So, the book tries to pop some myths while trying to understand why the various parts of the Canadian political system reacted as they did.  Some adapted, some did not.  Some adaptations were functional and productive.  Some were, alas, not.  Indeed, some adaptions were almost craven as politicians sought to shield themselves from the responsibilities of the war.  Yes, I am referring to Prime Ministers Martin and Harper.

The details about the book are here, the book tour's details are here, and the soundtrack is here.  I am available to talk about the book for any media outlet interested.  My contact info is here (better to email than call).

The song du jour reflects the war, my research and the book tour ahead.

Happy New Book Eve

The academic publishing process is so long and often very frustrating, so when a new publication comes out, one cannot help but be relieved and use it as an excuse to do stuff like order out for Chinese food.  Oh, is that just me?

Tomorrow, Adapting in the Dust: Lessons Learned from Canada's War in Afghanistan will be officially released.  It can be ordered via the usual places (U of Toronto Press, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc).

The book is different from anything else I have written:

• It is shorter, with no lit review section (disguised or otherwise).
• It does not aim to develop or test theories, but instead to inform the Canadian debate about how Canada operates at whom as it operates overseas.
• It was somewhat accidental.  Much of the research that shows up in this book was not conducted with this book in mind, but came to me as I was focused on a more comparative project. 
• It was kind of pre-written, as I wrote much about Canada and Afghanistan here at the Spew over the years while I was researching the NATO book and reacting to events in Canada.  The blogging really helped the writing of this book--both to get my thoughts down and to articulate them for broader audiences.
• There is far more opinionated Steve here than in my other stuff precisely because I am making judgments about who did well, who did poorly, who adapted intelligently to the new circumstances, and which actors in the Canadian political science adapted poorly.  Readers of the Spew will probably not be that surprised by my assessments, but might be surprised at the tone of the book. Again, this is not an academic book.

The book tour commences next month with stops in Quebec City, Sherbrooke, Ottawa, and Vancouver.  I am sure to be talking about this book elsewhere, not to mention whatever media outlets that will have me.  I am sure folks will get tired of hearing me talk about it, but I enjoyed the research and writing so much that I cannot contain my happiness that this book is now out there for others to read.

Because of all the help I had along the way, today's song from the Adapting soundtrack is: