Apr 23
In the May/June 2024 issue of Foreign Affairs, Shivshankar Menon of Ashoka University reviews my book Superstates, published by Polity in 2023. Menon writes: “[Roberts] offers an insightful account of superstates’ internal governance and a thoughtful exploration of their similarities in diversity, fragility, leadership structures, and ideology.” Read the full review.
In the journal Global Public Policy and Governance, Professor Suparna Soni reviews Superstates: Empires of the Twenty-First Century. “The book serves as an invaluable resource for researchers, students and practitioners grappling with the enduring dilemmas of contemporary government,” Soni says. “Readers will find his discussion to be eloquent, perceptive and enlightening.” Read the full review.
Joshua Huminski reviews my book Superstates for Diplomatic Courier: “Superstates finds a nice balance between academic curiosity and practical utility and overcomes the limitations of comparative political definitions to identify real challenges shared across four distinct political structures. It is a useful framework for looking at what will be a very dynamic period of both domestic and international politics.” Read the review.
Superstates: Empires of the Twenty-First Century is profiled by Politics Today. “With a groundbreaking twist in thinking about the art and methods of statecraft, Roberts considers the decisions leaders must make to devise and redevise strategies for governance at such a grand scale.” Read the review here.
Tom Stevenson reviews Superstates in the May 4, 2023 issue of the London Review of Books. “Empires are supposed to be a thing of the past, yet in some ways the empires we knew are still with us. The largest states in the world have the scale of empires but, Roberts suggests, they are a new breed . . . Roberts is sceptical that his four superstates will all exist in their present form in a hundred years’ time.” Read the review.
Professor Jonathan Boston reviews Superstates in International Review of Public Administration: “Superstates is engaging, lucid, judicious, well documented, and highly accessible. For those interested in, or troubled by, the abiding dilemmas of contemporary government and governing, whether as researchers, students, and practitioners, Superstates will serve as an invaluable resource. Not only does it provide authoritative empirical analyses, but it also offers discerning ethical counsel and practical wisdom. While readers may not agree with all the author’s arguments, they are bound to find his discussion elegant, shrewd, provocative, and insightful.” Read the review.
Political Science Quarterly has published a review by Iuliia Shybalkina of Strategies for Governing. Shybalkina writes: “The argument’s timeliness is uncanny . . . Roberts’ book is a real bottomless well of research ideas ready to be pursued by scholars, especially junior ones. The book would also be useful for directors of graduate programs in PA interested in equipping students with the mindset and tools to address the big picture.” Read the full review.
My short article on the demise of India’s planning commission and its replacement with NITI Aayog is now forthcoming in Public Administration Review. Access the article here.
On London School of Economics’ Politics & Policy blog, Matthew Flinders reviews Four Crises of American Democracy. Flinders writes: “This is a brilliant book and a much-needed antidote to ‘the politics of pessimism’ that swirls around so much scholarly writing and media messaging.” Read the review.
My review of Jurassic Government has just been published in the January/February issue of Public Administration Review. Read the review.
Alasdair S. Roberts 
