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How can the United States chart a path forward in the war on drugs? This book uncovers the full history of this war that has lasted more than a century. The book provides an essential view of the economic, political, and human impacts of U.S. drug policies. It takes readers from Afghanistan to Colombia, to Peru and Mexico, to Miami International Airport and the border crossing between El Paso and Juarez to trace the complex social networks that make up the drug trade and drug consumption. Through historically driven stories, the book reveals how the war on drugs has evolved to address mass incarceration, the opioid epidemic, the legalization and medical use of marijuana, and America's shifting foreign policy.

Although the science of climate change is clear, policy decisions about how to respond to its effects remain contentious. Even when such decisions claim to be guided by objective knowledge, they are made and implemented through political institutions and relationships—and all the competing interests and power struggles that this implies. Michael Méndez tells a timely story of people, place, and power in the context of climate change and inequality. He explores the perspectives and influence low-income people of color bring to their advocacy work on climate change. In California, activist groups have galvanized behind issues such as air pollution, poverty alleviation, and green jobs to advance equitable climate solutions at the local, state, and global levels. Arguing that environmental protection and improving public health are inextricably linked, Mendez contends that we must incorporate local knowledge, culture, and history into policymaking to fully address the global complexities of climate change and the real threats facing our local communities.

The Internet has leapt from human-facing display screens into the material objects all around us. In this so-called Internet of Things—connecting everything from cars to cardiac monitors to home appliances—there is no longer a meaningful distinction between physical and virtual worlds. Everything is connected. The social and economic benefits are tremendous, but there is a downside: an outage in cyberspace can result not only in a loss of communication but also potentially a loss of life. Control of this infrastructure has become a proxy for political power, since countries can easily reach across borders to disrupt real-world systems. This book argues that this diffusion of the Internet into the physical world radically escalates governance concerns around privacy, discrimination, human safety, democracy, and national security, and it offers new cyber-policy solutions. The book makes visible the sinews of power already embedded in our technology and explores how hidden technical governance arrangements will become the constitution of our future.

Catastrophic events such as 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the Tohoku ‘Triple Disaster’ of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown that hit the eastern seaboard of Japan in 2012 are seen as surprises that have a low probability of occurring but have a debilitating impact when they do. In this eye-opening journey through modern and ancient risk management practices, the author explains why we need to find a new way to navigate the deeply uncertain world that we live in. Examining how governments have responded to terrorist threats, climate change, and natural hazards, the book shows how and why these measures have proven inadequate and what should be done to make us more resilient. While conventional approaches have focused on planning and preparing for disruptions and enhanced our ability to ‘bounce back’, our focus should be on anticipating future challenges and enhancing our capacity to adapt to new threats.

This book tells two stories. First, it shows that rising income inequality played a major role in causing the financial crisis and Great Recession of 2008-2009. While others have argued that rising, indeed surging, household debt in the 1990s and 2000s contributed to the financial collapse, none have related rising household debt to the dramatic rise in income inequality. The rise in household debt was not the result of a rash of luxury, but instead was the effort to maintain consumption despite stagnant incomes. Part of that effort is reflected in the unprecedented drop in the rate of saving from around 10 percent to near zero. It is also reflected in the sharp rise of relative spending on three necessities of a middle class lifestyle -- housing, education, and health. Some of that jump in relative spending was brought about by steep price increases. Their prices were bid up by those whose incomes had skyrocketed. Thus to the usual suspects causing the recession–unsustainable residential mortgage debt, low interest rates, predatory lending and the housing price bubble–income inequality must be included. The second story is that mainstream economists have misunderstood the causes of the recession because they have adhered to a macroeconomic theory that ignores the role of income distribution. Mainstream economic theory maintains that inequality has no impact on macroeconomic outcomes. That view is incorrect and led most economists to ignore the serious consequences of rising inequality, despite the striking parallel with the Great Depression.

The subprime crisis teaches us that neither private property nor the free market can exist without regulation. Markets are defined by a legal framework that sets minimum standards for social and economic relationships. Private property is possible because law allocates property and defines the rights of owners; property law also ensures that property rights are not exercised in ways that harm the property or personal rights of others or that undermine the fabric of social life or economic prosperity. Regulation is just another word for law and, as John Locke taught there, there is not liberty without law. Regulation, far from taking away our freedom, is what makes it possible. There is no freedom without regulation. That means that libertarians want more regulation than we may think and that liberals like both markets and private property more than we think. The overlap in values and beliefs of liberals and conservatives is much greater than our current polarized political discourse suggests. If we reframe regulation as minimum standards for social and economic relationships in a free and democratic society, it becomes clear that the liberty we cherish is entwined with law. We therefore seek, not complete freedom of action, but democratic liberty.