John C. Hulsman is the Alfred von Oppenheim Scholar in Residence at the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin.He is the coauthor, with Anatol Lieven, of Ethical Realism, and coauthor, with A. Wess Mitchell, of The Godfather Doctrine: A Foreign Policy Parable.
Last week I asked him what he was reading. His reply:
I'm currently reading The Baader Meinhof Complex, by Stefan Aust, long-time editor of the influential German daily Der Spiegel. I was interested in the book because of what seems to outsiders the continued German obsessionRead an excerpt from The Godfather Doctrine, and learn more about the book at the Princeton University Press website.(far more than is the case in say Italy or the US) with their homegrown radical, underground student-dominated terrorist movement of the early 70s. Aust, in effective, matter-of-fact, underplaying language, sets the scene well, providing the critical context in which the group took on the German establishment. While the arguments employed by the group still seem self-indulgent and beyond other-worldly, Aust makes clear the reasons that the German postwar establishment had such public relations trouble at the trials of the various would-be revolutionaries. A fine book that explains an era that otherwise makes little sense.
Visit John C. Hulsman's website.
--Marshal Zeringue
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