On To the Convention!
JASON BELLO and ROBERT Y. SHAPIRO argue that the extended campaign needed to determine the 2008 presidential candidates for the Democratic Party was not surprising, given the current delegate selection rules across the states. The 2008 campaign is a test case for whether the national party conventions themselves, not the voters, will ever again be the final deciders of the presidential candidates.

Ideological Change and Israel’s Disengagement from Gaza
JONATHAN RYNHOLD and DOV WAXMAN posit that ideological change within the right-wing Likud party generated support for the partition of Israel that was a vital prerequisite to the Sharon government’s adoption of the Gaza disengagement plan in 2005. Although international and domestic pressures were important in determining certain elements of the withdrawal, they did not dictate the policy of disengagement.

Casualty Sensitivity in a Post-Soviet Context: Russian Views of the Second Chechen War, 2001–2004
THEODORE P. GERBER and SARAH E. MENDELSON analyze Russian public opinion about the second war in Chechnya. They show that concern over Russian military casualties and the war’s economic costs were the dominant sentiments, despite the Russian government’s monopoly on media coverage of the conflict. Moreover, they argue that the war appears to have fueled ethnic animosity toward Chechens.

The President as Chief Administrator: James Landis and the Brownlow Report
Donald R. Brand examines the relationship between the Brownlow Report and James Landis’s The Administrative Process. He argues that both of the interlocutors in this implicit debate have valuable insights, but that both are ultimately insufficient because they are not attentive to the constitutional and political context of administration.

Are African Voters Really Ethnic or Clientelistic? Survey Evidence from Ghana
STAFFAN I. LINDBERG and MINION K. C. MORRISON look at voting rationales in Ghana’s 1996 and 2000 elections and find that citizens in a new democracy like Ghana are more ‘‘mature’’ democratic voters than the literature would have us to expect. While voting is no doubt patterned along ethnic and tribal lines, it appears that voting behavior is also explained at the individual level by rational policy calculations constrained by classic information problems.

Greek–Turkish Rapprochement: Rhetoric or Reality
ZIYA ÖNIS and SUHNAZ YILMAZ discuss the nature of the current Turkish–Greek rapprochement. They conclude that while the relations have improved, in order to reach a durable partnership and to move beyond the existing stalemate, a more proactive approach from both sides on core issues of conflict is necessary.

David or Goliath? The Israel Lobby and Its Critics
Douglas Little reviews John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt’s controversial new book, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy. He concludes that despite their prosecutorial tone, the authors have sparked a long-overdue public debate about America’s special relationship by questioning whether domestic politics drives the United States to act against its own national security interests.

Things Fall Apart: Containing the Spillover from an Iraqi Civil War, Daniel L. Byman and Kenneth M. Pollack
Reviewed by James J. Wirtz

The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace, Ali A. Allawi
Reviewed by Mohammed M. Hafez

Containment: Rebuilding a Strategy Against Global Terror, Ian Shapiro
Reviewed by Robert J. Lieber

Anti-Americanisms in World Politics, Robert O. Keohane and Peter J. Katzenstein, eds.
Reviewed by Yael S. Aronoff

The Faith Factor: How Religion Influences American Elections, John C. Green
Reviewed by Alan Wolfe

Why Welfare States Persist: The Importance of Public Opinion in Democracies, Clem Brooks and Jeff Manza
Reviewed by Andrew Gelman

The Summer of 1787: The Men Who Invented the Constitution, David O. Stewart
Reviewed by Herbert Sloan

When the Press Fails: Political Power and the News Media from Iraq to Katrina, Regina G. Lawrence, W. Lance Bennett and Steven Livingston
Reviewed by Doris A. Graber

America and the Limits of the Politics of Selfishness, Sidney Waldman
Reviewed by Amitai Etzioni

The Political Future of Social Security in Aging Societies, Vincenzo Galasso
Reviewed by Norman Furniss

Political Foundations of Judicial Supremacy: The Presidency, the Supreme Court, and Constitutional Leadership in U.S. History, Keith E. Whittington
Reviewed by Paul Chen

The New Environmental Regulation, Daniel J. Fiorino
Reviewed by Gary C. Bryner

Hope is Not a Plan: The War in Iraq from Inside the Green Zone, Thomas Mowle, ed.
Reviewed by James Goldgeier

Nuclear Disorder or Cooperative Security? U.S. Weapons of Terror, the Global Proliferation Crisis, and Paths to Peace, Michael Spies and John Burroughs, eds.
Reviewed by Brian D'Agostino

Safe for Democracy: The Secret Wars of the CIA, John Prados
Reviewed by Dimitris Keridis

The Battle Over School Prayer: How Engel v. Vitale Changed America, Bruce J. Dierenfield
Reviewed by Thomas Healy

The Racial Logic of Politics: Asian Americans and Party Competition, Thomas P. Kim
Reviewed by Claire Jean Kim

Black on the Block: The Politics of Race and Class in the City, Mary Pattillo
Reviewed by Jody Agius Vallejo

Electing America’s Governors: The Politics of Executive Elections, David L. Leal
Reviewed by Thad Kousser

The DeShaney Case: Child Abuse, Family Rights, and the Dilemma of State Intervention, Lynne Curry
Reviewed by Brenda G. McGowan

Governing through Crime: How the War on Crime Transformed American Democracy and Created a Culture of Fear, Jonathan Simon
Reviewed by Michael Musheno

Racial Diversity and Social Capital: Equality and Community in America, Rodney Hero
Reviewed by Eric Oliver

Split: Class and Cultural Divides in American Politics, Jeffrey M. Stonecash and Mark D. Brewer
Reviewed by Jeremy C. Pope

Native Vote: American Indians, the Voting Rights Act, and the Right to Vote, Susan M. Olson, Daniel McCool and Jennifer L. Robinson
Reviewed by Jeffrey M. Sanders

Religious Interests in Community Conflict: Beyond the Culture Wars, Paul A. Djupe and Laura R. Olson, eds.
Reviewed by Elaine B. Sharp

The Missouri Compromise and Its Aftermath: Slavery and the Meaning of America, Robert Pierce Forbes
Reviewed by Mark M. Smith

Talking about Race: Community Dialogues and the Politics of Difference, Katherine Cramer Walsh
Reviewed by Stephen Steinberg

This Land, This Nation: Conservation, Rural America, and the New Deal, Sarah Phillips
Reviewed by Mary Summers

Europe as Empire: The Nature of the Enlarged European Union, Jan Zielonka
Reviewed by Vivien A. Schmidt

Explaining Decisions in the European Union, Arne Niemann
Reviewed by Dorothee Heisenberg