A Red Line in the Sand: Diplomacy, Strategy, and the History of Wars That Could Still Happen

CNN columnist Andelman (A Shattered Peace) offers a lucid and concise examination of the recent proliferation of contested boundaries (“physical, diplomatic, military, all too often existential”) around the world. A chapter on the Korean Peninsula illuminates the region’s fraught political dynamics through an overview of its colonial history and Cold War–era civil war and a blow-by-blow rundown of political brinksmanship by North and South Korea ever since. Andelman also examines how the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are threatened by the territorial aggressions of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, whose annexation of Crimea and incursions into eastern Ukraine were met with economic sanctions that he has largely turned to his advantage. The book’s most vivid and eye-opening chapter tracks the history of Africa’s contested borders from European colonization in the 19th century, through U.S. and Soviet interference during the Cold War, to today’s conflicts over political ideology, religious affiliation, and access to the continent’s natural resources. Andelman moves briskly and confidently through these various hotspots, drawing on decades of experience reporting on international affairs. The result is a worthy introduction to a wide range of simmering regional conflicts that threaten global peace. (Jan.)