Cambria Press

Watch this brief video overview of the Cambria Rapid Communications in Conflict and Security series. The series is headed by general editor Dr. Thomas G. Mahnken, who is the President and CEO of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments (CSBA) as well as Senior Research Professor at the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies at The Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of…

Few classical texts have been invoked as frequently in contemporary debates about great-power rivalry as Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War. References to the ancient historian now appear regularly in discussions of U.S.–China competition, Russia’s confrontation with the West, and the broader dynamics of international security. In recent years, these debates have been shaped in…

Dr. J. Furman Daniel III, author of Restoring Clausewitz: A Critical Companion to On War Meet the Author at ISA 2026 Join Dr. J. Furman Daniel III for a meet-the-author event at the International Studies Association annual convention. Sunday, March 22, 202610:00–10:30 a.m. (#ISA2026 Exhibit Hall Coffee Break)Cambria Press Booth 202 If Clausewitz is still one of the most cited thinkers in…

Irregular warfare plays a central role in strategic competition today, as states increasingly pursue their objectives below the threshold of armed conflict. Rather than relying solely on direct military confrontation, contemporary competition unfolds through political, economic, informational, and other non-kinetic means that challenge conventional distinctions between war and peace. These…

Watch this short video to see the books that will be showcased at the AAS 2026 conference. Parallel Journeys Eurasian History Through Travelers’ Eyes (400 BCE–1936 CE) Anthony J. Barbieri-Low This 520-page anthology offers a comparative history of Eurasia through several firsthand travel accounts spanning 2,400 years. Thematic pairings—Marco Polo and Zhao Rugua, Matteo Ricci and Xie Qinggao,…

Debates about nuclear deterrence and strategic stability have reemerged as central concerns in contemporary security studies. As great-power competition intensifies and nuclear modernization programs accelerate, policymakers, scholars, and military professionals are once again grappling with enduring questions about the role of nuclear weapons in international order. The Cambria Rapid…

The dramatic capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on January 3, 2026, has reignited urgent debates about the tools the United States uses to exert influence abroad. While Richard Outzen’s US Coercive Diplomacy and the Global Order was published in April 2025 before these developments, its strategic analysis of U.S. coercive diplomacy from 1991 to 2020 provides a vital framework for…

As global tensions escalate and strategic competition intensifies, scholars and practitioners alike must turn to timely, authoritative sources. The Cambria Rapid Communications in Conflict and Security (RCCS) Series delivers exactly that, offering critical insights into today’s most urgent threats—from irregular warfare and proxy conflict to nuclear deterrence, alliance dynamics, and U.S. grand…

Beyond Sinocentrism: Ethnocultural Others in Early Modern China by Huili Zheng offers the first sustained study of how early modern Chinese literature imagined and negotiated encounters with ethnocultural others. Focusing on fictional narratives from the seventeenth through the late nineteenth centuries, the book examines how Chinese literati used imaginative writing to engage a rapidly changing…

We spoke with Professor Anthony J. Barbieri-Low (University of California, Santa Barbara) about his new book Parallel Journeys: Eurasian History Through Travelers’ Eyes (400 BCE–1936 CE)—a unique anthology that presents a sweeping comparative history of Eurasia through the eyes of travelers spanning 2,400 years—and asked him to reflect on its central ideas. Q: You’ve included several new English…

Restoring Clausewitz: A Critical Companion to On War by J. Furman Daniel, III, addresses a persistent problem in the study of war and strategy: Carl von Clausewitz’s On War is widely cited, frequently invoked, and rarely read with care. Even when it is read, its arguments are often misunderstood or reduced to slogans detached from their historical and theoretical context. Daniel’s book is…

As environmental crises continue to transform global culture, Ecological and Environmental Turns: (Re)mapping China’s Sociocultural Landscape through Ecocinema by Professor Shuqin Cui, the Bowdoin Professor of Asian Studies and Cinema Studies at Bowdoin College, offers an innovative framework for teaching and studying film, ecology, and environmental humanities. Bridging ecocriticism, cinema…

What does it really mean to “speak Chinese”? Many equate Chinese with Standard Mandarin, an assumption that conceals the vast complexity of the Sinitic language family. In A Handbook of Sinitic Languages, Dialects, and Non-standard Mandarin, Professor Cornelius Kubler, in collaboration with the late Clement Chu Sing Lau, confronts this misconception by offering a richly textured exploration of…

Why has the United States so often failed to translate its unmatched power into durable global influence? US Coercive Diplomacy and the Global Order: A Critical Analysis of Post–Cold War Strategies offers a timely and incisive assessment of U.S. foreign policy from 1990 to 2020, a period that began with unchallenged primacy and ended in renewed great power competition. Focusing on coercive…

Includes B&W illustrations Claire Allen-Johnstone’s Dress, Feminism, and New Woman Writing explores the vital intersections between fashion, gender politics, and literature in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain. At a time when women’s roles and rights were under heated debate, clothing became central to feminist discourse. Authors and publishers used dress strategically—from…

Dore J. Levy’s Reading Art in Literature: The Marvelous Case of The Story of the Stone offers a landmark contribution to the study of Cao Xueqin’s eighteenth-century masterpiece, also known as Hongloumeng or Dream of the Red Chamber. This literary—not art-historical—study examines how paintings, heirlooms, mystical artifacts, and the celebrated Prospect Garden are embedded in the novel as…