MAFIA: This is a collection of anecdotal testimonies about a self-destructive social machinery with the mafia as its cornerstone. It deals with the mafia in Sicily, but also the war in Vietnam, Palestinian rights, environmental protection, class society, legal abortion and women's liberation.
DESPOTER: The totalitarian regimes of the 20th century caused disasters and crimes of completely different dimensions than any pre-modern tyrants could have imagined. But what qualifies those in power over the centuries to become tyrants?
AUTHORITARIAN: What happened after the height of freedom ideals, the fall of the Iron Curtain and Bill Clinton's fusion of liberal politics with market forces? Today, the Chinese's mastery of original Western technology and surveillance seems limitless.
USA / CHINA: Is the current systemic divide between the US and China insurmountable? According to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken: "Our relationship with China will be competitive when it should, cooperative when it can, and hostile when it has to." On the other hand, China is now led by a man who, according to book author Kevin Rudd, has considerable intellectual resources . Under his leadership, China has grown into a superpower.
ISRAEL: Ami Ayalon has been at the forefront of Israel's military actions. As naval commander and as head of the country's internal security service he had a creeping sense that the country he so passionately defended was maneuvering into a strategic impasse.
ABUSE: Three men in their forties informed their former school, the Jesuit Canisius College in Berlin, about how two priests had sexually abused them decades ago. This led to countless disclosures – not only of the abuse itself, but of the church's consistent secrecy.
Germany: With the social democrat Olaf Scholz in the driver's seat, according to Brekke's new book, it may seem as if the "Merkelian" leadership style has taken hold. She also believes that Germany's interest in Norway is especially great right now.
India: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's staging of himself has been successful enough to keep him at the helm for years. Arundhati Roy delivers critique. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), founded in 1925, is the role model for Modi's ruling BJP party. The founders were inspired by German and Italian fascism.
