Behind slogans declaring a "safe" El Salvador lies a harrowing reality of mass detentions and forced disappearances. Sonja Wolf details the state of emergency in the latest Current History: online.ucpress.edu/currenthisto...
Current History
@currenthistory1.bsky.social
International affairs journal, founded in 1914. Published by University of California Press. https://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory
5 books. 5 critical global themes 📖 From North Korean nuclear disarmament to democratic backsliding, read the "Books in Brief" reviews by Stephan Haggard from the latest issue of Current History: online.ucpress.edu/currenthisto...
From officer purges to unprecedented domestic deployments, Lindsay P. Cohn explores the erosion of democratic control of the U.S. military in the latest issue of Current History: online.ucpress.edu/currenthisto...
The September 2026 issue of Current History is out now, featuring a collection on Civil-Military Relations edited by Rebecca Best. Dive in: online.ucpress.edu/currenthisto...
Volume 125 Issue 874 | Current History | University of California Press
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In our July issue book reviews, Jesse Driscoll and Dominique Arel synthesize seven major books on Russia's war against Ukraine. Plus, Stephan Haggard reviews new books on Iran, Pan-Africanism, the MAGA new right, and cybercrime. Read free online: online.ucpress.edu/currenthisto...
Denise Sullivan argues that music has long been one of democracy's most enduring tools—giving voice to resistance, building community, and sustaining hope through times of crisis. Read her full article from our July issue free online here: online.ucpress.edu/currenthisto...
The changing world order looks different depending on where you're sitting. Read the Dispatches from our July issue for firsthand reflections from seven countries on the defining issues shaping today's world. Free to read online here: online.ucpress.edu/currenthisto...
Laura Gamboa argues that democratic transitions rarely succeed through the outright defeat of authoritarian regimes. More often, they require uncomfortable compromises that encourage regime insiders to defect. Read more in Current History: online.ucpress.edu/currenthisto...
"People are how we got here. But people are our only hope." In our July issue, Lindsay Shingler argues that democracy depends not only on stronger institutions, but on learning to see one another with greater generosity, dignity, and grace. Free to read online: online.ucpress.edu/currenthisto...
In her essay from our latest issue, Folashadé Soulé argues that African states are increasingly leveraging diplomacy, regional institutions, and international law to influence global governance. Free to read online here: online.ucpress.edu/currenthisto...
What if we're asking the wrong question about American democracy? Christian Davenport argues that democracy and authoritarianism have long coexisted across the U.S. Looking locally—not nationally—offers a clearer picture of both the problem and the path forward: online.ucpress.edu/currenthisto...
Brian Matthew Jordan argues that democracy needs a "usable past"—one that confronts history honestly while inspiring us to continue the unfinished work of building a more perfect union. Read more: online.ucpress.edu/currenthisto...
Stephanie Dinkins argues that AI inherits the histories and inequalities embedded in its training data—and that building ethical AI requires centering care, community, and plural ways of knowing. Read more: online.ucpress.edu/currenthisto...
Charles A. Kupchan argues in the recent issue of Current History that the old global order is dying and the task is no longer to preserve it but build a new one for the multipolar world. Read the article: online.ucpress.edu/currenthisto...
Does a multipolar world have to mean global disorder? Amitav Acharya argues that history shows that many civilizations helped shape the ideas behind international cooperation long before the modern West. Read more: online.ucpress.edu/currenthisto...
"The landscape of nuclear arms control over the last two decades has been one of steady erosion." Mike Albertson explains why—and argues that practical, incremental cooperation offers the best path to reducing nuclear risks—in his featured essay: online.ucpress.edu/currenthisto...
Through the Nuclear Looking Glass
The transition from the highly structured, cooperative era of post–Cold War arms control to the fragmented and unpredictable nuclear landscape of 2026 is examined through a blend of personal memoir an...
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We are pleased to announce a new chapter for Current History! Our July 2026 issue, the first managed by our new editorial team from @ucigcc.bsky.social, is now fully available to read free online here: online.ucpress.edu/currenthisto...
Volume 125 Issue 872-873 | Current History | University of California Press
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Welcome Lindsay Shingler! She is Associate Director of UC's @ucigcc.bsky.social and incoming Editor of UC Press' @currenthistory1.bsky.social journal. See what she has in store for the journal, beginning with the July issue 👇 www.ucpress.edu/blog-posts/i...
Introducing a New Chapter of Current History: A Q&A with Lindsay Shingler
"We want to continue to engage with scholars, and push them outside their comfort zones to write for more general audiences with writing that delights and informs."
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In our May issue, Jody Benjamin reviews a book by Toby Green on 17th-century struggles with Portuguese colonial rule in a West Atlantic port town. online.ucpress.edu/currenthisto...
The Early Modern World of a West African Woman
A new history uses records of a local businesswoman’s brush with the Inquisition as a window into everyday life in an Atlantic port town and slave-trading hub under Portuguese colonial rule.
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In our new Africa issue, John J. Chin explains why the Sahel coup belt is spreading. online.ucpress.edu/currenthisto...
The Expanding Sahel Coup Belt
Since 2020, the Sahel region has emerged as the global epicenter of coups d’état and terrorism. This article surveys why coups in recent years have been concentrated in a narrow belt running from Guin...
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In our May issue, @justinpearce.bsky.social surveys 50 years of strife in Angola and Mozambique. online.ucpress.edu/currenthisto...
Half a Century of Post-Independence Strife in Angola and Mozambique
Angola and Mozambique both celebrated fifty years of independence in 2025. The politics of each country have been marked by a fractious past. Both endured internal conflict until the 1990s, as social ...
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In our annual Africa issue, Basile Ndjio examines the history of LGBT+ exclusion and resistance in Cameroon. online.ucpress.edu/currenthisto...
Medical Discrimination, Moral Panic, and the Politics of Sexuality in Cameroon
This article examines the complex dynamics of medical discrimination and anti-LGBTIQ exclusion in Cameroon. It uses Michel Foucault’s concept of biopolitics and Achille Mbembe’s idea of necropolitics ...
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In our new Africa issue, @moseskhisa.bsky.social traces Uganda’s drift toward dynastic autocracy. online.ucpress.edu/currenthisto...
The Making of Uganda’s Deepening Autocracy
President Yoweri Museveni, in power for four decades, has overseen a steady drift toward autocracy in Uganda. Elections have been held regularly since 1996, yet they have led not to democratization bu...
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In our annual Africa issue, Patrick Desplat explains what drove Madagascar’s Gen Z uprising. online.ucpress.edu/currenthisto...
Gen Z Aspiration, Hybrid Agency, and the Madagascar Uprising
The 2025 youth uprising in Madagascar was a Gen Z–led movement sparked by chronic infrastructure failures and deepening economic precarity. Young Malagasy mobilized digital culture and global symbols ...
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Enjoy free access (for a limited time) to this essay by Ebenezer Obadare in our May issue, on Africa’s debate over democracy: online.ucpress.edu/currenthisto...
Conflicting Signals on Africa’s Democratic Predicament
Despite elections being held across the continent, coup leaders and other foes of liberal democracy have seized on disenchantment with poor governance and economic frustrations to renew old debates ab...
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Our annual Africa issue is out! With Patrick Desplat on Madagascar’s Gen Z uprising, @moseskhisa.bsky.social on Uganda’s autocratic drift, Basile Ndjio on LGBT+ exclusion in Cameroon, @justinpearce.bsky.social on 50 years of strife in Angola and Mozambique… online.ucpress.edu/currenthisto...
Volume 125 Issue 871 | Current History | University of California Press
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In our annual South Asia issue, Šumit Ganguly considers the legacies of Indira Gandhi's Emergency in a review of Srinath Raghavan's new book on the late prime minister's years in power in the 1970s and early 1980s.
What the Emergency Wrought
A new book illuminates the lasting consequences of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s imposition of a 21-month state of emergency in the mid-1970s, running roughshod over democratic institutions an...
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In our April South Asia issue, Anirudh Krishna @dukesanford.bsky.social examines the key role of blocked social mobility in a wave of Generation Z protests in the region and beyond, proposing potential solutions.
How to Address the Roots of Gen Z Frustration
Youth protests that have toppled governments and brought life to a standstill in countries in South Asia and beyond are united not only by visible symbols, notably a Jolly Roger flag from a Japanese a...
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In our April South Asia issue, Sara Shneiderman and Salina Dolmo Lama @sppga.ubc.ca explain how Nepal’s 2025 Gen Z protests toppled a regime, from the key role of social media to the movement's dilemmas on issues such as hierarchy and corruption.
Can Gen Z Protests Transform Nepal’s Political Futures?
In September 2025, Nepal was shaken by youth protests against corruption and nepotism, state violence that left at least 76 people dead, and widespread destruction of infrastructure. The government wa...
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In our annual South Asia issue, Magnus Marsden details the long history of Afghans’ now-imperiled presence in Pakistan and their connective role across the region and beyond.
The Imperiled Connective Presence of Afghans in Pakistan
The mass deportation of Afghan refugees and mobile people from Pakistan to Afghanistan is reshaping trade networks and routes, dividing families, and disrupting local economies and identities. For cen...
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