STOIC SKILLS, IRAN AND POSSESSIVE INDIVIDUALISM

The Stoic Skills substack identifies key skills – critical thinking, attention management, financial literacy, adaptability and self-reflection with the latter being the most important.

Then a couple of recent books about IRAN

Post-revolutionary Conditions – renewed versions of the Iranian Freedom 
Struggle Alborz Ghandehari (2025)
The Long War on Iran – new events, old questions Behrooz Ghamani (2025) 
who spent some years in prison for his Marxist beliefs with a serious cancer, 
then released and allowed to migrate to the US where he is now a sociology 
Professor

Possessive Individualism was a topic which excited me in my university days which has been the subject of no fewer than three books in recent years

Possessive Individualism - a crisis of capitalism Daniel Bromley  (2019)
Reconsidering CB McPerson – from possesive individualism to democratic theory 
and beyond Phillip Hansen (2019)
The Political Thought of CB McPherson Frank Cunningham (2019)
The Political Theory of Possesive Individualism CB McPherson (1962 - 1990 ed)

Cannibal Capitalism Nancy Fraser (2022)    
Politics Without Politicians – the case for citizen rule Helene Landemore (2026) 
A useful look at what rendition offers for electoral politics
Hyperpolitics – extreme politicisation without political consequences Anton Jaeger 
(2026) A short book – a mere 100pp
Braver New World – the countries making things others won't John Kampfner (2026) 
A book which tries to draw lessons from the advantages of other countries eg how 
the Japanese deal positively with old age; how the Finns educate children; or how 
the Indonesians deal with the sick 
Tribal Politics – how Brexit divided Britain Sara Hobolt and James Lilley (2026) 
A more sociological look at how Brexit has divided the UK than the usual talk of 
“anywheres and somewheres”
Public Administration and the Illiberal Challenge Michael Bauer (2026) a short book 
(96pp) which 
addresses the illiberal challenge facing public administration amidst the rise of 
authoritarian populism and democratic backsliding. It investigates how populist 
governments seek to reshape state bureaucracies, often undermining liberal 
democratic principles such as pluralism, expertise, and constitutional safeguards, 
and examines how public administration must respond to safeguard democratic 
integrity. Drawing on global examples, the book identifies strategies of populist 
administrative manipulation, patterns of bureaucratic compliance and resistance 
and critical gaps in scholarly understanding. It develops a framework for 
analyzing these dynamics and proposes normative principles to defend active 
democratic bureaucracy. Through theoretical inquiry and practical recommendations, 
it advocates for robust, ethically grounded public administration capable of 
countering illiberal pressures. Its central thesis underscores the need to restore 
the intellectual foundation of public administration as a social science deeply 
embedded in and committed to the democratic policy process. 
The Russia-Ukraine War and its Origins Ivan Katchanovski (2026) 
Probably the best book on the war - although The Russia-Ukraine War and its 
Origins Ivan Katchanovski (2026) Probably the best book on the war although 
100 critics have called it out 
This open-access book has been written by Ivan Katchanovski, who is – 
according to the University of Ottawa’s website – a “Part Time Professor” in Canada’s 
capital. Discussions of volumes like The Russia-Ukraine War and its Origins usually 
happen within single-authored book reviews in specialized journals. 
Yet the exceptional circumstances of the appearance and circulation of Katchanovski’s 
monograph described below motivate us – over one hundred scholars in the field of 
East European studies – to respond to this publication with a joint word of caution. 
Our statement is related not so much to the exact content of Katchanovski’s book as 
to the volume’s central message and its seemingly very wide reception, which is 
atypical for a non-fiction book under the imprint of an academic publisher.  
….Yet, Katchanovski fundamentally misleads his readers when he explains
Russia’s attack as the result of alleged Ukrainian transgressions against political 
pluralism. Not only has the Ukrainian polity been, since 1991, more open than the 
political systems of most other former Soviet republics which had been part of the 
original USSR in 1922. Whoever wants to understand the sources of the 
Russo-Ukrainian War should read less about Ukrainian domestic politics and 
international relations – the primary foci of Katchanovski’s book. 
Instead, Russia’s war was caused and is driven by Russian political traditions, 
ideas and interests. Katchanovski’s narrative about the causes and escalation 
of the Russo-Ukrainian War is often congruent to the Kremlin’s propaganda: 
crimes in Kyiv, machinations by Washington, interventions from London, 
failures of Brussels, etc. As many times before in Russian history, so the 
story goes, evil foreigners have again provoked the Kremlin to expand
Russia’s territory by force, mass terrorize its neighbors, and kill, torture, deport etc. 
thousands of their civilians. No wonder that the RT columnist \Tarik
Cyril Amar and RIA correspondent Lenka
White publicly congratulated Katchanovski on 
his book. RT, formerly “Russia Today,” and RIA, the Russian Information Agency, 
are media outlets owned by the Russian state and directed by the Russian 
government.
The already high and further growing circulation of Katchanovski’s scholarly 
deficient book, as an apparent result of promotion by Musk, Sacks and other 
sympathizers, should not have the public effect of making Putin’s assertion to 
fight a defensive or otherwise justifiable war in Ukraine look plausible. 
It would be regrettable if Katchanovski’s and similar publications, rejected by the
overwhelming majority of academic researchers of Eastern Europe but supported 
by undiscerning plutocrats, gain a wide readership among those not familiar with the past and present of Russian imperial
nationalism. It would be even more sad if a political utilization of such publications 
by populist forces will lead to a reduction of Western help for Ukraine in its 
fight for survival and thereby facilitate Russia’s undisguised attempt to destroy 
the Ukrainian nation.
The Fraud – Keir Starmer, Morgan McSweeney and the crisis of british democracy  
Paul Holden (2025) A detailed and frightening account of the extent of Starmer’s 
betrayal of the hopes of millions of Brits with extensive notes 
The Weaponization of Expertise – how elites fuel populism Jacob Russell 
and Dennis Patterson (2025)
The Technological Republic – hard power, soft belief and the future of the West 
Alex Karp (2025) Karp is linked to the founders of PALANTIR and anything 
written by him should be taken with a pinch of strong salt.