Books

In his new book The Lies That Bind Us, Schar School Associate Professor Ahsan I. Butt examines how history textbooks shape national identity and fuel political conflict.

PBS News Hour co-anchor Geoff Bennett recently visited with communication students, offering career advice before his appearance at George Mason’s Fall for the Book Festival.

Daniel Gerstein continues his remarkable career with his first novel, War Without Humanity. See how he considers his Schar School PhD in biodefense a major turning point in his life.

Silvia Danielak, an assistant professor at George Mason University’s Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, is the author of Peace Infrastructures: How UN Peace Operations Build Roads, Bridges, and Solar Farms in the Pursuit of Sustainability (MIT Press, April 2026), the first comprehensive account of infrastructure building in United Nations peace operations. Danielak’s work focuses on sociospatial and infrastructure planning in conflict settings and as part of peace efforts, as well as its coalition with climate and environmental efforts.

Two prominent academic associations honored Schar School Professor Emeritus Daniel Druckman with awards for his book When Peacekeeping Missions Collide: Balancing Multiple Roles in Peace Operations.

Mahmut Cengiz, PhD Public Policy ’10, of George Mason's Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center, is a seasoned expert in terrorism, organized crime, and illicit economies. His work focuses on the dynamics of terrorism, smuggling, and criminal networks and contributes significantly to understanding and combating these global challenges. His latest book, Typologies of Terrorist Organizations: Conceptual Lenses and Counterterrorism Measures (Carolina Academic Press, September 2025), was cowritten with Mitchel Roth and Huseyin Cinoglu.

Health Administration and Policy faculty co-author a new chapter in The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Disability, offering a comprehensive picture of cannabis use among people with disabilities and recommendations for future research.

Schar School faculty continue to shape public policy, global affairs, and social innovation through a wide range of new and forthcoming publications. Recent books explore topics including U.S. and global urban governance, European integration, Indo-Pacific security, East Asian international relations, Chinese foreign policy, religion and U.S. politics, scientific public engagement, disability and entrepreneurship, and comparative party politics. Together, these works reflect the Schar School’s interdisciplinary strengths and its faculty’s ongoing contributions to scholarly research, teaching, and public discourse.

In a time when science and scientists are being diminished—if not vilified—a Schar School professor is calling for those in scientific fields to become ‘science ambassadors.’ In fact, James L. Olds wrote a book on how to do just that.

Three new publications showcase the Schar School’s breadth of expertise.