Books in brief: what to read this March From Keir Starmer’s political ascent to wind turbines on the Shetland Islands, here are this month’s short reviews from the magazine

📚 Thrilled to see #WatchingTheJackals featured in @prospectmagazine.co.uk! 📚

Immensely grateful that #WTJ was included in the "Books in Brief: What to Read This March" section! A huge thanks to Pippa Crawford for highlighting some of the book's key findings.

See full review ➡️ shorturl.at/dyetP

Lighting Up a Dark Corner of Cold War Terrorism "Watching the Jackals" explores how Prague harbored and helped the world’s most infamous, dangerous terrorists

🙌 to veteran journalist Viveca Novak for her insightful review of #WTJ for @spytalker.bsky.social

"Richterova has given us a groundbreaking view of Prague’s knotty relationships with terrorists...and of one Warsaw Pact nation’s concerns during the last decades of the Cold War."
shorturl.at/F7gqc

#WTJ teaser: 🎄 Christmas 1986, #HotelIntercontinental, Prague, 9:30am. An #StB officer enters the lobby with a delicate, dangerous task—to expel a disciple of
#WadiHaddad, the mastermind of the #OPEC Siege 1975 & #Entebbe 1976 hijacking.

🕵️‍♂️ How did he react? What ruse did Prg use? To what effect? 👇

Grateful to @coldwarpod.bsky.social for a fantastic discussion about #WTJ #WatchingTheJackals, out with #Georgetown University Press on 📅 2 January '25.

@kingscollegelondon.bsky.social @kcsi.uk

An invitation to a luncheon at Prague Castle in honour of Yasser Arafat's official visit to Czechoslovakia, hosted by President Gustáv Husák, April 1983.

📕 #WTJ teaser: In 1970s-80s, #PLO & #Fatah forged a partnership w/ Prague—but it was no happy alliance.

#WTJ details:

🤔 Why did Prague mistrust #Arafat?

🕵️‍♂️ Did #StB liaise w/ #Fatah on kidnappings & assassinations?

🏛️ How did #Arafat's deputy, #AbuIyad, plan to infiltrate #USembassy in Beirut?

#WTJ teaser: Ch1 explores Prague's revolutionary politics in #1960s, including training African guerillas in #sabotage #guerillawarfare; serving as a lifeline to #Castro's program designed to train LA revolutionaries & 'unwittingly' hosting #CheGuevara - seen below during an earlier official visit.

📕#WatchingTheJackals (#WTJ) teaser: In the 1970s & 80s, Prague became a hub for 'Cold War jackals'—hijackers, bombers & hostage-takers seeking to spotlight their causes. #WTJ reveals how Czechoslovakia navigated these threats with 5 strategies:
• Liaise
• Watch
• Infiltrate
• Block
• & Oust.