Why am I passionate about this?

Kees van der Pijl was lecturer at the University of Amsterdam and professor of International Relations at the University of Sussex in the UK. He retired in 2012. At Sussex he was head of department and director of the Centre for Global Political Economy. Besides democracy and anti-war activism he continues to write on transnational classes and policy networks, including the role of “deep politics”.


I wrote

States of Emergency: Keeping the Global Population in Check

By Kees Van der Pijl,

Book cover of States of Emergency: Keeping the Global Population in Check

What is my book about?

Ever since large parts of the world were placed in lockdown in March 2020 in the name of public health,…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The American Deep State: Wall Street, Big Oil, and the Attack on U.S. Democracy

Kees Van der Pijl Why did I love this book?

The author has devoted an entire oeuvre to the notion of Deep Politics.

The concept enlarges the visible, legitimate political structures in Western society by shadow structures that are less or not visible, but often have the decisive say in matters of life and death.

This book focuses on these shadow structures in the United States and documents in great detail how they emerged and which role they continue to play in blocking democratic development whilst enriching capitalist interests.

By Peter Dale Scott,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The American Deep State as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This provocative book makes a compelling case for a hidden "deep state" that influences and often opposes official U.S. policies. Prominent political analyst Peter Dale Scott begins by tracing America's increasing militarization, restrictions on constitutional rights, and income disparity since the Vietnam War. He argues that a significant role in this historic reversal was the intervention of a series of structural deep events, ranging from the assassination of President Kennedy to 9/11. He does not attempt to resolve the controversies surrounding these events, but he shows their significant points in common, ranging from overlapping personnel and modes of operation to…


Book cover of NATO's Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe

Kees Van der Pijl Why did I love this book?

At the end of the Cold War in 1991, an Italian underground political action structure was revealed under the name Gladio (sword) to which the Strategy of Tension was traced.

That strategy successfully kept the powerful Communist Party of Italy out of the government by bomb attacks and assassinations.

This book offers the details of identical underground structures for all NATO member states, highlighting the dramatic interventions they undertook to keep the Cold War ideology alive. 

By Daniele Ganser,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked NATO's Secret Armies as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This fascinating new study shows how the CIA and the British secret service, in collaboration with the military alliance NATO and European military secret services, set up a network of clandestine anti-communist armies in Western Europe after World War II.

These secret soldiers were trained on remote islands in the Mediterranean and in unorthodox warfare centres in England and in the United States by the Green Berets and SAS Special Forces. The network was armed with explosives, machine guns and high-tech communication equipment hidden in underground bunkers and secret arms caches in forests and mountain meadows. In some countries the…


Book cover of One Nation Under Blackmail Vol. 1

Kees Van der Pijl Why did I love this book?

Jeffrey Epstein was a financial wizard who also served as an agent for other wealthy patrons.

With his partner Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of the UK media mogul and Mossad agent Robert Maxwell, Epstein followed in the footsteps of previous organizers of extensive blackmail operations such as Roy Cohn, lawyer for communist-hunting US Senator Joe McCarthy and eventually, political mentor of Donald Trump.

This book provides a comprehensive, well-documented Who's Who of all others involved in the grey zone between great wealth, crime, and intelligence.

By Whitney Webb,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked One Nation Under Blackmail Vol. 1 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

One Nation Under Blackmail is a damning indictment of the consequences resulting from the nearly century old relationship between both US and Israeli intelligence and the organized criminal network known as the National Crime Syndicate. This book specifically explores how that nexus between intelligence and organized crime directly developed the sexual blackmail tactics and networks that would later enable the sexual blackmail operation and other crimes of deceased pedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Other books on Jeffrey Epstein focus on the depraved nature of his crimes, his wealth, and his most famous/politically-connected friends and acquaintances. This book, in contrast,…


Book cover of Solving 9-11: The Deception That Changed the World

Kees Van der Pijl Why did I love this book?

Of all studies trying to uncover the true background and perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, this book goes furthest by claiming they were a plot jointly hatched by neo-conservative Zionists in the US government and Likud hardliners in Israel.

It makes a convincing case that the attacks used 19 Arab patsies and various decoy operations to convince the world that the culprits were fanatical Muslims and a War on Terror (in practice, against Israel's enemies) was justified.

By Christopher Lee Bollyn,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Solving 9-11 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

An independent analysis of the events of September 11, 2001. Includes historical and geo-political background and examines the motivation of the people who played key roles in the destruction of the evidence and the obstruction of justice for the families of the victims.


Book cover of Plague of Corruption: Restoring Faith in the Promise of Science

Kees Van der Pijl Why did I love this book?

As the attack on democracy in the West has come to include the grip of Big Pharma on public health programmes and on bodies like the World Health Organization, the covert dimensions of how this influence is being exercised have also come under scrutiny.

With a foreword by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. highlighting the fate of successive critics of medical misconduct, one of the most vocal of these critics and her co-author offer a shocking account of the repression they faced.

Passionate, personal, and highly revealing about the risks one takes by speaking out on the basis of facts.

By Judy Mikovits, Kent Heckenlively,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Plague of Corruption as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

#1 on Amazon Charts, New York Times Bestseller, USA Today Bestseller-Over 100,000 Copies in Print!

"Kent Heckenlively and Judy Mikovits are the new dynamic duo fighting corruption in science." -Ben Garrison, America's #1 political satirist

Dr. Judy Mikovits is a modern-day Rosalind Franklin, a brilliant researcher shaking up the old boys' club of science with her groundbreaking discoveries. And like many women who have trespassed into the world of men, she uncovered decades-old secrets that many would prefer to stay buried.

From her doctoral thesis, which changed the treatment of HIV-AIDS, saving the lives of millions, including basketball great Magic…


Explore my book 😀

States of Emergency: Keeping the Global Population in Check

By Kees Van der Pijl,

Book cover of States of Emergency: Keeping the Global Population in Check

What is my book about?

Ever since large parts of the world were placed in lockdown in March 2020 in the name of public health, there has been a growing public suspicion that some sort of global seizure of power and social transformation is being implemented under the guise of the extraordinary suspension of democracy.

This book contends that since the financial collapse of 2008, populations in many countries have become restive in the face of extreme inequality and diminishing life chances. In a digital economy, in many parts of the world their resistance has begun. The Western ruling classes have lost the capacity to engage their respective peoples in an equitable social contract and have resorted to stoking fear instead as a formula for curtailing protest and maintaining power. 

Book cover of The American Deep State: Wall Street, Big Oil, and the Attack on U.S. Democracy
Book cover of NATO's Secret Armies: Operation Gladio and Terrorism in Western Europe
Book cover of One Nation Under Blackmail Vol. 1

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Me and The Times: My wild ride from elevator operator to New York Times editor, columnist, and change agent (1967-97)

By Robert W. Stock,

Book cover of Me and The Times: My wild ride from elevator operator to New York Times editor, columnist, and change agent (1967-97)

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Me and The Times offers a fresh perspective on those pre-internet days when the Sunday sections of The New York Times shaped the country’s political and cultural conversation. Starting in 1967, Robert Stock edited seven of those sections over 30 years, innovating and troublemaking all the way.

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Me and The Times: My wild ride from elevator operator to New York Times editor, columnist, and change agent (1967-97)

By Robert W. Stock,

What is this book about?

An intimate, unvarnished look at the making of the Sunday sections of The New York Times in their pre-internet heyday, back when they shaped the country’s political and cultural conversation.

Over 30 years, Robert Stock edited seven of those sections, innovating, and troublemaking all the way – getting the paper sued for $1 million, locking horns with legendary editors Abe Rosenthal and Max Frankel, and publishing articles that sent the publisher Punch Sulzberger up the wall.

On one level, his memoir tracks Stock’s amazing career from his elevator job at Bonwit Teller to his accidental entry into journalism to his…


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