This book, full of sparkling insight and subtle analysis, explains why liberal democracy failed to become a universal ideology despite its victory over communism. The authors show how Western triumphalism of the 1990s failed to take into account the distinctive history and culture of states that were seeking to imitate and embed democracy. Although the…
DetailsThe global financial crisis of 2007-2009 undermined global capitalism, exposed the failures of banks to manage their risks, almost broke the Eurozone and played a role in the Ukrainian conflict, Brexit and the election of Donald Trump. In a bold work of extraordinary range and ambition, Adam Tooze has written the standard work on the…
DetailsAnne Applebaum’s Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine is the gripping story of the famine the Soviet leadership induced in Ukraine. This beautifully written history speaks to one of the most important global issues. Famines, then and now, are never the result of natural causes only; they are also the result of deliberate choices that…
DetailsA Rage for Order tracks the tormented legacy of what was once called the Arab Spring. Combining dramatic storytelling with an original analysis of the Arab world today, Worth captures the psychic and actual civil wars raging throughout the Middle East and explains how the dream of an Arab renaissance gave way to a new…
DetailsShane’s masterpiece is a rarity among foreign affairs books, flowing dramatically like a novel, carrying the academic weight of a thesis, and laying out enough policy dilemmas to fill a month of Sunday talk shows. The story of Anwar al-Awlaki is, in some ways, the story of Americans and Arabs in the age of terror, brought into sharp relief by the Obama administration and its unpredicted—and unpredictable—drone policy, which has redefined the meaning of war and reset its price.
DetailsSerhii Plokhy tells a compelling, revelatory story about the final months of the Soviet Union and the birth of a new regional order centred on Russia. Using newly available sources, Plokhy illuminates the role of the American White House in the defence of the Russian one, and the critical part played by Ukraine in defining the outcome. The Last Empire tells us a great deal about the dynamics at play in Russia and Ukraine today. A wonderful read,” said Jury Chair William Thorsell.
Details“Gary Bass draws a brilliant portrait of the tragic birth of Bangladesh. He produces shocking revelations about the role of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger in backing Pakistan’s genocidal suppression of democracy in Bangladesh, even as American diplomats on the ground described the horrors around them. This is an epic tale told with verve and…
Details“In Plutocrats, Chrystia Freeland describes the evolution of a new global elite of unprecedented economic, social and political power. This mobile, denaturalized community affects the lives of billions as its wealth and values distance it from even the wealthiest of societies. Freeland explores consequent issues of equity and accountability with fluency and intimacy, capturing the…
Details“The rise of China as a mighty global economic power, which now seems so inexorable, was never foreordained,” said George Russell, the jury chair. “That it happened, and how it happened, depended enormously on the wiles, stratagems and vision of the short, pugnacious man who is the subject of this deeply informed book by one…
Details“Polar Imperative, Shelagh Grant’s riveting history of adventure, sovereignty, and environment around the Arctic Ocean, is a comprehensive account of the interplay of politics, economics, institutions and culture that few ever experienced first-hand. Her well-told chronicle deftly documents the back story on diplomatic and military events well before the 24-hour news cycle. As climate change…
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