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The Best Books of 2012 on Political and Legal Subjects

G. John Ikenberry's Picks
Article Summary and Author Biography

The Albert G. Milbank Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University selects the most important books on political and legal topics published during the last year.

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The Albert G. Milbank Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University selects the most important books on political and legal topics published during the last year. Here are his reviews, culled from recent issues of the magazine.

Click here to see all of the best books on international relations of 2012.

Advancing the Rule of Law Abroad: Next Generation Reform
Capsule Review, October 31, 2012
Advancing the Rule of Law Abroad: Next Generation Reform
G. John Ikenberry

Kleinfeld brings together a good grasp of the scholarship on law and society with the sensibilities and hard-earned experience of a field practitioner. The result is essential reading for the foreign policy community.

The Dictator’s Learning Curve
Capsule Review, December 27, 2012
The Dictator’s Learning Curve
G. John Ikenberry

In this engaging book, Dobson reports from such outposts of despotism as China, Malaysia, Russia, and Venezuela, detailing authoritarian regimes that are remarkably sophisticated in resisting the formidable forces that have put illiberal states on the defensive.

The Second Nuclear Age: Strategy, Danger, and the New Power Politics
Capsule Review, December 27, 2012
The Second Nuclear Age: Strategy, Danger, and the New Power Politics
G. John Ikenberry

Bracken argues that since the end of the Cold War, a second nuclear age has begun, defined by an unstable, dangerous “multipolar nuclear order” in which the prevention of nuclear war no longer hinges exclusively on clearheaded security calculations on the part of Moscow and Washington.