Best International Relations Books of 2013

Economics Dec 30, 2013 Capsule Review

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After the Music Stopped: The Financial Crisis, the Response, and the Work Ahead

Blinder's crisp narrative lays out the policy options that were available at each stage of the recent economic crisis, and his analysis is infused with a deep...

Politics & Society Dec 30, 2013 Capsule Review

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Days of God: The Revolution in Iran and Its Consequences

Days of God, a survey of the years during which Iran was ruled by the shah, also features spectacular detail on the revolution that brought him down, and...

Politics & Society Dec 30, 2013 Capsule Review

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Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time

By casting fear as the linchpin of politics and policymaking in the New Deal era, Katznelson tackles a big topic and makes it even bigger.

Dec 29, 2013 Capsule Review

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Anglo-America and Its Discontents

In recent years, Katzenstein, a renowned scholar of international relations, has advanced a strikingly new vision of civilizations, contending that although...

G. John Ikenberry

Economics September/October 2013 Capsule Review

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The Resurgence of the West: How a Transatlantic Union Can Prevent War and Restore the United States and Europe

Rosecrance urges the United States to pursue a grand strategy of trade and economic integration, this time focused on the creation of a massive economic union with...

G. John Ikenberry

May/June 2013 Capsule Review

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War, Guilt, and World Politics After World War II

For over half a century, Germany and Japan have struggled to put World War II behind them. Berger has produced one of the most sophisticated and sensitive treatments...

G. John Ikenberry

March/April 2013 Capsule Review

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Energy for Future Presidents: The Science Behind the Headlines

Muller, a physicist, considers the future of energy use in terms of elementary physics (what is technically possible) and elementary economics (how much it will cost).

Richard N. Cooper

May/June 2013 Capsule Review

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Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients

Goldacre, a British physician, articulately and extensively documents how large pharmaceutical firms have inched up as close as possible to committing outright fraud...

Richard N. Cooper

Economics September/October 2013 Capsule Review

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The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis

A helpful primer on modern central banking by one of its preeminent practitioners.

Richard N. Cooper

Dec 29, 2013 Capsule Review

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The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War

Lawrence D. Freedman

Dec 29, 2013 Capsule Review

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The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945

Lawrence D. Freedman

Dec 29, 2013 Capsule Review

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The Long Walk: A Story of War and the Life That Follows

Castner commanded an explosive ordnance disposal unit in Iraq. His style is gripping, and the book is surprisingly informative about the history and practice of bomb...

Lawrence D. Freedman

Politics & Society November/December 2013 Capsule Review

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This Town: Two Parties and a Funeral -- Plus, Plenty of Valet Parking! -- in America's Gilded Capital

In the most entertaining and depressing book about the U.S. political system published in many years, Leibovich lets readers peep behind the curtain and see what goes...

Walter Russell Mead

May/June 2013 Capsule Review

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My Share of the Task: A Memoir

Walter Russell Mead

Dec 29, 2013 Capsule Review

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The Oath: The Obama White House and The Supreme Court

Toobin, a strong opponent of what he sees as a conscious and deliberate Republican strategy to politicize the Supreme Court, tells the story of the Court’s lurch to...

Walter Russell Mead

Health January/February 2014 Capsule Review

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The Democratic Foundations of Policy Diffusion: How Health, Family, and Employment Laws Spread Across Countries

Linos argues that the adoption of particular health and family policies in one country can increase support for them in others.

Andrew Moravcsik

Economics September/October 2013 Capsule Review

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Story of My People

Nesi chronicles the sad story of free trade’s impact on “his people” in the town of Prato, capturing the distinctive pain of a modern European left behind, a cultural...

Andrew Moravcsik

Dec 29, 2013 Capsule Review

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Angela Merkel: A Chancellorship Forged in Crisis

Andrew Moravcsik

May/June 2013 Capsule Review

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The Soviet Cuban Missile Crisis: Castro, Mikoyan, Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Missiles of November

This marvelous volume by Mikoyan’s late son, appearing only now in English, recounts the tough negotiations that followed between his father, the Cuban leadership, and...

Richard Feinberg

Economic Development September/October 2013 Capsule Review

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Sugar in the Blood: A Family’s Story of Slavery and Empire

Stuart interweaves the journeys of the author’s ancestors with the turbulent history of the English-speaking Caribbean islands and their role in the making of the...

Richard Feinberg

Human Rights January/February 2014 Capsule Review

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The Fate of Freedom Elsewhere: Human Rights and U.S. Cold War Policy Toward Argentina

As U.S. President Jimmy Carter entered the White House in 1977, determined to restore purposeful idealism to U.S. foreign policy, a brutal military dictatorship in...

Richard Feinberg

Humanitarian Intervention January/February 2014 Capsule Review

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Russia, the West, and Military Intervention

It takes a scholar as meticulous and thorough as Allison to properly chronicle the remarkably complex debate between proponents of traditional norms of state...

Robert Legvold

May/June 2013 Capsule Review

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Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin

Of the many biographies of Vladimir Putin that have appeared in recent years, this one is the most useful, particularly to foreign-policy makers, many of whom must...

Robert Legvold

Politics & Society November/December 2013 Capsule Review

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The Tragedy of a Generation: The Rise and Fall of Jewish Nationalism in Eastern Europe

Karlip uses the lives of three seminal figures -- Yisroel Efroikin, Zelig Kalmanovitch, and Elias Tcherikower -- to tell the story of Jewish nationalism's early...

Robert Legvold

May/June 2013 Capsule Review

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Tested by Zion: The Bush Administration and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

From his experience as a senior adviser on the U.S. National Security Council, Abrams provides an intelligent and astonishingly detailed chronicle of the George W....

John Waterbury

May/June 2013 Capsule Review

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War Comes to Garmser: Thirty Years of Conflict on the Afghan Frontier

In the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, Malkasian spent two years in Garmser as a State Department political officer. His rich, shrewdly constructed...

John Waterbury

Strategy & Conflict January/February 2014 Capsule Review

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Unthinkable: Iran, the Bomb, and American Strategy

This book will be read carefully in Tehran, Washington, and Tel Aviv; Pollack lays out the strategic factors the United States must take into account when deciding how...

John Waterbury

Dec 29, 2013 Capsule Review

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China Goes Global: The Partial Power

Shambaugh’s masterful survey of China’s presence on the world scene shows that in every field -- diplomatic, economic, military, and cultural -- Beijing’s influence,...

Andrew J. Nathan

Civil Society November/December 2013 Capsule Review

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Transforming India: Challenges to the World’s Largest Democracy

Bose lucidly analyzes India’s “decentered democracy,” in which power lies increasingly with the state governments.

Andrew J. Nathan

Dec 29, 2013 Capsule Review

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Brothers at War: The Unending Conflict in Korea

Jager’s magisterial history of the Korean War incorporates all the latest research, material from newly opened archives, and lots of photographs.

Andrew J. Nathan

March/April 2013 Capsule Review

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External Mission: The ANC in Exile, 1960–1990

The remarkably prolific Ellis has written a fascinating history of the internal politics of the African National Congress (ANC) in the 30 years during which it was...

Nicolas van de Walle

May/June 2013 Capsule Review

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Poor Numbers: How We Are Misled by African Development Statistics and What to Do About It

Jerven demonstrates with devastating clarity that African governments produce imprecise economic statistics that should not be trusted.

Nicolas van de Walle

Corruption November/December 2013 Capsule Review

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Authority Stealing: Anti-corruption War and Democratic Politics in Post-military Nigeria

Although Adebanwi’s book ranges broadly across recent Nigerian history, its central purpose is to assess postcolonial Nigeria’s most serious campaign to eradicate...

Nicolas van de Walle

Foreign Affairs Anthology Series

Best International Relations Books of 2013

Every year, ten scholars review dozens of recently published academic and popular nonfiction books for Foreign Affairs. As this year came to a close, the editors asked each of the reviewers to choose the three best of 2013.

Table of Contents

Editors' Picks

G. John Ikenberry: Political and Legal

Richard N. Cooper: Economic, Social, and Environmental

Lawrence D. Freedman: Military, Scientific, and Technological

Walter Russell Mead: The United States

Andrew Moravcsik: Western Europe

Richard Feinberg: Western Hemisphere

Robert Legvold: Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Republics

John Waterbury: The Middle East

Andrew Nathan: Asia and the Pacific

Nicolas van de Walle: Africa

Must-Read Anthologies