Best International Relations Books of 2014

Dec 26, 2014 Capsule Review

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Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China

In his riveting profiles, Osnos discovers the emergence in Chinese society of something even more fundamental than a desire for political representation: a search for...

John Osburg

Dec 26, 2014 Capsule Review

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Capital in the Twenty-First Century

Every now and then, the field of economics produces an important book; this is one of them.

Tyler Cowen

Economics Dec 26, 2014 Capsule Review

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The Wrong Enemy: America in Afghanistan, 2001–2014

Gall's deep knowledge of the region lends authority to the basic argument her book makes about the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.

Peter Tomsen

January/February 2015 Capsule Review

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Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy

In this second volume of his masterful study of political development, Fukuyama explores how different states have found various ways to combine the three key...

G. John Ikenberry

January/February 2015 Capsule Review

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Dictators at War and Peace

Commentators on international affairs often assume that authoritarian states tend to pursue unpredictable and aggressive foreign policies. Weeks demonstrates that this...

G. John Ikenberry

November/December 2014 Capsule Review

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The Deluge: The Great War, America, and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916–1931

In this landmark study, Tooze offers an elegant account of the reordering of great-power relations that took place after World War I, at the dawn of “the American...

G. John Ikenberry

Politics & Society May/June 2014 Capsule Review

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The Son Also Rises: Surnames and the History of Social Mobility

This intriguing book measures social mobility in a novel way, by tracing unusual surnames over several generations in nine different countries.

Richard N. Cooper

Environment March/April 2014 Capsule Review

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How Much Have Global Problems Cost the World? A Scorecard From 1900 to 2050

In this interesting collection, expert analysts assess the costs of ten global problems over the past century, measured in economic terms, and make projections about...

Richard N. Cooper

Business September/October 2014 Capsule Review

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The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business

The rapid growth of cross-border business, education, and travel has brought people of different cultural backgrounds closer together than ever before -- and has...

Richard N. Cooper

Arms Control & Disarmament January/February 2014 Capsule Review

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Churchill’s Bomb: How the United States Overtook Britain in the First Nuclear Arms Race

In this terrific book, Farmelo tells the story of the United Kingdom’s nuclear program, which began with pioneering work in Cambridge before World War II and...

Lawrence D. Freedman

January/February 2015 Capsule Review

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The Smell of Battle, the Taste of Siege: A Sensory History of the Civil War

Smith explores how the intense sights, sounds, and smells of battle affect the conduct of war. He gets into these gritty details by narrating some of the most...

Lawrence D. Freedman

November/December 2014 Capsule Review

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Agent Storm: My Life Inside al-Qaeda and the CIA

This is the autobiography of a delinquent young Danish man, Storm, who gave up on a boxing career and turned to Islam to give his life some meaning. His tale...

Lawrence D. Freedman

Domestic Politics March/April 2014 Capsule Review

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Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House

Baker has produced the first comprehensive narrative history of what will surely remain one of the most controversial presidential administrations in U.S. history.

Walter Russell Mead

Religion September/October 2014 Capsule Review

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An Anxious Age: The Post-Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of America

The collapse of mainline Protestant churches over the past five decades is one of the most important changes the United States has undergone in the contemporary era.

Walter Russell Mead

Law & Institutions September/October 2014 Capsule Review

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The Scorpion’s Sting: Anti-Slavery and the Coming of the Civil War

In The Scorpion’s Sting, Oakes surveys the legal doctrines that enabled President Abraham Lincoln to envision and then enact the Emancipation Proclamation.

Walter Russell Mead

January/February 2015 Capsule Review

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Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer

This book shows that the Holocaust organizer Adolf Eichmann was not a banal bureaucrat but a manipulative and unrepentant Nazi who cunningly assumed the guise of a...

Andrew Moravcsik

U.S. Foreign Policy September/October 2014 Capsule Review

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Lessons From Europe? What Americans Can Learn From European Public Policies

This book sets out to explore what the United States could learn about public policy from European countries and examines rules relating to issues of work-family...

Andrew Moravcsik

Institutions September/October 2014 Capsule Review

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The Tragedy of the European Union: Disintegration or Revival?

Soros explains with clarity how the single currency created a financial system dominated by incorrect assessments of risk. One result has been the eurozone’s...

Andrew Moravcsik

Dec 26, 2014 Capsule Review

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Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana

LeoGrande and Kornbluh’s masterful diplomatic history will stand as the most authoritative account of U.S.-Cuban diplomatic relations during Fidel Castro’s rule.

Richard Feinberg

Politics & Society May/June 2014 Capsule Review

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The Man Who Loved Dogs: A Novel

In this ambitious, at times gripping work of historical fiction, Padura re-creates the 1940 assassination of Leon Trotsky in Mexico.

Richard Feinberg

Trade September/October 2014 Capsule Review

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Smuggler Nation: How Illicit Trade Made America

Andreas argues that Washington should recognize that contraband capitalism is driven by demand and that solutions to the problem of illicit trade must address that...

Richard Feinberg

January/February 2015 Capsule Review

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Stalin. Vol. 1, Paradoxes of Power, 1878–1928

In Kotkin's masterful biography—the first entry in a planned trilogy—Stalin emerges as a more vivid and complete figure than he does in countless other accounts.

Robert Legvold

Science & Technology March/April 2014 Capsule Review

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Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age From the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane

In this graceful, luxuriant history, Starr recovers the stunning contributions of Central Asian scientists, architects, artists, engineers, and historians during the...

Robert Legvold

Strategy & Conflict March/April 2014 Capsule Review

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The Limits of Partnership: U.S.-Russian Relations in the Twenty-first Century

Until now, there have been no broad-based studies of the vexed contemporary U.S.-Russian relationship in English -- or, for that matter, in Russian. This volume fills...

Robert Legvold

Middle East September/October 2014 Capsule Review

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Temptations of Power: Islamists and Illiberal Democracy in a New Middle East

Many observers have explored the question of whether Islamist moderation is tactical or sincere. Hamid’s answer is clear: it is tactical.

John Waterbury

Dec 26, 2014 Capsule Review

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Sectarian Politics in the Gulf: From the Iraq War to the Arab Uprisings

Wehrey dispassionately chronicles sectarianism in the three Gulf countries where Shiite-Sunni tensions are arguably most significant.

John Waterbury

Gender September/October 2014 Capsule Review

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Do Muslim Women Need Saving?

Women in the Middle East suffer more from the inequities of globalization than from patriarchy. Indeed, argues Abu-Lughod, well-intentioned Western feminism has served...

John Waterbury

Human Rights March/April 2014 Capsule Review

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Taming Tibet: Landscape Transformation and the Gift of Chinese Development

China’s attempt to consolidate its control over Tibet through modernization has gone tragically awry.

Andrew J. Nathan

Dec 26, 2014 Capsule Review

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The South China Sea: The Struggle for Power in Asia

Hayton, a journalist based in the United Kingdom, argues that even with China’s military buildup, China’s navy is technologically 20 years behind its U.S. counterpart.

Andrew J. Nathan

Business May/June 2014 Capsule Review

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Anxious Wealth: Money and Morality Among China’s New Rich

Osburg, an American anthropologist, spent time with and observed successful Chinese businessmen in Sichuan’s capital city, Chengdu. He found that corruption in China...

Andrew J. Nathan

January/February 2015 Capsule Review

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State-Building and Multilingual Education in Africa

Four out of five African countries officially encourage education in multiple local languages, a result of an odd alliance that formed in the 1990s among elites in...

Nicolas van de Walle

Africa November/December 2014 Capsule Review

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China’s Second Continent: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa

Over one million Chinese citizens have moved to Africa in the last two decades, where they have established a wide array of businesses. In this account, French reveals...

Nicolas van de Walle

Africa November/December 2014 Capsule Review

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Property and Political Order in Africa: Land Rights and the Structure of Politics

In her ambitious new book, Boone argues that struggles over land are now the defining characteristic of African politics and have an impact on all other political...

Nicolas van de Walle

Foreign Affairs Anthology Series

Best International Relations Books of 2014

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 2014.

Table of Contents

Editor's 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