I have lived and worked in around 10 countries and studied international relations for more than 10 years. What fascinates me is how easy it is to have a misconceived view of the world. Today’s media largely plays a role in such misperception of others. The best cure against polarized, ready-to-think arguments made by others is simply to travel. The list I crafted for you will for sure make you travel. Travel through time and space; travel through history, philosophy, and civilisations. You won’t see the world the same way after reading these books.
The world today feels like it's spinning off its axis. Practices many believed were buried in the past are making a forceful return: wars of annexation, the redrawing of borders through violent conflict, and a resurgence of tariffs. At the same time, public discourse is becoming increasingly polarized, narrowing into black-and-white thinking.
While this may seem like something new, history tells a different story. In many ways, today’s events mirror the turbulence of the 19th century. I am convinced that major powers like the United States, Russia, and China—alongside influential regional players such as Iran and Turkey—are engaged in a deliberate effort to roll back the liberal legacy of the 19th century. If we want to understand the world in 2025, we have to understand the 19th century.
This magisterial new history elucidates a momentous transformation process that changed the world: the struggle to create, for the first time, a modern Atlantic order in the long twentieth century (1860-2020). Placing it in a broader historical and global context, Patrick O. Cohrs reinterprets the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 as the original attempt to supersede the Eurocentric 'world order' of the age of imperialism and found a more legitimate peace system - a system that could not yet be global but had to be essentially transatlantic. Yet he also sheds new light on why, despite remarkable learning-processes, it proved…
This book explores how ideas of manhood have evolved, from ancient ideals of dominance to modern-day uncertainties. While the Enlightenment challenged traditional masculinity, the 19th century brought it roaring back through nationalism. In the 20th century, pacifist, feminist, and LGBTQ+ movements chipped away at these old codes, revealing a more fragile, unsettled sense of virility.
Now, we’re seeing a sharp pushback. Trump’s rise, Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, and the global surge in populism all draw on a nostalgic, aggressive vision of masculinity. This book helps make sense of the cultural roots behind today’s political shifts, showing that the struggle over manhood is also a geopolitical struggle over power.
How has the meaning of manhood changed over time? A History of Virility proposes a series of answers to this question by describing a trajectory that begins with ancient conceptions of male domination and privilege and examining how it persisted, with significant alterations, for centuries. While the mainstream of virility was challenged during the Enlightenment, its preeminence was restored by social forms of male bonding in the nineteenth century. Pacifist, feminist, and gay rights movements chipped away at models and codes of virility during the next hundred years, leading to the twentieth century's disclosing of a "virility on edge," or…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
To understand China today—its ambitions, its assertiveness, and its strategy under Xi Jinping—we need to understand its history and philosophy.
In this book, Henry Kissinger draws on decades of firsthand dialogues and anecdotes he had with Mao and Zhou Enlai, to explain how China views the world. As China blends historical memory with long-term strategic vision, Kissinger shows that China doesn’t just play by different rules—it sees the game differently. This book is essential for anyone seeking to understand China today.
In 1971 Henry Kissinger took the historic step of reopening relations between China and the West, and since then has been more intimately connected with the country at the highest level than any other western figure. This book distils his unique experience, examining China's history from the classical era to the present day, describing the essence of its millennia-old approach to diplomacy, strategy and negotiation, and reflecting on these attitudes for our own uncertain future.
In a world grappling with shifting power dynamics in which maritime trade is vital, naval dominance remains a defining force. This book examines how small but ambitious states like Athens, Venice, and Britain used their maritime identities to punch far above their weight. These "seapowers" thrived by embracing openness, innovation, and global reach—until they lost sight of what made them exceptional and collapsed.
Understanding the difference between a naval power and a seapower is crucial today, especially to anyone who wants to understand China-U.S. relations since the return of Donald Trump. The U.S. and China wield massive fleets, but their strategies reflect continental mindsets, not the dynamics of historical seapowers. This book is a travel through history to better understand today’s world.
One of the most eminent historians of our age investigates the extraordinary success of five small maritime states
"A superb survey of the perennial opportunities and risks in what Herman Melville called 'the watery part of the world.'"-William Anthony Hay, Wall Street Journal
Andrew Lambert, author of The Challenge: Britain Against America in the Naval War of 1812-winner of the prestigious Anderson Medal-turns his attention to Athens, Carthage, Venice, the Dutch Republic, and Britain, examining how their identities as "seapowers" informed their actions and enabled them to achieve success disproportionate to their size.
Lambert demonstrates how creating maritime identities made…
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
In 2025, with rising tensions between the U.S. and China, growing political divides in the West, and a world order under strain, many fear global chaos is imminent. Drawing from 5,000 years of global history, this book shows that a world order didn’t begin with the West—and won’t end with it.
From ancient India to Islamic caliphates and Chinese dynasties, the book reveals how global norms, cooperation, and coexistence emerged independently across civilizations and cultures. As Western influence wanes, we’re not heading for collapse but transformation, and we should not be fearing it.
The epic history of world order, revealing how the decline of the West may be a good thing for its future.
Since the dawn of the twenty-first century, the West has been in crisis. Social unrest, political polarization, and the rise of other great powers - especially China - threaten to unravel today's Western-led world order. Many fear this would lead to global chaos. But this is a Western illusion.
Surveying five thousand years of global history, political scientist Amitav Acharya reveals that world order existed long before the rise of the West. Moving from ancient Sumer, India, Greece, and…
Why do powerful nations sometimes choose war over diplomacy? This book explores a compelling idea: that some world leaders go to war not just for strategic advantage, but to reclaim a fading sense of national pride and masculine strength. This impulse is called nostalgic virility—a longing for a glorified past that shapes how leaders view power, history, and their nation’s standing in the world.
This fresh perspective not only sheds light on past conflicts, but also offers a new lens to understand today’s flashpoints—from Russia’s war in Ukraine to rising tensions in the South China Sea. With clarity and insight, this book challenges us to rethink how power, pride, and memory shape the path to war.
