Contemporary History

In this book, CFR Senior Fellow Walter Russell Mead argues that the United States has had a more successful foreign policy than any other great power in history, and attributes this unprecedented success (as well as recurring problems) to a vigorous interplay among four powerful political traditi

In this book, CFR Senior Fellow Walter Russell Mead—one of the most original writers on U.S. foreign policy—provides a fascinating and timely account of the Bush administration’s foreign policy and its current grand strategy for the world. Teaching notes by the author.

In this book, CFR Fellow Stephen E. Flynn argues that three years after September 11, the United States is still dangerously unprepared to prevent or respond to another attack on its soil.

In this book, CFR Senior Vice President James M. Lindsay and Ivo H.

In this book, CFR President Richard N. Haass offers a concise and engaging analysis of international relations and American Foreign policy in the post-Cold War era.

In this book, CFR Adjunct Senior Fellow Vali Nasr, one of the leading scholars on the Middle East, provides us with the rare opportunity to understand the political and theological antagonisms within Islam itself as nations around the world struggle with the threat of militant Islam.

In this book, CFR Senior Fellow Max Boot offers a sweeping, epic history that ranges from the defeat of the Spanish Armada to the war on terrorism. War Made New is a provocative new vision of the rise of the modern world through the lens of warfare. Teaching notes by the author.

In this book, CFR Senior Fellow Amity Shlaes asserts that the real question about the Depression is not whether Roosevelt ended it with World War II, but why the Depression lasted so long.

In this book, CFR Senior Fellow Walter Russell Mead recounts how the British and their American heirs built an unrivaled global system of politics, power, investment, and trade over the past three hundred years. Teaching notes by the author.

In this book, CFR Senior Fellow James M. Goldgeier and Derek H. Chollet explore how the decisions and debates of the years between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Twin Towers shaped the world we live in today. Teaching notes by Dr. Goldgeier.

In this book, CFR Adjunct Senior Fellow Noah Feldman provides a sweeping history of the traditional Islamic constitution—its noble beginnings, its downfall, and the renewed promise it could hold for Muslims and Westerners alike. Teaching notes by the author.

In this book, CFR Senior Fellow Shannon K.

In this book, CFR Senior Fellow John Campbell examines Nigeria’s postcolonial past and offers policy options for the United States to help promote political, social, and economic development. Teaching notes by the author.

In this book, CFR Senior Fellow Charles A. Kupchan argues that the world is on the cusp of a redistribution of power in which no single state or region will dominate—or govern—the international scene. Teaching notes by the author.

In this book, CFR Senior Fellow Benn Steil challenges the notion that Bretton Woods was the product of an amiable Anglo-American collaboration, and explains that it was in reality part of a much more ambitious geopolitical agenda aimed at eliminating Great Britain as an economic and political riv

In this book, CFR Senior Fellow Scott A. Snyder and coauthor Brad Glosserman investigate the roots of fractured relations between Japan and South Korea and their ongoing threat to the region and the world. Teaching notes by the author.

A World in Disarray traces the origins of contemporary "order," including the state of the world following the Cold War when, for the first time in the modern era, major power rivalry was not the principal cause of disorder.

How a fiercely independent India takes its place as a leading power needs to be on the shortlist of questions that will shape this century.

In the wake of World War II, with Britain’s empire collapsing and Stalin’s on the rise, U.S. officials under new secretary of state George C.

Against the backdrop of China’s mounting influence and North Korea’s growing nuclear capability and expanding missile arsenal, South Korea faces a set of strategic choices that will shape its economic prospects and national security. In South Korea at the Crossroads, Scott A.

In his book A Great Place to Have a War, Joshua Kurlantzick tells the story of the CIA’s covert war in Laos during the Vietnam War. He examines how the country became, surprisingly, a U.S.

In chronicling CIA operative Edward Lansdale's adventurous life and approach to counterinsurgency, The Road Not Taken definitively reframes our understanding of the Vietnam War.

Rapid economic growth and improved governance across Africa in the twenty-first century are part of the “Africa rising” narrative and have renewed interest in the continent. In Nigeria: What Everyone Needs to Know, John Campbell and Matthew T.

In False Dawn, Steven A. Cook examines why Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and Turkey did not transition to democracy, explaining how and why Middle East uprisings didn’t succeed.