Dec 7, 2022
Top 10 Books: The International Affairs Christmas reading list
Mariana Vieira
The Holidays are upon us with the promise of just enough relaxing time to enjoy a good book (or two!). Here are our top 10 books reviewed in International Affairs in 2022, hand-picked by book reviews editor Mariana Vieira. This selection brings together a variety of themes, from nuclear non-proliferation to violent conflict and the foundations of the international liberal order, and spans several regions, from Latin America and Europe, to western and south Asia. Any of the options below will offer an absorbing discussion, guaranteed to drown out the inescapable sound of Mariah Carey and Wham that are poised to take over our lives in the weeks to come. Help yourself!
1) Banning the bomb, smashing the patriarchy
Written by Ray Acheson. Published in Lanham, MD by Rowman & Littlefield.
Ray Acheson’s new book offers a compelling account of the emergence, tactics and achievements of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). Banning the bomb, smashing the patriarchy paints a hopeful picture of feminist anti-nuclear activism against the stark background of hierarchical nuclear weapons governance and a jungle of institutional constraints. In the process, Acheson pays much needed attention to external context, drawing on critical perspectives to examine the longer historical trajectory of anti-nuclear advocacy, and to the internal challenges, using their personal insights as part of ICAN’s International Steering Group. The result is an invaluable combination of insider perspective and transformative analysis.
Read the full review here.
2) The seventh member state
Written by Megan Brown. Published in Cambridge, MA and London by Harvard University Press.
From the ashes of the two world wars, European integration emerged out of an increasing appetite for peace — or so the official narrative goes. In reality, Megan Brown argues, European priorities were far more concerned with ‘Euroafrican dreams and imperial realities’. In a feat of historical revisionism, Brown challenges the EU’s conventional spatial imaginaries and subsequently historicizes its emergence in light of Algeria’s forgotten involvement in the earlier stages of European integration. The book has important implications for how the EU understands its border with the Mediterranean, and it offers a complementary set of lessons to Borderlands by Raffaella Del Sarto (review available here).
Read the full review here.
3) The Condor trials
Written by Francesca Lessa. Published in New Haven, CT by Yale University Press.
In The Condor trials, Francesca Lessa combines fieldwork, archives and interviews to deliver a big picture analysis of Operation Condor: the codename commonly used to refer to the transnational repression overseen by South America’s dictators between 1969 and 1981. Her analysis expertly maps a truly international ‘network of justice seekers’ committed to judicial accountability for the perpetrators and justice for the victims. Accessible despite its legal components, the book sheds light on the struggle for justice and human rights in South America. As our reviewer rightly praises, Lessa usefully anchors the book in its Latin American context, and away from historiographic preoccupations with the US role.
Read the full review here.
4) Decolonizing politics
Written by Robbie Shilliam. Published in Cambridge by Polity Press.
Decolonizing politics provides a both a fascinating account of the ways colonialism infuses the canon of political science and a creative framework for decolonizing the discipline. Taking a two-step approach to decolonization, Shilliam problematizes the power dynamics that underpin the study of politics, and then provides a creative framework to decolonize political knowledge. In doing this the book is a reminder of the need to overhaul the foundations of the study of international politics and stands as a testament to the possibility of work aimed at transforming power relations in academic research.
Read the full review here.
5) The invention of the international order
Written by Glenda Sluga. Published in Princeton, NJ by Princeton University Press.
Few books offer such insights into the complexities underpinning a key moment in history as can be found in Glenda Sluga’s excellent account of the congress of Vienna and its role in the formation of international order. Moving beyond existing accounts, The invention of the international order draws much needed attention to social networks in which women played an influential role. Alongside bankers, these ‘inventresses’ fundamentally shaped the peacemaking process and the emerging conceptualizations of human rights.
Read the full review here.
6) The Bin Laden papers
Written by Nelly Lahoud. Published in New Haven, CT by Yale University Press.
The Abbottabad compound hosted 17 members of the Bin Laden family, including the Al-Qaeda leader himself. It also stored half a million documents that later became American intelligence, once the property was raided. Nelly Lahoud yields fascinating insights from these primary sources about the organization, its leaders and the competing worldviews and priorities of its members. From Bin Laden’s interactions with (and ambitions for) overseas Jihadist groups, to Al-Qaeda’s tricky relationships with Iran and Pakistan, the book depicts an increasingly frustrated Bin Laden and sheds new light on the declining terrorist organization until his death.
Read the full review here.
7) Show time
Written by Lee Ann Fujii and edited by Martha Finnemore. Published in Ithica, NY by Cornell University Press.
Show time focuses on the ways performative acts of violence create political meaning that can reverberate across communities in contexts varying from Rwanda and Bosnia to the US. The centre stage of ‘public displays of violence’ in the book allows Lee Ann Fuji to cast a wide net and examine the political role of perpetrators’ actions and their impact on witnesses and society at large. This is a book distinguished by its empathy for those it represents just as much as its prescient analysis, and is another reminder of the lasting impact of the work of its late author.
Read the full review here.
8) Qatar and the Gulf crisis
Written by Kristian Coates Ulrichsen. Published in London by Hurst.
Before Qatar took centre stage for the FIFA World Cup last month, the country was already making headlines for its surprising perseverance in the face of the diplomatic and economic blockade that its Gulf neighbours unleashed in 2017. In this book, Gulf expert Kristian Coates Ulrichsen offers a thorough analysis of the Gulf crisis, tracing regional geopolitical developments from 1867 onwards to account for the blockading states’ ambition to generate regime change in Doha. Coates Ulrichsen’s account is thoughtful in its emphasis on the Arab Spring of 2011 and detailed in its assessment of Qatar’s resilience and adaptability. Accessible and authoritative, the book will benefit anyone interested in the Gulf countries, their multilateral institutions, as well as Qatar’s smart power capabilities.
Read the full review here.
9) High-risk feminism in Colombia
Written by Julia Margaret Zulver. Published in New Brunswick, NJ by Rutgers University Press.
Why do women mobilize for justice in high-risk contexts? Julia Margaret Zulver not only answers this question, but persuasively unpicks the assumptions behind it. Theoretically and empirically rich, the book follows four grassroot movements in Colombia to uncover the central role of leaders in bringing about collective mobilization around issues of gender justice. Zulver’s complex portrayal of women dismantles traditional norms and deconstructs myths about women’s inherent altruism and peacefulness. In allowing space for women to be strategic, organized and political, the book persuasively accounts for the otherwise surprising resilience of their movements when threatened with retaliation by those armed groups they seek to displace. High-risk feminism in Colombia will benefit and inspire anyone interested in the role of women in conflict.
Read the full review here.
10) The politics of Rights of Nature
Written by Craig M. Kauffman and Pamela L. Martin and published in Cambridge, MA by MIT Press.
In this ground-breaking book, Kaufmann and Martin depict the network of activists, organizations and lawyers that have helped establish the idea of rights of nature. The politics of Rights of Nature provides both a deep empirical analysis of attempts to advocate for nature through a rights-based framework and a conceptually advanced explanation of how such rights spread. As such, this book will be of great interest to activists and academics alike.
Read the full review here.
Mariana Vieira is the Book Reviews Editor of International Affairs.
Read the review section in our November 2022 issue in full here.
Find more suggestions from the IA Bookshelf series here.
If you are interested in reviewing a book for the journal, there are two ways to get in touch. Either register your interest in our book review application form here or follow us on social media where we post regular call outs for specific books and experts.
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