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The best foreign-policy books of the year

JUSTIN SULLIVAN/Getty Images It’s that time of the year again, when the steady stream of “year’s best” lists start to trickle into your favorite papers and magazines. In case you missed it over the weekend, though, the New York Times released one of my favorites, their “100 Notable Books of 2007.” FP‘s book review section, ...

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STANFORD, CA - DECEMBER 17: Books are seen on the shelf at the Cecil H. Green Library on the Stanford University Campus December 17, 2004 in Stanford, California. Google, the internet search engine, has announced a long-term project to put 15 million books from seven of the world's most prestigious libraries online and make them searchable. Included will be the libraries of Harvard, Stanford, the University of Michigan, the New York Public Library and the University of Oxford, including the Bodleian. Books and periodicals will be scanned and project is expected to take six years and cost more than $100 million. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

JUSTIN SULLIVAN/Getty Images

JUSTIN SULLIVAN/Getty Images

It’s that time of the year again, when the steady stream of “year’s best” lists start to trickle into your favorite papers and magazines. In case you missed it over the weekend, though, the New York Times released one of my favorites, their “100 Notable Books of 2007.”

FP‘s book review section, In Other Words, looks only at works that have not yet been published in the United States, allowing us to discuss important political and literary conversations outside America’s borders. But it’s also important to look back at the new U.S. books on foreign policy that have been stirred debate, inspired new ideas, influenced policy, and made people think.

The Times list highlights a few of these from 2007: FP contributor Tim Weiner’s Legacy of Ashes, Ishmael Beah’s Long Way Gone, Helen Epstein’s The Invisible Cure, and FP contributor Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s Imperial Life in the Emerald City, to name just a few.        

But, with so much material this year, it’s little wonder the Times couldn’t fit all the best books on international affairs in its list. In my humble opinion, there are quite a few excellent foreign-policy books that also shined in 2007:  

What were your favorite foreign-policy books this year? How about the most overrated? Best from outside the States? Send us some suggestions, and we’ll put a list together of Passport readers’ books of the year. It should make for easy holiday shopping for your favorite student, wonk, or politician.

Kate Palmer is deputy managing editor at Foreign Policy.
Tags: Culture, Media

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