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Reading List

At the Security and Democracy Forum we believe in continuing to learn, grow, and challenge ourselves. One of the best ways to do this is to keep reading. These span history, biography, strategy, philosophy and fiction, but are in no particular order. Below is a list of books, articles and other resources you may find helpful in your journey. Download a shareable version of this list here: SDF Reading List 

 

Books

  1. Acemoglu, Daron, and James A. Robinson. Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. New York: Crown Business, 2012.

  2. Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: The New Press, 2010.

  3. Arendt, Hannah. Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. New York: Penguin Books, 2006.

  4. Applebaum, Anne. Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism. New York: Doubleday, 2020.

  5. Banerjee, Abhijit V., and Esther Duflo. Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty. New York: Public Affairs, 2011.

  6. Bowden, Mark. Guests of the Ayatollah: The First Battle in America’s War with Militant Islam. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006.

  7. Corbett, Steve, and Brian Fikkert. When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor... and Yourself. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2009.

  8. Fukuyama, Francis. Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014.

  9. Kaplan, Robert D. The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate. New York: Random House, 2012.

  10. Lucretius. The Way Things Are: The De Rerum Natura. Translated by Rolfe Humphries. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1969.

  11. Packer, George. The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013.

  12. Rosen, Jeffrey. The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2024.

  13. Sarotte, Mary Elise. Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of Post–Cold War Stalemate. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2021. 

  14. Sestanovich, Stephen. Maximalist: America in the World from Truman to Obama. New York: Knopf, 2014.

  15. Singer, P. W., and August Cole. Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015.

  16. Snyder, Timothy. On Freedom New York: Crown, 2024.
     

  17. Sun Tzu. The Art of War. Translated by Samuel B. Griffith. New York: Oxford University Press, 1963.

  18. Walter, Barbara F. How Civil Wars Start: And How to Stop Them. New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2022.

  19. Zeihan, Peter. The End of the World Is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization. New York: Harper Business, 2022. 

 

Articles

  1. Brands, Hal, and John Lewis Gaddis. "The New Cold War: America, China, and the Echoes of History." Foreign Affairs 100, no. 6 (November/December 2021): 10-20.

  2. Brooks, Rosa. "There Are No Silver Bullets: U.S. Foreign Policy After Trump." Foreign Affairs 100, no. 2 (March/April 2021): 28-40.

  3. Campbell, Kurt M., and Ely Ratner. "The China Reckoning: How Beijing Defied American Expectations." Foreign Affairs 97, no. 2 (March/April 2018): 60-70.

  4. Cloutier, Patrick. "To Make America Great Again, Make America Good Again." CT Insider, July 2025.

  5. Cohen, Eliot A. "The Historical Mind and Military Strategy." Orbis 49, no. 4 (Fall 2005): 575-588.

  6. Haass, Richard. "The Age of Nonpolarity." Foreign Affairs 87, no. 3 (May/June 2008): 44-56.

  7. Hathaway, Oona A., and Scott J. Shapiro. "Might Unmakes Right: The Catastrophic Collapse of Norms Against the Use of Force." Foreign Affairs, July/August 2025.

  8. McCormack, Fiona M. "What Happens When War Is Outlawed." The New Yorker, September 18, 2017.

  9. McMaster, H.R. "The Pipe Dream of Easy War." The New York Times, July 20, 2013.

  10. O'Brien, Robert C. "The Return of Peace Through Strength." Foreign Affairs, July/August 2024.

  11. Sullivan, Jake. "The Sources of American Power." Foreign Affairs 103, no. 6 (November/December 2024): 8-18.

 

Other Reading Lists

 

Podcasts

  1. The Arms Control Wonk Podcast

  2. Bombshell

  3. Brussels Sprouts

  4. Clearer Than Truth

  5. National Security Law Today

  6. Security Dilemma 

  7. Cogs of War

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