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I nominate two. Both became increasingly pertinent as the year progressed.

First, Disorder by Helen Thompson, who presents an argument that structural transformations in the global energy markets three decades ago explain the geopolitical turmoil that we find ourselves in today.

Second, The Economic Weapon by Nicholas Mulder. This piece complemented my youtufully optimistic liberal-internationalist-institutionalist perspective of IR by tracing the history of sanctions carefully from the end of the First World War until today. While the book admits the failure of sanctions as being a strong enough force for coercion, it nevertheless highlights some core debates within sanctionalism (is it morally correct to sanction food supplies?) and some of the failures of interwar sanctionalism. Anyone wishing to make a contribution to the debate surrounding the efficacy of sanctions in Russia should read this book first.

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How about Brad Delong's Slouching Towards Utopia? Does it qualify or is it too much on the economics/history side?

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I nominate two. Both became increasingly pertinent as the year progressed.

First, Disorder by Helen Thompson, who presents an argument that structural transformations in the global energy markets three decades ago explain the geopolitical turmoil that we find ourselves in today.

Second, The Economic Weapon by Nicholas Mulder. This piece complemented my youtufully optimistic liberal-internationalist-institutionalist perspective of IR by tracing the history of sanctions carefully from the end of the First World War until today. While the book admits the failure of sanctions as being a strong enough force for coercion, it nevertheless highlights some core debates within sanctionalism (is it morally correct to sanction food supplies?) and some of the failures of interwar sanctionalism. Anyone wishing to make a contribution to the debate surrounding the efficacy of sanctions in Russia should read this book first.

Expand full comment