Statecraft and foreign policy shape international affairs, but so do ideas—even in our so-called postliterate age. That’s why we’re always eager to scour catalogs of forthcoming books to identify the titles that are likely to influence how practitioners, scholars, and analysts approach their work in the coming year.
Here are 30 big upcoming releases in our field in 2026, from treatises on the new world economic order to firsthand accounts of some of the greatest conflicts of our time.
January
Cold War on Five Continents: A Global History of Empire and Espionage
Alfred W. McCoy (Haymarket Books, 608 pp. $34.95, Jan. 6)
The history of the Cold War is often told with a focus on the United States and Europe, but in this monumental recasting of the era, historian Alfred W. McCoy spotlights the “surrogate wars” that devastated countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America after World War II, reassessing the period as talk of a new cold war gains steam.
The Triangle of Power: Rebalancing the New World Order
Alexander Stubb (Columbia Global Reports, 216 pp., $18, Jan. 13, paperback)
What comes after the fall of the postwar liberal order? In his latest book, Finnish President Alexander Stubb—who sat down for an interview with FP’s Ravi Agrawal in February—blends theory and practice to examine the forces driving the creation of a new international order today.
The Revolutionists: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s
Jason Burke (Knopf, 768 pp., $40, Jan. 13)
In this nearly 800-page book, Jason Burke, the Guardian’s international security correspondent, presents a deeply researched account of the origins of modern terrorism. Burke turns to archives, secret documents, and interviews to bring to life the wave of extremism that gripped the world in the 1970s and laid the groundwork for what followed.
The Oak and the Larch: A Forest History of Russia and Its Empires
Sophie Pinkham (W.W. Norton & Co., 304 pp., $35, Jan. 20)
Recent years have brought a number of new histories of Russia. But Sophie Pinkham’s is the first English-language history of Russia’s forests, which comprise more than one-fifth of the world’s woodlands. A professor of comparative literature, Pinkham explores how these forests have shaped the Russian cultural and political imagination, from antiquity to the Vladimir Putin era.
The Elements of Power: A Story of War, Technology, and the Dirtiest Supply Chain on Earth
Nicolas Niarchos (Penguin Press, 480 pp., $32, Jan. 20)
As the global energy transition gets underway, more people are starting to scrutinize the extraction needed to power so-called green technologies. In his first book, journalist Nicolas Niarchos reports on the environmental and human cost of battery metal mining, with a focus on the destruction it has wrought in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
On Natural Capital: The Value of the World Around Us
Partha Dasgupta (Mariner Books, 288 pp., $29.99, Jan. 20)
Once dubbed the “most important person you’ve never heard of” by the New York Times, economist Partha Dasgupta puts forth a new treatise that melds ecology and economics centered on the question: What if the world put a value on nature itself?
February
The Doom Loop: Why the World Economic Order Is Spiraling Into Disorder
Eswar S. Prasad (Basic Venture, 368 pp., $32, Feb. 3)
Globalization once promised widespread prosperity but instead wrought inequality, severe debt crises, and worsening trade wars. In The Doom Loop, Eswar S. Prasad—who has previously written for Foreign Policy and joined FP Live—analyzes what went wrong and challenges leaders to rethink the international financial system.
The Wall Dancers: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet
Yi-Ling Liu (Knopf, 336 pp., $30, Feb. 3)
China may be known for its Great Firewall, but journalist Yi-Ling Liu chronicles how the Chinese internet has also provided fertile ground for countercultures, activists, and writers—and in doing so offers a portrait of the country’s political and cultural trajectory in the last three decades.
Politics Without Politicians: The Case for Citizen Rule
Hélène Landemore (Thesis, 320 pp., $29, Feb. 10)
Hélène Landemore, a political theorist who has written about democratic renewal in Foreign Policy, returns with a work centered on a provocative question: What if everyday people are better at governing than politicians? Landemore’s manifesto provides a road map for a political system grounded in citizen rule.
Separation of Powers: How to Preserve Liberty in Troubled Times
Cass R. Sunstein (The MIT Press, 184 pp., $24.95, Feb. 17)
As the separation of powers is under attack in governments around the world, legal scholar and former Obama administration regulation czar Cass R. Sunstein makes a forceful case for the importance of upholding this principle and the dangers of an unchecked executive.
Defiance: A Memoir of Awakening, Rebellion, and Survival in Syria
Loubna Mrie (Viking, 432 pp., $32, Feb. 24)
Loubna Mrie was raised to be loyal to Syria’s Assad regime. That changed with the 2011 Arab Spring, which led her to join the Syrian resistance, become a photojournalist, and eventually flee to New York. Defiance is her account of those coming-of-age years, which Mrie interweaves with the story of Syria’s upheaval.
Red Dawn Over China: How Communism Conquered a Quarter of Humanity
Frank Dikötter (Bloomsbury Publishing, 384 pp., $33, Feb. 24)
China’s path to communism was not as straightforward as it may seem, historian Frank Dikötter argues in his latest book. Dikötter, who has written on the birth of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Foreign Policy, turns to new archival sources to reappraise the story of modern China and highlight the role of the Soviet Union in the CCP’s rise.
March
The Coming Storm: Power, Conflict, and Warnings From History
Odd Arne Westad (Henry Holt and Co., 256 pp., $27.99, March 3)
Today’s great-power competition plays out largely off the battlefield, but historian Odd Arne Westad posits that this time of relative stability may soon be over. In The Coming Storm, he looks to the mass conflicts of the late 19th and early 20th centuries as warnings for what may transpire today if politicians do not change course.
A Historian in Gaza
Jean-Pierre Filiu, trans. Cynthia Schoch and Trista Selous (Hurst, 208 pp., $22.99, March 2)
Jean-Pierre Filiu, a professor of Middle East studies and former French diplomat, has long visited Gaza for academic research. Yet his return to the territory for a month in December 2024 was unlike anything he was prepared to see—and resulted in this firsthand history of Gaza today, which has already received high acclaim in the United Kingdom.
Chain of Ideas: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age
Ibram X. Kendi (One World, 592 pp., $35, March 17
As anti-immigrant sentiment soars around the world, Ibram X. Kendi, the National Book Award-winning historian of racism, charts the rise of the “great replacement” conspiracy theory—which posits that migrants pose an existential threat to societies—and explores its connections to democratic backsliding.
The Great Global Transformation: The United States, China, and the Remaking of the World Economic Order
Branko Milanovic (The University of Chicago Press, 280 pp., $30, March 23)
Seismic shifts in the global political system mean that the world is due for a great economic reordering, according to Branko Milanovic, a former World Bank economist known for his work on inequality. In his latest book, Milanovic predicts the changes to come in what he calls our new era of “national market liberalism.”
Chasing Freedom: Coming of Age at the End of Empire
Simukai Chigudu (Crown, 352 pp., $32, March 24)
In this memoir of the haunting legacy of colonization, Simukai Chigudu recounts his path from growing up in newly independent Zimbabwe to becoming a professor of African politics at the University of Oxford, where a statue of Cecil Rhodes, the politician who colonized his home country, stands on campus.
April
The Presidency of Joseph R. Biden: A First Historical Assessment
Ed. Julian E. Zelizer (Princeton University Press, 456 pp., $29.95, April 7, paperback)
This volume, edited by FP columnist Julian E. Zelizer, presents the first comprehensive scholarly assessment of former U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration, with essays from historians untangling its handling of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, its approach to great-power politics, and more.
The Criminal State: War, Atrocity, and the Dream of International Justice
Lawrence Douglas (Princeton University Press, 448 pp., $35, April 7)
Legal scholar Lawrence Douglas returns to a pivotal moment in international law—the Nuremberg trials—to reevaluate how the world sought to hold states accountable for their crimes, the paradox of state sovereignty, and the limits of international criminal justice.
Korean Messiah: Kim Il Sung and the Christian Roots of North Korea’s Personality Cult
Jonathan Cheng (Knopf, 768 pp., $36, April 14)
In this landmark history of the Hermit Kingdom, Jonathan Cheng, the Wall Street Journal’s China bureau chief, sheds light on the Christian roots of a country that now treats religion as an extreme threat to the state, as well as its connections to Christianity in the United States.
The American Way of Foreign Policy: Ideology, Economics, and Democracy
Michael Mandelbaum (Oxford University Press, 176 pp., $29.99, April 15)
Four years after the publication of The Four Ages of American Foreign Policy, which received a rave review in FP, foreign-policy scholar Michael Mandelbaum returns with an examination of three features that make U.S. foreign policy distinct and their implications since the nation’s founding.
Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed
Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff (Harper, 272 pp., $30, April 21)
Billionaire Elon Musk may be gone from the White House, but he remains one of the wealthiest—and most powerful—people in the world. In this deep dive into “Muskism,” FP contributor Quinn Slobodian and technologist Ben Tarnoff offer a new perspective on Musk, the system he embodies, and the world he is trying to make in his image.
After Nations: The Making and Unmaking of a World Order
Rana Dasgupta (Viking, 496 pp., $35, April 28)
Novelist and essayist Rana Dasgupta turns to history in his latest book, which explores the rise of nation-states to make sense of why this system is fracturing today—an age, he posits, when modern tech firms are competing with traditional nation-states.
From Life Itself: Turkey, Istanbul, and a Neighborhood in the Age of Erdoğan
Suzy Hansen (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 368 pp., $30, April 28)
In her new work of reportage, journalist Suzy Hansen holds a magnifying glass up to one neighborhood in Istanbul, Karagumruk, to tell the story of Turkey’s authoritarian turn under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the forces destabilizing the wider region.
When the World Sleeps: Stories, Words, and Wounds of Palestine
Francesca Albanese, trans. Gregory Conti (Other Press, 256 pp., $28.99, April 28
Francesca Albanese, the first woman to serve as the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, has been one of the most prominent international voices against Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank. Now, Albanese—who was recently interviewed by FP’s John Haltiwanger—recounts the tales of 10 people, from young Palestinians to Israeli scholars, who transformed her understanding of Palestine.
May
The Village on the Edge of the World: Writing and Surviving Ceausescu’s Romania
Herta Müller, trans. Kate McNaughton (Pegasus Books, 288 pp., $29.95, May 5)
Nobel laureate Herta Müller interweaves the story of her literary life, from her childhood in a Romanian village to her exile in Germany, with the history of Romania under the Nicolae Ceausescu regime to provide a unique account of life under authoritarianism.
How to Win a Trade War: An Economic Guide for an Anxious World
Soumaya Keynes, Chad Bown (Simon & Schuster, 224 pp., $29, May 26)
Financial Times economics columnist Soumaya Keynes and economist Chad Bown team up in this guide to today’s precarious era of trade conflict among global superpowers, which considers how the West can learn from China—and avoid all-out economic warfare.
June
Harnessing Disruption: Building the Tech Future Without Breaking Society
Sarah E. Kreps (Oxford University Press, 184 pp., $27.99, June 1)
From nuclear power to artificial intelligence, history’s most transformative technologies are necessarily disruptive—but, as political scientist Sarah E. Kreps argues, that does not mean they have to be harmful to society. Kreps traces the life cycle of major innovations in her latest book and offers a road map for navigating the disruptions to come.
The Nord Stream Conspiracy: The Inside Story of the Explosions That Shook the World
Bojan Pancevski (Henry Holt and Co., 336 pp., $29.99, June 16)
Bojan Pancevski, the Wall Street Journal’s chief European political correspondent, blends investigative reportage, true-crime storytelling, and international intrigue in this insider account into the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, one of the great geopolitical mysteries of our time.
Reboot: AI and the Race to Save Democracy
Beth Simone Noveck (Yale University Press, 384 pp., $32.50, June 23)
Though many critics warn about AI’s potential to help governments and companies wield greater control, AI strategist and scholar Beth Simone Noveck focuses on the democratic potential of this disruptive technology and ways to harness it for fixing public institutions around the world.
