Statecraft and foreign policy shape international affairs, but so do ideas\u2014even in our so-called postliterate age<\/a>. That\u2019s why we\u2019re 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Cold War on Five Continents<\/strong><\/a>: A Global History of Empire and Espionage 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 \u201csurrogate wars\u201d 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.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The Triangle of Power<\/strong><\/a>: Rebalancing the New World Order What comes after the fall of the postwar liberal order? In his latest book, Finnish President Alexander Stubb\u2014who sat down for an interview<\/a> with FP\u2019s Ravi Agrawal in February\u2014blends theory and practice to examine the forces driving the creation of a new international order today.<\/p>\n The Revolutionists<\/strong><\/a>: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s In this nearly 800-page book, Jason Burke, the Guardian<\/em>\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The Oak and the Larch<\/strong><\/a>: A Forest History of Russia and Its Empires Recent years have brought a number of new histories of Russia. But Sophie Pinkham\u2019s is the first English-language history of Russia\u2019s forests, which comprise more than one-fifth of the world\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The Elements of Power<\/strong><\/a>: A Story of War, Technology, and the Dirtiest Supply Chain on Earth 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.<\/p>\n On Natural Capital<\/strong><\/a>: The Value of the World Around Us Once dubbed<\/a> the \u201cmost important person you\u2019ve never heard of\u201d by the New York Times<\/em>, 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?<\/p>\n The Doom Loop<\/strong><\/a>: Why the World Economic Order Is Spiraling Into Disorder Globalization once promised widespread prosperity but instead wrought inequality, severe debt crises, and worsening trade wars. In The Doom Loop<\/em>, Eswar S. Prasad\u2014who has previously written<\/a> for Foreign Policy <\/em>and joined FP Live<\/a>\u2014analyzes what went wrong and challenges leaders to rethink the international financial system.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The Wall Dancers<\/strong><\/a>: Searching for Freedom and Connection on the Chinese Internet 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\u2014and in doing so offers a portrait of the country\u2019s political and cultural trajectory in the last three decades.<\/p>\n Politics Without Politicians<\/strong><\/a>: The Case for Citizen Rule H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Landemore, a political theorist who has written about democratic renewal<\/a> in Foreign Policy<\/em>, returns with a work centered on a provocative question: What if everyday people are better at governing than politicians? Landemore\u2019s manifesto provides a road map for a political system grounded in citizen rule.<\/p>\n Separation of Powers<\/strong><\/a>: How to Preserve Liberty in Troubled Times 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.<\/p>\n Defiance<\/strong><\/a>: A Memoir of Awakening, Rebellion, and Survival in Syria Loubna Mrie was raised to be loyal to Syria\u2019s 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 <\/em>is her account of those coming-of-age years, which Mrie interweaves with the story of Syria\u2019s upheaval.<\/p>\n Red Dawn Over China<\/strong><\/a>: How Communism Conquered a Quarter of Humanity China\u2019s path to communism was not as straightforward as it may seem, historian Frank Dik\u00f6tter argues in his latest book. Dik\u00f6tter, who has written on the birth of the Chinese Communist Party<\/a> (CCP) in Foreign Policy<\/em>, turns to new archival sources to reappraise the story of modern China and highlight the role of the Soviet Union in the CCP\u2019s rise.<\/p>\n The Coming Storm<\/strong><\/a>: Power, Conflict, and Warnings From History Today\u2019s 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<\/em>, 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.<\/p>\n A Historian in Gaza<\/strong><\/a> 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\u2014and resulted in this firsthand history of Gaza today, which has already received high acclaim in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n Chain of Ideas<\/strong><\/a>: The Origins of Our Authoritarian Age As anti-immigrant sentiment soars around the world, Ibram X. Kendi, the National Book Award-winning historian of racism, charts the rise of the \u201cgreat replacement\u201d conspiracy theory\u2014which posits that migrants pose an existential threat to societies\u2014and explores its connections to democratic backsliding.<\/p>\n The Great Global Transformation<\/strong><\/a>: The United States, China, and the Remaking of the World Economic Order 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 \u201cnational market liberalism.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Chasing Freedom<\/strong><\/a>: Coming of Age at the End of Empire 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.<\/p>\n The Presidency of Joseph R. Biden<\/strong><\/a>: A First Historical Assessment \u00a0<\/em>This volume, edited by FP columnist Julian E. Zelizer, presents the first comprehensive scholarly assessment of former U.S. President Joe Biden\u2019s administration, with essays from historians untangling its handling of Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, its approach to great-power politics, and more.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The Criminal State<\/strong><\/a>: War, Atrocity, and the Dream of International Justice Legal scholar Lawrence Douglas returns to a pivotal moment in international law\u2014the Nuremberg trials\u2014to reevaluate how the world sought to hold states accountable for their crimes, the paradox of state sovereignty, and the limits of international criminal justice.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Korean Messiah<\/strong><\/a>: Kim Il Sung and the Christian Roots of North Korea\u2019s Personality Cult In this landmark history of the Hermit Kingdom, Jonathan Cheng, the Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n The American Way of Foreign Policy<\/strong><\/a>: Ideology, Economics, and Democracy Four years after the publication of The Four Ages of American Foreign Policy<\/em>, which received a rave review<\/a> 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\u2019s founding.<\/p>\n Muskism<\/strong><\/a>: A Guide for the Perplexed Billionaire Elon Musk may be gone from the White House, but he remains one of the wealthiest\u2014and most powerful\u2014people in the world. In this deep dive into \u201cMuskism,\u201d FP contributor<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n After Nations<\/strong><\/a>: The Making and Unmaking of a World Order 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\u2014an age, he posits, when modern tech firms are competing with traditional nation-states.<\/p>\n From Life Itself<\/strong><\/a>: Turkey, Istanbul, and a Neighborhood in the Age of Erdo\u011fan 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\u2019s authoritarian turn under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the forces destabilizing the wider region.<\/p>\n When the World Sleeps<\/strong><\/a>: Stories, Words, and Wounds of Palestine 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\u2019s actions in Gaza and the West Bank. Now, Albanese\u2014who was recently interviewed<\/a> by FP\u2019s John Haltiwanger\u2014recounts the tales of 10 people, from young Palestinians to Israeli scholars, who transformed her understanding of Palestine.<\/p>\n The Village on the Edge of the World<\/strong><\/a>: Writing and Surviving Ceausescu\u2019s Romania Nobel laureate Herta M\u00fcller 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.<\/p>\n How to Win a Trade War<\/strong><\/a>: An Economic Guide for an Anxious World Financial Times<\/em> economics columnist Soumaya Keynes and economist Chad Bown team up in this guide to today\u2019s precarious era of trade conflict among global superpowers, which considers how the West can learn from China\u2014and avoid all-out economic warfare.<\/p>\n Harnessing Disruption<\/strong><\/a>: Building the Tech Future Without Breaking Society From nuclear power to artificial intelligence, history\u2019s most transformative technologies are necessarily disruptive\u2014but, 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.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The Nord Stream Conspiracy<\/strong><\/a>: The Inside Story of the Explosions That Shook the World Bojan Pancevski, the Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nJanuary<\/h3>\n
\n
\n <\/span>
<\/strong>Alfred W. McCoy (Haymarket Books, 608 pp. $34.95, Jan. 6)<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/strong>Alexander Stubb (Columbia Global Reports, 216 pp., $18, Jan. 13, paperback)<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/strong>Jason Burke (Knopf, 768 pp., $40, Jan. 13)<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/strong>Sophie Pinkham (W.W. Norton & Co., 304 pp., $35, Jan. 20)<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/strong>Nicolas Niarchos (Penguin Press, 480 pp., $32, Jan. 20)<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/strong>Partha Dasgupta (Mariner Books, 288 pp., $29.99, Jan. 20)<\/em><\/p>\n
\nFebruary<\/h3>\n
\n ![\"Six](\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Feb.png\")
\n <\/span>
<\/strong>Eswar S. Prasad (Basic Venture, 368 pp., $32, Feb. 3)<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/strong>Yi-Ling Liu (Knopf, 336 pp., $30, Feb. 3)<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/strong>H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Landemore (Thesis, 320 pp., $29, Feb. 10)<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/strong>Cass R. Sunstein (The MIT Press, 184 pp., $24.95, Feb. 17)<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/strong>Loubna Mrie (Viking, 432 pp., $32, Feb. 24)<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/strong>Frank Dik\u00f6tter (Bloomsbury Publishing, 384 pp., $33, Feb. 24)<\/em><\/p>\n
\nMarch<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n ![\"Book](\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/March.png\")
\n <\/span>
<\/strong>Odd Arne Westad (Henry Holt and Co., 256 pp., $27.99, March 3)<\/em><\/p>\n
Jean-Pierre Filiu, trans. Cynthia Schoch and Trista Selous (Hurst, 208 pp., $22.99, March 2)<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/strong>Ibram X. Kendi (One World, 592 pp., $35, March 17<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/strong>Branko Milanovic (The University of Chicago Press, 280 pp., $30, March 23)<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/strong>Simukai Chigudu (Crown, 352 pp., $32, March 24)<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n
\nApril<\/h3>\n
\n ![\"Eight](\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Books-2026-foreign-policy-april-\u2013-1.png\")
\n <\/span>
<\/strong>Ed. Julian E. Zelizer (Princeton University Press, 456 pp., $29.95, April 7, paperback)<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/strong>Lawrence Douglas (Princeton University Press, 448 pp., $35, April 7)<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/strong>Jonathan Cheng (Knopf, 768 pp., $36, April 14)<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/strong>Michael Mandelbaum (Oxford University Press, 176 pp., $29.99, April 15)<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/strong>Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff (Harper, 272 pp., $30, April 21)<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/strong>Rana Dasgupta (Viking, 496 pp., $35, April 28)<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/strong>Suzy Hansen (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 368 pp., $30, April 28)<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/strong>Francesca Albanese, trans. Gregory Conti (Other Press, 256 pp., $28.99, April 28<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nMay\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n ![\"Two](\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Books-2026-foreign-policy-may.png\")
\n <\/span>
<\/strong>Herta M\u00fcller, trans. Kate McNaughton (Pegasus Books, 288 pp., $29.95, May 5)<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/strong>Soumaya Keynes, Chad Bown (Simon & Schuster, 224 pp., $29, May 26)<\/em><\/p>\n
\nJune<\/h3>\n
\n ![\"Three](\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Books-2026-foreign-policy-june.png\")
\n <\/span>
<\/strong>Sarah E. Kreps (Oxford University Press, 184 pp., $27.99, June 1)<\/em><\/p>\n
<\/strong>Bojan Pancevski (Henry Holt and Co., 336 pp., $29.99, June 16)<\/em><\/p>\n