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A Life in the American Century BY JOSEPH s. NYE, JR. Polity, 2024, 254 pp. Nye is best known for his theory of 'soft power,' which explains why a country's [...]

Geopolitics and Democracy: The Western Liberal Order From Foundation to Fracture BY PETER TRUBOWITZ AND BRIAN BURGOON. Oxford University Press, 2023,264 pp. In this groundbreaking study, Trubowitz and Burgoon argue [...]

For over a century, people around the world have lived through an American era: a period dominated by U.S. power, wealth, institutions, ideas, alliances, and partnerships. But many now believe [...]

Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash From 1600 to the Present BY FAREED ZAKARIA. Norton, 2024, 400 pp. Zakaria tells the epic story of the upheavals, breakthroughs, backlashes, and transformations [...]

The Real Liberal Bet Most observers would agree with John Mearsheimer that the liberal bet on China did not work out ('The Inevitable Rivalry,' November/December 2021). Welcoming the country into [...]

The Geopolitics of Shaming: When Human Rights Pressure Works--and When It Backfires BY ROCHELLE TERMAN. Princeton University Press, 2023, 216 pp. Human rights have grown in importance in world politics, [...]

Degenerations of Democracy BY CRAIG CALHOUN, DILIP PARAMESHWAR GAONKAR, AND CHARLES TAYLOR. Harvard University Press, 2022, 368 pp. Many scholars have traced the crisis of Western liberal democracy to the [...]

Tyranny of the Minority BY STEVEN LEVITSKY AND DANIEL ZIBLATT. Crown, 2023, 384 pp. Why has American democracy come so close to a breaking point while other Western democracies appear [...]

The War of Words: A Glossary of Globalization BY HAROLD JAMES. Yale University Press, 2021, 368 pp. In this masterful exercise in 'intellectual decluttering,' James cuts through the tangled terminological [...]

This article provides summaries of four recent books on political and legal topics. The first book, "A Life in the American Century" by Joseph S. Nye Jr., is a memoir that explores the author's experiences in academia and policymaking, highlighting the importance of both hard and soft power in shaping American influence. The second book, "Indirect Rule: The Making of U.S. International Hierarchy" by David A. Lake, examines the historical foundations of the U.S.-led world order, focusing on the alliances formed between the United States and local elites in subordinate countries. The third book, "The Ecology of Nations: American Democracy in a Fragile World Order" by John M. Owen IV, argues that the fate of American democracy is interconnected with the health and welfare of other democracies. The fourth book, "The End of Empires and a World Remade: A Global History of Decolonization" by Martin Thomas, explores the end of European empires and the struggle for decolonization, emphasizing the role of globalization in shaping these processes. [Extracted from the article]

The Civic Bargain: How Democracy Survives BY BROOK MANVILLE AND JOSH OBER. Princeton University Press, 2023, 312 pp. Manville and Ober urge defenders of liberal democracy to take the long [...]