At the dawn of the twenty-first century, three ideas dominate the world: peace as the preferred basis for relations between countries, democracy as the optimal way to organize political life, and free markets as the indispensable vehicle for the creation of wealth. While not practiced everywhere, these ideas have—for the first time in history—no serious rivals as methods for organizing the world's politics, economics, and international relations.

Council Senior Fellow Julia Sweig shatters the mythology surrounding the Cuban Revolution in a compelling revisionist history that reconsiders the roles of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara and restores, to a central position, the leadership of the Cuban urban underground, the Llano.

If Russia veers toward instability or a more severe dictatorship under President Vladimir Putin, the threat to its neighbors could be severe. Such a scenario would also present serious challenges for European integration and derail the process of Russian rapprochement with the United States.

Refugee policy has not kept pace with new realities in international and humanitarian affairs. Recent policy failures have resulted in instability, terrible hardships, and massive losses of life. In this seminal book, Senior Fellow Arthur Helton systematically analyzes refugee policy responses over the past decade and calls for specific reforms to make policy more proactive and comprehensive.

A seminal volume bringing together the research and critical thinking of many of the world's top macro- and micro-economists to provide a unique, multifaceted perspective on the causes of technological innovation and its relationship to economic performance. Through the use of detailed, up-to-date country and industry studies, Technological Innovation and Economic Performance provides the most authoritative and detailed analysis of this topic ever assembled.

A forty-year effort to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons is breaking down, and the threat that terrorist groups will acquire them is growing. In Fatal Choice, Ambassador Richard Butler argues that we are poised on the verge of a second and much more risk-filled nuclear arms race than the one experienced throughout the Cold War.

The United States has had a more successful foreign policy than any other great power in history. Council Senior Fellow Walter Russell Mead argues that the United States is successful because its strategy is rooted in Americans' concrete interests, which value trade and commerce as much as military security.

Examining competing notions of justice in Bosnia and Rwanda, award-winning Boston Globe correspondent Elizabeth Neuffer convinces readers that crimes against humanity cannot be resolved by talk of forgiveness, or through the more common recourse to forgetfulness.

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, one question has been on the mind of every American: “How did this happen?” PublicAffairs and Foreign Affairs came together to publish a book that seeks to answer this question in all its critical aspects: the motives and actions of the terrorists, the status of the U.S. military, the context of the Middle East, airport security, and diplomatic pressures.

Based on a policy simulation that was conducted before the September 11, 2001 attacks and is now even more relevant, Council Fellow Roger Kubarych draws several key lessons: government policymakers need to dedicate time and resources to identifying the principal vulnerabilities of financial and political systems—and anticipating their possible consequences.

For nearly sixty years the menace of nuclear war has hung over humanity, while at the same time the promise of nuclear energy has enticed us. In Megawatts and Megatons, two of the world's most eminent physicists, Georges Charpak and Richard L. Garwin, assess with consummate authority the benefits of nuclear energy and the dangers of nuclear weaponry.

Idealism and the pursuit of power are more closely linked than the liberal or realist traditions would have us believe. Foreign policy should be built on the principles of decency, mutual respect for rights and interests, responsible dispute settlement, and institution-building. But there is no room for idealism for its own sake: it must be tempered by legitimate responses to lawlessness and the necessities of power. For these ideas, Richard Ullman is best remembered.

Has Japanese foreign policy changed in the post-Cold War era? Japan's Reluctant Realism argues that new ideas and new patterns of Japanese diplomacy have in fact come about following the fall of the Berlin Wall. Using case studies that look at China, the Korean peninsulas, Russia and Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and international institutions, Green uncovers Japan's foreign policy.

Institutional Investors is the first and only comprehensive analysis of the global economic impact of the institutionalization of savings associated with the growth of pension funds, life insurance companies, and mutual funds. It charts the development and performance of the asset management industry and analyzes the implications of rising institutionalized saving for the development of the securities trading industry, the financial sector as a whole, and the wider economy.

Most politicians, policymakers, and analysts hailed the Kyoto Protocol as a vital first step toward slowing greenhouse warming. Council Senior Fellow David Victor was not among them. In this clear and cogent book, Victor explains why the Kyoto Protocol is unlikely to enter into force and how its failure will offer the opportunity to establish a more realistic alternative.