Philip Pan’s "Out of Mao’s Shadow" Wins CFR’s 2009 Arthur Ross Book Award

Out of Mao’s Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China by Philip Pan, current Moscow bureau chief and former Beijing bureau chief for the Washington Post, has won the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) Arthur Ross Book Award for the best book published on international affairs. Pan will receive $15,000 and be honored at the Council this June.

"The world is much aware of China’s growing prosperity and power. Less evident is the struggle against China’s repressive political regime by citizens seeking a freer and more just society. Through vivid reporting of the heroic and often hopeless challenges mounted by a handful of brave individuals, Pan throws light on this emerging battle for the soul of the globe’s most populous nation," said Foreign Affairs Editor James F. Hoge, who chaired the selection committee.

The silver medal and a prize of $7,500 have been awarded to journalist Ahmed Rashid for Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia.

The jury also awarded an honorable mention and $2,500 to International Crisis Group president and chief executive officer Gareth Evans for The Responsibility to Protect: Ending Mass Atrocity Crimes Once and For All.

Additional shortlist nominees included Dexter Filkins for The Forever War, Kevin Phillips for Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism, and Jeremy Salt for The Unmaking of the Middle East: A History of Western Disorder in Arab Lands.

ARTHUR ROSS BOOK AWARD JURY

Stanley Hoffmann

Paul & Catherine Buttenwieser University Professor, Harvard University

James F. Hoge Jr. (Chairman)

Peter G. Peterson Chair and Editor, Foreign Affairs

Robert W. Kagan

Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Miles Kahler

Rohr Professor of Pacific International Relations, University of California, San Diego

Mary Sarotte

Professor of International Relations, University of Southern California

Stephen M. Walt

John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

CFR’s Arthur Ross Book Award is a significant award for a book on international affairs. It was endowed by Arthur Ross in 2001 to honor nonfiction works, in English or translation, that merit special attention for bringing forth new information that changes our understanding of events or problems, developing analytical approaches that allow new and different insights into critical issues, or providing new ideas that help resolve foreign policy problems.

The Council on Foreign Relations is an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher dedicated to being a resource for its members, government officials, business executives, journalists, educators and students, civic and religious leaders, and other interested citizens in order to help them better understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other countries.