Arthur Ross Book Award
The annual Arthur Ross Book Award recognizes books that make an outstanding contribution to the understanding of foreign policy or international relations. The prize, endowed by the late Arthur Ross in 2001, is for nonfiction works from the past year, in English or translation, that merit special attention for:
- bringing forth new information that changes the understanding of events or problems;
- developing analytical approaches that offer insights into critical issues; or
- introducing ideas that help resolve foreign policy problems.
2025 Medalists
Gold Medal
Steve Coll
The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America’s Invasion of Iraq
Silver Medal
Jonathan Blitzer
Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America, and The Making of a Crisis
Bronze Medal
Sergey Radchenko
To Run the World: The Kremlin’s Cold War Bid for Global Power
Arthur Ross Book Award Events
You can view past Arthur Ross Book Award events and read the transcripts here.
2024 Awards
Gold Medal
Gary J. Bass
Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia
Silver Medal
Kal Raustiala
The Absolutely Indispensable Man: Ralph Bunche, The United Nations, and the Fight to End Empire
Bronze Medal
Henry Farrell and Abraham L. Newman
Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy
2023 Awards
Gold Medal
Christopher R. Miller
Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology
Silver Medal
Susan L. Shirk
Not Overreach: How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise
Bronze Medal
Sergei Guriev and Daniel Treisman
Spin Dictator: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century
2022 Awards
Gold Medal
Carter Malkasian
The American War in Afghanistan: A History
Silver Medal
Mary Elise Sarotte
Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of a Post-Cold War Stalemate
Bronze Medal
Nicole Perlroth
This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race
2021 Awards
Gold Medal
Zachary D. Carter
The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes
Silver Medal
Peter Baker and Susan B. Glasser
The Man Who Ran Washington: The Life and Times of James A. Baker III
Bronze Medal
Robert D. Putnam and Shaylyn Romney Garrett
The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again
2020 Awards
Gold Medal
Patrick Radden Keefe
Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
Silver Medal
George Packer
Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century
Bronze Medal
William Dalrymple
The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire
2019 Awards
Gold Medal
Jill Lepore
These Truths: A History of the United States
Silver Medal
Andrew Roberts
Churchill: Walking With Destiny
Bronze Medal
Max Hastings
Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975
2018 Awards
Gold Medal
Stephen Kotkin
Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941
Silver Medal
Michael J. Green
By More Than Providence: Grand Strategy and American Power in the Asia Pacific Since 1783
Bronze Medal
Masha Gessen
The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia
2017 Awards
Gold Medal
John Pomfret
The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the Present
Silver Medal
Robert F. Worth
A Rage for Order: The Middle East in Turmoil, From Tahrir Square to ISIS
Bronze Medal
Svetlana Alexievich
Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets
2016 Awards
Gold Medal
Niall Ferguson
Kissinger: 1923-1968: The Idealist (Penguin Press)
Silver Medal
Thomas Christensen
The China Challenge: Shaping the Choices of a Rising Power (W.W. Norton & Company)
Bronze Medal
Charles Moore
Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography—Volume II: Everything She Wants (Penguin Random House)
2015 Awards
Gold Medal
Thomas Piketty
Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Belknap Press)
Silver Medal
Stephen Kotkin
Stalin: Volume I: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928 (Penguin Press)
Honorable Mention
Evan Osnos
Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
2014 Awards
Gold Medal
Gary J. Bass
The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide (Alfred A. Knopf)
Silver Medal
Carter Malkasian
War Comes to Garmser: Thirty Years of Conflict on the Afghan Frontier (Oxford University Press)
Honorable Mention
Benn Steil
The Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White, and the Making of a New World Order (Princeton University Press)
2013 Awards
Gold Medal
Fredrik Logevall
Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam (Random House)
Silver Medal
Anne Applebaum
Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944 – 1956 (Doubleday)
Honorable Mention
Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson
Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (Crown Business)
2012 Awards
Gold Medal
John Lewis Gaddis
George F. Kennan: An American Life (The Penguin Press)
Silver Medal
Jason Stearns
Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of Congo and the Great War of Africa (PublicAffairs)
Honorable Mention
Daniel Yergin
The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World (The Penguin Press)
2011 Awards
Gold Medal
Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff
This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly (Princeton University Press)
Silver Medal
Thomas Hegghammer
Jihad in Saudi Arabia: Violence and Pan-Islamism since 1979 (Cambridge University Press)
Honorable Mention
Charles A. Kupchan
How Enemies Become Friends: The Sources of Stable Peace (Princeton University Press)
2009 Awards
Gold Medal
Philip P. Pan
Out of Mao’s Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China (Simon & Schuster)
Silver Medal
Ahmed Rashid
Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia (Penguin Group)
Honorable Mention
Gareth Evans
The Responsibility to Protect: Ending Mass Atrocity Crimes Once and For All (Brookings Institution Press)
2008 Awards
Gold Medal
Paul Collier
The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It (Oxford University Press)
Silver Medal
Trita Parsi
Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States (Yale University Press)
Honorable Mention
Robert Dallek
Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power (HarperCollins Publisher)
2007 Awards
Gold Medal
Kwame Anthony Appiah
Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers (W.W. Norton)
Silver Medal
Robert L. Beisner
Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War (Oxford University Press)
Honorable Mention
Thomas E. Ricks
Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq (The Penguin Press)
2006 Awards
Gold Medal
Tony Judt
Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 (Penguin Press)
Silver Medal
Olivier Roy
Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah (Columbia University Press)
Honorable Mention
George Packer
The Assassins’ Gate: America in Iraq (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
2005 Awards
Gold Medal
Steve Coll
Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 (Penguin Press)
Silver Medal
Stephen Biddle
Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle (Princeton University Press)
Honorable Mention
James Mann
Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush’s War Cabinet (Viking Books)
2004 Awards
Gold Medal
Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon
The Age of Sacred Terror: Radical Islam’s War Against America (Penguin Random House)
Silver Medal
Robert Cooper
The Breaking of Nations Order and Chaos in the Twenty-First Century (Atlantic Books)
Honorable Mention
Ivo H. Daalder and James M. Lindsay
America Unbound: The Bush Revolution in Foreign Policy (John Wiley & Sons)
2003 Awards
Gold Medal
Samantha Power
“A Problem from Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide (Basic Books)
Silver Medal
Margaret MacMillan
Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World (Random House)
Honorable Mention
Philip Bobbitt
The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course of History (Anchor)
Procedures
We are no longer accepting nominations for the 2024 award cycle. If you would like to nominate a book published in 2025 for the 2026 award, please email [email protected] with the following in the text of the email:
- Book title
- Book author
- Publication date, including year
- Publisher name
For any other inquiries, please email [email protected].
Jury
Gideon Rose (Chair)
Adjunct Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations
Lisa Anderson
Senior Lecturer and Dean Emerita, Columbia University
Kwame Anthony Appiah
Professor, Philosophy and Law, New York University
Sumit Ganguly
Senior Fellow, Director, Huntington Program on Strengthening US-India Relations, Hoover Institution
Michelle D. Gavin
Ralph Bunche Senior Fellow for Africa Policy Studies, Council on Foreign Relations; Former U.S. Ambassador to Botswana
Paul D. Golob
President and Executive Editor, Deadline Management LLC
Calvin G. Sims
Executive Vice President of Standards and Practices, CNN
Andrew Ross Sorkin
Columnist and Assistant Business Editor, New York Times
News Releases
- “Chip War,” an Analysis of the Geopolitics of Critical Technology, Wins 2023 Arthur Ross Book Award
- “The American War in Afghanistan: A History” Wins Prestigious Arthur Ross Book Award
- “The Price of Peace”: Biography of John Maynard Keynes Wins Prestigious Arthur Ross Book Award
- Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland Wins Arthur Ross Book Award
- Jill Lepore’s “These Truths: A History of the United States” Wins 2019 CFR Arthur Ross Book Award
- Stephen Kotkin’s “Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941” Wins 2018 CFR Arthur Ross Book Award
- John Pomfret’s “The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom” Wins 2017 CFR Arthur Ross Book Award
- Niall Ferguson’s “Kissinger: 1923-1968: The Idealist” Wins 2016 CFR Arthur Ross Book Award
- Piketty’s “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” Wins 2015 CFR Arthur Ross Book Award
- Gary Bass Wins CFR’s 2014 Arthur Ross Book Award for “The Blood Telegram”
- Fredrik Logevall Wins CFR’s 2013 Arthur Ross Book Award for “Embers of War”
- John Lewis Gaddis Wins CFR’s 2012 Arthur Ross Book Award for “George F. Kennan: An American Life”
- Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff Win CFR’s 2011 Arthur Ross Book Award for “This Time is Different”
- Liaquat Ahamed Wins CFR’s 2010 Arthur Ross Book Award for “Lords of Finance”
- Philip Pan Wins CFR’s 2009 Arthur Ross Book Award for “Out of Mao’s Shadow”
- Paul Collier Wins CFR’s 2008 Arthur Ross Book Award for “Bottom Billion”
- Kwame Anthony Appiah Wins CFR’s 2007 Arthur Ross Book Award for “Cosmopolitanism”
- Tony Judt Wins CFR’s 2006 Arthur Ross Book Award for “Postwar”
- CFR’s 2006 Arthur Ross Book Award Shortlist Announced
- Steve Coll Wins the Council’s 2005 Arthur Ross Book Award for “Ghost Wars”
- CFR’s 2005 Arthur Ross Book Award Shortlist Announced
- Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon Win CFR’s 2004 Arthur Ross Book Award for “The Age of Sacred Terror”
- Samantha Power Wins CFR’s Second Annual Arthur Ross Book Award for “A Problem from Hell”
- Robert Skidelsky Wins CFR’s First Arthur Ross Book Award
- 2002 Arthur Ross Book Award Short List Announced