Looking to sharpen your strategic thinking or dive deeper into the ideas shaping global affairs? The IWP faculty have curated a diverse and thought-provoking list of books and films for your summer reading.
From Iran’s grand strategy to spies in World War II, these recommendations span historical insights, current geopolitical challenges, and essential works for national security professionals.
Whether you’re a student, practitioner, or lifelong learner, this list offers something to enrich your understanding of the complex world we live in.
Please read on, and enjoy!
From Dr. Anne Bradley:
Dr. Bradley is the George and Sally Mayer Fellow for Economic Education and Academic Director at The Fund for American Studies and a former Economic Analyst for the CIA’s Office of Terrorism Analysis. At IWP, she teaches Economics for Foreign Policy Makers, Economies in Transition, and Philosophy, Politics, and Economics.
- Political Capitalism: How Economic and Political Power Is Made and Maintained, by Randall G. Holcombe
This book helps us understand the entanglement of politics, which is a cooperative relationship between economic and political elites. It explains common understandings of “crony capitalism” or “creeping socialism.” It’s a must-read to understand how we arrived at this point and what we can do to address the issue.
- The Triumph of Economic Freedom: Debunking the Seven Great Myths of American Capitalism, by Phil Gramm and Donald J. Boudreaux
This is an excellent book by two persistent champions of economic freedom and free markets and dispenses with commonly held myths including that the Great Depression was a failure of capitalism and that trade has hollowed out the middle class and manufacturing sectors. It is a timely and relevant book that will help provide insights into how we can support and advance economic growth.
- Defending Globalization: Facts and Myths about the Global Economy and Its Fundamental Humanity, edited by Scott Lincicome and Clark Packard
This book arrives at a crucial moment with its timely and insightful content amidst the swirling policy debate around trade and the American economy. This book is divided into three parts with over twenty essays written by leading trade and growth economists.
From COL Lawrence Deitz:
COL Dietz served at the NATO Four Star level and held key positions such as Deputy Commander of NATO SFOR Combined Joint Information Campaign Task Force in Bosnia, PSYOP Group Staff Officer, PSYOP Battalion Commander, and Military Intelligence Company Commander, among others. Also an attorney, he teaches Information as a Domain of War and Intelligence and Policy at IWP.
- Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II, by Elyse Graham
I highly recommend Book and Dagger by Elyse Graham. It is an exceptionally well told tale of how analysts and your typical non-combat fighter helped to win WWII.
FILM
I would also recommend the movie Eye in the Sky because it is a very good visual depiction of the challenges of using UAVs in a NATO environment. It’s a great performance by Helen Mirren as a British Colonel.
From Prof. Dustin Droullard:
Prof. Droullard is the Principal Consultant for Public Sector at one of the leading threat intelligence companies. He has served in leadership and analysis roles at the DoD Cyber Crime Center (DC3), the U.S. Air Force Cyber Resiliency Office for Weapons Systems (CROWS), the Department of Energy (DoE), and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). At IWP, he teaches Cyber Threat Intelligence.
- Iran’s Grand Strategy: A Political History, by Vali Nasr
This is a timely work that outlines the socio-political themes that shape the modern Iranian state.
- Intelligence Elsewhere: Spies and Espionage Outside the Anglosphere, by Philip H. J. Davies and Kristian C. Gustafson
This book discusses the cultural nuances of spycraft outside the Anglosphere.
From Dr. Jonathan Hall:
Dr. Hall is a cyber intelligence practitioner at Recorded Future, where he advises in both the private and public sectors on the implementation of intelligence into cybersecurity programs. At IWP, he teaches Geopolitics and Strategy of Cyberspace.
- China’s Quest for Military Supremacy, by Joel Wuthnow and Phillip C. Saunders
China’s Quest for Military Supremacy provides a balanced and accessible, yet academically rigorous perspective on how Beijing’s strategic priorities are shaping the development of its military. The authors draw out both regional and global implications, and this book would make an excellent choice for those interested in analysis that is forward-thinking yet firmly grounded in the practical realities faced by the People’s Republic of China.
From Prof. John Sano:
Prof. Sano spent 28 years in the Central Intelligence Agency and was appointed the National Clandestine Service’s (formerly the Directorate of Operations) Deputy Director in November 2005 by then DCI Porter Goss. As Deputy Director, he chaired the NSC’s Senior Leadership Team and oversaw the day-to-day management of the country’s Clandestine Service. At IWP, he teaches Covert Action and National Security, Espionage, North Korea and the Geopolitics of Northeast Asia, and Writing for National Security Professionals.
Frank Wisner was one of the first senior officials at the CIA upon its creation. He was a key (if not THE) member of the newly created intelligence service and was deeply involved in a number of highly successful CIA operations throughout his tenure. The many sacrifices that Wisner faced — especially during the height of the Cold War — laid the foundation for one of the most powerful intelligence services in the world.
From Prof. Al Santoli:
Prof. Santoli is president and founder of the non-profit Asia America Initiative, as well as a New York Times Best Selling and Pulitzer Prize-nominated author for Everything We Had, Random House, 1981. At IWP, he teaches Counter-Terror through Full Spectrum Cultural Engagement, Cultural Intelligence for Strategy and Analysis, and Peace, Strategy and Conflict Resolution.
I recommend two books—classics on modern geopolitics in today’s world—for IWP students to read this summer. These books will help to explain to them the mindset of many opinion makers in academia and the foundations of contradictory power we are faced with in today’s world:
GLOBAL
- The Power of Geography — Ten Maps that Reveal the Future of the World, by British social scientist and journalist Tim Marshall.
This book provides concise insights and discusses the crossroads to war and peace in the world today, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Greece, and Turkey. It also covers the Sahel, Ethiopia, Spain, and outer space. Understanding global “neighborhoods” is a significant key to global statecraft.
LOCAL UNITED STATES
- Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals, by Saul Alinsky
Alinsky, more than Bernie Sanders, Barack Obama, or AOC, is the role model who shaped U.S. Leftist ideology on campus and in the media for the past 50 years. This is his prescribed doctrine to overthrow the United States from within for “rebels without a clue” of how they are being manipulated and the dangers of their actions.
FILM
- In the Land of Saints and Sinners (2023, starring Liam Neeson, currently on Netflix)
A poignant story set in the Irish Civil War regarding the choices combatants may face between peace and violence.
I recommend the books and film as part of the pursuits of the IWP Center for Culture and Freedom, and in memory of former IWP professors and mentors, Dr. Alberto Piedra, Dr. Angelo Codevilla, and Dr. Constantin Menges.
From Prof. Paul Schilling:
Prof. Schilling spent thirty years with the Central Intelligence Agency’s Office of General Counsel. He has also been employed by the SAIC and LEIDOS corporations, providing instructional services to U.S. government personnel. At IWP, he teaches Intelligence and the Law.
- A Savage War – A Military History of the Civil War, by Williamson Murry & Wayne Wei-Siang Hsieh
The book lives up to its title. The history is comprehensive, providing a detailed look at the major battles and campaigns of the Civil War. Chapter 19 – “The Civil War in History” – is, however, perhaps the most interesting part of the book. In it, the authors examine the War’s place in American and world history. They provide some insight into how the War affected various subsequent social and political struggles in American society. They show how the War’s military efforts eclipsed those of the perhaps better-known European wars of the 1800s. Their examination of the role of leadership debunks both those who provided misperceptions of the War to suit their own domestic political purposes and those who would assert that leadership and chance play no role in world events. It’s a long and detailed read but worth the effort.
From Dr. Wayne Schroeder:
Dr. Schroeder has had a 45-year career in Washington, DC with service in government, industry, public policy, the military, and higher education. He is a Member of the Board of Advisors of the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI), a Nonresident Senior Fellow, Transatlantic Security Initiative, with the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council and is on the Board of Directors of Kele Global. At IWP, he teaches Defense Strategy, Planning and Budgeting, International Organizations and Multilateral Diplomacy, Nuclear Strategy and Arms Control, and U.S. Bilateral Security Agreements.
- The Last Warrior: Andrew Marshall and the Shaping of Modern American Defense Strategy, by Andrew Krepinevich and Barry Watts
The book tells the story of the development of defense net assessment under the leadership of the long-time director of the Office of Net Assessment, Andrew Marshall. It is a book that should be read not only for its excellent history of Marshall and his influential OSD disciples, but also for its sound justification for the role of this office during both the Cold War and post-Cold War eras.
From Dr. Enrico Suardi:
Dr. Suardi is director of psychiatry at Saint Elizabeths Hospital and director of forensic services at the Ross Center in Washington, D.C. At IWP, he teaches The Behavioral Sciences in U.S. National Security and Public Safety.
- The Technological Republic – Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West, by Alexander Karp and Nicholas Zamiska
Karp co-founded Palantir with Peter Thiel and others. The authors advocate for Silicon Valley to contribute to American technological superiority and geopolitical deterrence in the 21st century.
- The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan, by Yasmin Khan
This book provides political and psychological insights into the longstanding conflict in Southeast Asia.
- The Party’s Interests Come First: The Life of Xi Zhongxun, Father of Xi Jinping, by Joseph Torigian
This is an important book, recently published and presented at the Hoover Institution. The same author wrote an article for Foreign Affairs titled “Xi Jinping’s Russian Lessons: What the Chinese Leader’s Father Taught Him About Dealing With Moscow.”
From Prof. Dennis Teti:
Prof. Teti has a cumulative 35 years of experience in the executive branch, legislative branch, and private sector. He has served in numerous federal political positions, including speechwriting and policy formulation at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and the House of Representatives. At IWP, he teaches Foundations of Political Community: Seminar on Aristotle’s Politics & Federalist Papers, Sources of American Political Thought, and Western Moral and Political Thought.
- Giants in the Earth: A Saga of the Prairie, by O.E. Rolvaag
America is a land of immigrants, true enough. But this book, a century old, is a novelized account of the Norwegian immigrants’ struggle to master the 1870s wild Dakota prairie—based on the memories of the immigrant author (college professor and later governor of Minnesota) whose family lived that struggle. This is literary craft at its best, revealing the character, mind, passions, hopes, fears, and faith of the settlers. They are confronted with natural and man-made challenges never imagined on leaving their homeland, including brutal heat, blizzards, windstorms, near-biblical plagues of locusts, crop failures, Indian threats, emotional breakdown, human weakness, sicknesses, and deaths of old and young. They also experience rich family happiness in marriages and births, sturdy community attachments and cooperation, heroic sacrificial love and religious redemption, and a mixture of ancient cultural longing together with doubt and pride in their hard-won independence in this strange country. The spare dialogue, profound psychology, and relentless unfolding plot make this an engaging and satisfying work. We learn what it meant for immigrants to come to this land of liberty to govern themselves in community without dependency.