Books like The shield of Achilles by Philip Bobbitt

Carl Sagan’s classic work urges critical thinking, exposing the myths of pseudoscience—from witchcraft to UFOs—and arguing that scientific literacy is essential for informed, democratic decision‑making in the modern world.

A foundational work on the nature of war, asserting that conflict is a form of politics performed through force and guided by strategic objectives to defeat the enemy at its weakest point.

Francis Fukuyama traces how diverse societies have arrived at their present political arrangements, exploring the historical and comparative routes that shape modern states.

"In this analysis, Mary Kaldor argues that, in the context of globalization, what we think of as war - that is to say, war between states in which the aim is to inflict maximum violence - is becoming an anachronism. In its place is a new type of organized violence, which she calls new wars, which could be described as a mixture of war, organized crime and massive violations of human rights. The actors are both global and local, public and private. The wars are fought for particularistic political goals using tactics of terror and destabilization that are theoretically outlawed by the rules of modern warfare. An informal criminalized economy is built into the functioning of the new wars."--BOOK JACKET. "Political leaders and international institutions have been helpless in face of the spread of these wars mainly because they have not come to terms with their logic; the new wars are treated either as old wars or else as anarchy Kaldor's analysis offers a basis for a cosmopolitan political response to these wars, in which the monopoly of legitimate organized violence is reconstructed on a transnational basis and international peacekeeping is reconceptualized as cosmopolitan law enforcement. This approach also has implications for the reconstruction of civil society, political institutions, and economic and social relations."--BOOK JACKET. "New and Old Wars will be of the greatest interest to students of international relations, politics and political thought as well as to all those interested in the changing nature and prospect of warfare."--BOOK JACKET.

John J. Mearsheimer explains his theory of offensive realism, outlining how great powers pursue military strength and regional dominance to secure national survival.