The Arthur Ross Book Award is a politics-related

literary award A literary award or literary prize is an award presented in recognition of a particularly lauded Literature, literary piece or body of work. It is normally presented to an author. Organizations Most literary awards come with a corresponding award c ...

History and administration

It was endowed in 2001 by Arthur Ross, an American businessman and philanthropist, for the purpose of recognizing books that make an outstanding contribution to the understanding of

foreign policy Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, includ ...

international relations International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...

. The prize is for nonfiction works from the past two years, in English or translation, and is accompanied by a monetary award. The amount of the prize has varied from year to year but has sometimes consisted of a $30,000 "Gold Medal", a $15,000 "Silver Medal" and a $7,500 "Honorable Mention". The award is administered by the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank focused on Foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is an independent and nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organi ...

, an American nonprofit

nonpartisan Nonpartisan or non-partisan may refer to: __NOTOC__ General political concepts * Nonpartisanship, also known as Nonpartisanism, co-operation without reference to political parties * Non-partisan democracy, an election with no official recognition ...

membership organization, publisher and

think tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...

specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs.

List of winners

2000s

; 2002 *Gold Medal –

Robert Skidelsky Robert Jacob Alexander Skidelsky, Baron Skidelsky, (born 25 April 1939) is a British economic historian. He is the author of a three-volume, award-winning biography of British economist John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946). Skidelsky read histor ...

for ''John Maynard Keynes: Fighting for Freedom 1937–1946'' *Silver Medal –

Lawrence Freedman Sir Lawrence David Freedman, (born 1948) is a British academic, historian and author specialising in foreign policy, international relations and strategy. He has been described as the "dean of British strategic studies" and was a member of th ...

for ''Kennedy's Wars: Berlin, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam'' *Honorable Mention – Walter Russell Mead and Richard C. Leone for ''Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World'' ; 2003 *Gold Medal –

Samantha Power Samantha Jane Power (born September 21, 1970) is an Irish-American journalist, diplomat, and government official who served as the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development from 2021 to 2025. She was the 28th Unite ...

for '' A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide'' *Silver Medal –

Margaret MacMillan Margaret Olwen MacMillan (born 23 December 1943) is a Canadian historian and professor at the University of Oxford. She is former provost of Trinity College, Toronto, and professor of history at the University of Toronto and previously at Ryers ...

for '' Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World'' *Honorable Mention –

Philip Bobbitt Sir Philip Chase Bobbitt (born July 22, 1948) is an American legal scholar and political theorist. He is best known for work on U.S. constitutional law and theory, and on the relationship between law, strategy and history in creating and sustaini ...

for '' The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course of History'' ;2004 *Gold Medal – Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon for ''The Age of Sacred Terror: Radical Islam's War Against America'' *Silver Medal – Robert Cooper for ''The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-First Century'' *Honorable Mention – Ivo H. Daalder and James M. Lindsay for ''America Unbound: The Bush Revolution in Foreign Policy'' ;2005 *Gold Medal – Steve Coll for '' Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001'' *Silver Medal –

Stephen Biddle Stephen D. Biddle (born January 19, 1959) is an American author, military historian, policy analyst and columnist whose work concentrates on U.S. foreign policy. Currently, he is the Professor of International and Public Affairs at School of ...

for ''Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle'' *Honorable Mention – James Mann for ''Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet'' ;2006 *Gold Medal –

Tony Judt Tony Robert Judt ( ; 2 January 1948 – 6 August 2010) was an English historian, essayist and university professor who specialised in European history. Judt moved to New York and served as the Erich Maria Remarque Professor in European Studies ...

for '' Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945'' *Silver Medal – Olivier Roy for ''Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah'' *Honorable Mention – George Packer for '' The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq'' ;2007 *Gold Medal –

Kwame Anthony Appiah Kwame Akroma-Ampim Kusi Anthony Appiah ( ; born 8 May 1954) is an English-American philosopher and writer who has written about political philosophy, ethics, the philosophy of language and mind, and African intellectual history. Appiah is Prof ...

for ''Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers'' *Silver Medal – Robert L. Beisner for ''Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War'' *Honorable Mention – Thomas E. Ricks for '' Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2003 to 2005'' ;2008 *Gold Medal –

Paul Collier Sir Paul Collier, (born 23 April 1949) is a British development economist who serves as the Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford and co-director of the International Gro ...

for '' The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It'' *Silver Medal –

Trita Parsi Trita Parsi (, born ?21 July 1974) is an Iranian-born Swedish writer and activist, and the co-founder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, as well as the founder and former president of the National Iran ...

for ''Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States'' *Honorable Mention – Robert Dallek for ''Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power'' ;2009 *Gold Medal – Philip P. Pan for ''Out of Mao's Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China'' *Silver Medal – Ahmed Rashid for ''Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia'' *Honorable Mention – Gareth Evans for ''The Responsibility To Protect: Ending Mass Atrocity Crimes Once and for All''

2010s

;2010 *Gold Medal –

Liaquat Ahamed Liaquat Ahamed (born 14 November 1952 in Kenya) is an American author. Life and work Liaquat Ahamed was born in Kenya, where his grandfather had emigrated to from Gujarat, India, by way of Zanzibar in the late 19th century.Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World'' *Silver Medal – Seth Jones for ''In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan'' *Honorable Mention –

Gérard Prunier Gérard Prunier (born 14 October 1942 in Paris ) is a French academic, historian, and consultant. He specializes in African history and affairs —particularly the Horn of Africa and the African Great Lakes regions. Biography Prunier received a P ...

for '' Africa's World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe'' ;2011 *Gold Medal – Carmen M. Reinhart and

Kenneth Rogoff Kenneth Saul Rogoff (born March 22, 1953) is an American economist and chess Grandmaster. He is the Maurits C. Boas Chair of International Economics at Harvard University. During the Great Recession, Rogoff was an influential proponent of auste ...

for ''This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly'' *Silver Medal – Thomas Hegghammer for ''Jihad in Saudi Arabia: Violence and Pan-Islamism since 1979'' *Honorable Mention – Charles A. Kupchan for ''How Enemies Become Friends: The Sources of Stable Peace'' ;2012 *Gold Medal – John Lewis Gaddis for '' George F. Kennan: An American Life'' *Silver Medal – Jason Stearns for '' Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa'' *Honorable Mention –

Daniel Yergin Daniel Howard Yergin (born February 6, 1947) is an American author, economic historian, and consultant within the energy and economic sectors. Yergin is vice chairman of S&P Global. He was formerly vice chairman of IHS Markit, which merged with ...

for '' The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World'' ;2013 *Gold Medal –

Fredrik Logevall Fredrik Logevall is a Swedish-American historian and educator at Harvard University, where he is the Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and professor of history in the Harvard Facult ...

for '' Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam'' *Silver Medal – Anne Applebaum for ''Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944–1956 '' *Honorable Mention –

Daron Acemoglu Kamer Daron Acemoğlu (;, ; born September 3, 1967) is a Turkish Americans, Turkish-American economist of Armenians in Turkey, Armenian descent who has taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1993, where he is currently the Ja ...

and James A. Robinson for '' Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty'' ;2014 *Gold Medal – Gary J. Bass for '' The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide'' *Silver Medal – Carter Malkasian for ''War Comes to Garmser: Thirty Years of Conflict on the Afghan Frontier'' *Honorable Mention –

Benn Steil Benn Steil is an American economist and writer. He was educated at Nuffield College, Oxford and at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Steil is the senior fellow and director of international economics at the Council on Foreig ...

for '' The Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White, and the Making of a New World Order'' ;2015 *Gold Medal –

Thomas Piketty Thomas Piketty (; born 7 May 1971) is a French economist who is a professor of economics at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, associate chair at the Paris School of Economics (PSE) and Centennial Professor of Economics ...

for ''

Capital in the Twenty-First Century ''Capital in the Twenty-First Century'' () is a book written by French economist Thomas Piketty. It focuses on economic inequality, wealth and income inequality in Europe and the United States since the 18th century. It was first published in Fren ...

'' *Silver Medal – Stephen Kotkin for '' Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878–1928'' *Honorable Mention – Evan Osnos for '' Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China'' ;2016 *Gold Medal –

Niall Ferguson Sir Niall Campbell Ferguson, ( ; born 18 April 1964)Biography
Niall Ferguson

for ''Kissinger: 1923–1968: The Idealist'' *Silver Medal – Thomas J. Christensen for ''The China Challenge: Shaping the Choices of a Rising Power '' *Bronze Medal – Charles Moore for ''Margaret Thatcher: The Authorized Biography—Volume II: Everything She Wants'' ;2017 *Gold Medal – John Pomfret for ''The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the Present'' *Silver Medal – Robert F. Worth for ''A Rage for Order: The Middle East in Turmoil, From Tahrir Square to ISIS'' *Bronze Medal –

Svetlana Alexievich Svetlana Alexandrovna Alexievich (born 31 May 1948) is a Belarusian investigative journalist, essayist and oral historian who writes in Russian. She was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to s ...

for '' Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets'' ;2018 *Gold Medal – Stephen Kotkin for '' Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941'' *Silver Medal – Michael Green for ''By More Than Providence: Grand Strategy and American Power in the Asia Pacific Since 1783'' *Bronze Medal – Masha Gessen for ''The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia'' ;2019 *Gold Medal –

Jill Lepore Jill Lepore is an American historian and journalist. She is the David Woods Kemper '41 Professor of American History at Harvard University and a staff writer at ''The New Yorker'', where she has contributed since 2005. She writes about American h ...

for '' These Truths: A History of the United States'' *Silver Medal – Andrew Roberts for '' Churchill: Walking with Destiny'' *Bronze Medal –

Max Hastings Sir Max Hugh Macdonald Hastings (; born 28 December 1945) is a British journalist and military historian, who has worked as a foreign correspondent for the BBC, editor-in-chief of ''The Daily Telegraph'', and editor of the ''Evening Standard''. ...

for ''Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975'' ;2020 *Gold Medal – Patrick Radden Keefe for '' Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland'' *Silver Medal – George Packer for ''Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century'' *Bronze Medal –

William Dalrymple William Benedict Hamilton-Dalrymple (born 20 March 1965) is a Delhi-based Scottish people, Scottish historian and art historian, as well as a curator, broadcaster and critic. He spends nine months of each year on his goat farm in India. He i ...

for '' The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire'' ;2021 *Gold Medal – Zachary D. Carter for ''The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes'' *Silver Medal – Peter Baker and Susan Glasser for ''The Man Who Ran Washington: The Life and Times of James A. Baker III'' *Bronze Medal – Robert Putnam and Shaylyn Romney Garrett for ''The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again'' ;2022 *Gold Medal – Carter Malkasian for '' The American War in Afghanistan: A History'' *Silver Medal – Mary Elise Sarotte for '' Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of a Post-Cold War Stalemate'' *Bronze Medal – Nicole Perlroth for ''This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race'' 7 ;2023 *Gold Medal – Christopher R. Miller for '' Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology'' *Silver Medal –

Susan Shirk Susan L. Shirk is an American political scientist and China specialist currently serving as a research professor at University of California, San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy. She was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the B ...

for ''Overreach: How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise'' *Bronze Medal –

Sergei Guriev Sergei Maratovich Guriev (, ; born 21 October 1971) is a Russian economist, currently serving as the 10th dean and a professor of economics at the London Business School since August 2024. Previously at Sciences Po, he served as provost from 2 ...

and Daniel Treisman for '' Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century'' ;2024 *Gold Medal – Gary J. Bass for ''Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia'' *Silver Medal – Kal Raustiala for ''The Absolutely Indispensable Man: Ralph Bunche, The United Nations, and the Fight to End Empire'' *Bronze Medal –

Henry Farrell Henry Farrell (September 27, 1920 – March 29, 2006) was an American novelist and screenwriter, best known as the author of the renowned gothic horror story ''What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (novel), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?'', wh ...

and Abraham L. Newman for ''Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy''

References

External links

*{{Official website, https://www.cfr.org/arthur-ross-book-award 2001 establishments in the United States Annual events in the United States Awards established in 2001 * Foreign policy American non-fiction literary awards Recurring events established in 2001 Political book awards Council on Foreign Relations