Losing Control: Global Security in the Twenty-First Century

by Paul Rogers

The reason why this is top of my list, is that it introduces a key concept, the notion of liddism. It’s basically a trend whereby Western states attempt to control threats to international security by military means, rather than understanding the nature of the threats and countering them at source. So you can compare this to a pressure cooker where every attempt is made to keep the lid on, instead of turning down the heat.