Should America have intervened in Libya? Done more? Done less? Done it differently? The editor of Foreign Affairs, Gideon Rose, explains the tension that lies at the heart of every American foreign policy decision.

The foreign affairs commentator explains why US presidents have less room to manoeuvre on foreign policy than they think, and why President Obama had to set aside his “minimalist” inclinations.

The writer and historian Ian Buruma selects five Western perspectives of the East, including a novel of colonial India, a travelogue of disappearing Japan, and the collection of essays that lifted the veil on Mao’s China.

American presidents may not want to send troops into battle or militarise foreign policy but, in the end, most of them do. The author and journalist explains how this happens, and why it’s not even the military that’s to blame. He picks the best books on American militarism.

The perception that disasters are isolated events beyond our control is simply not true, says the disaster research expert Dr Ilan Kelman. We – governments and others – have a greater role in creating them than we wish to acknowledge.

The former chief of staff to Tony Blair, Jonathan Powell, tells us about his experience of negotiating in Northern Ireland, and explains why it’s important never to lose your temper except on purpose

The changing relationship between China and America will be one of the defining foreign policy issues of our times. To understand its dynamic, says sinologist Orville Schell, we must take account of China’s lingering sense of victimhood.

Our political and economic systems are inadequate and failing. But what can we do? The author of a new book on the subject tells us what inspired his involvement in the Occupy movement and how a leaderless revolution could work

Veteran diplomat Michael Palliser discusses his friend Henry Kissinger’s diplomatic skills and says his experiences in post-war Germany made him a committed European

David Cortright, Notre Dame peace studies expert, identifies and rejects one of the myths about non-violent action: that it only works in liberal democracies. He outlines that non-violent protests can achieve their aims, that terrorism can only cease through negotiation, and that wars rarely have winners.

U.S. government adviser and Dean of the American University School of Public Affairs leads a book-bound tour that takes us from the Bacardi dynasty in Cuba to American military interventions in Central America

Yale professor John Lewis Gaddis points to research showing that, contrary to widespread belief, Mao was regularly briefed on the famine he had caused

Duke University professor choose fives books on war and foreign policy and says that neoconservative veneration of nationalism leads to a foreign policy of perpetual war overseas

Ex-diplomat who served as Special Advisor to UK Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd, chooses five books on the glamour, the reality and the future of the people trained in the canny art of diplomacy

The veteran British diplomat Jeremy Greenstock talks about the history and future of diplomacy. On Iraq: ‘The magnificent work that was done was largely wasted, and lives with it – both Iraqi and outsiders’

The author discusses a varied selection of books about young women living abroad. Draws on her own experiences as a Diplomat’s Wife. Features Out of Africa and The Jewel In The Crown with three more travel classics

The Professor of International Affairs at Georgetown University and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations discusses diplomacy versus coercion and selects five essential books on international relations.

Academic and author of textbooks on the field tells us that diplomacy can well do without rank amateurs “in the same way that medicine can do without snake-oil merchants”

The senior lecturer in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, chooses books on the real pioneers of British and American espionage – flawed men who saved lives and made a difference.

The international relations professor tells us about the special relationship between America and Israel – how it came about, what it means, and how it should change

Edward Mortimer, the former Director of Communications to Kofi Annan talks about the need for reform, how when the Camp David talks broke down “the whole atmosphere in the organization became poison”, and his boss. He picks the best five books on the United Nations.