Many of us live in democracies and believe in government transparency, but the truth is our leaders have considerable scope to engage in secret operations overseas. Rory Cormac talks us through five books on ‘covert action,’ and some of the countries that have embraced it as a policy tool.

Reports of the death of the world’s only superpower may have been exaggerated, but America’s inward turn is threatening the world order it created after World War II. Foreign policy analyst Ali Wyne talks us through books to better understand America’s current role in the world.

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 Harvard University Professor Joseph Nye talks about changing power in the 21st century – and how whose story wins matters as much as whose army wins.

Renowned foreign policy expert Anne Marie-Slaughter looks at the increasingly complex networks in which 21st century states find themselves.

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

Traditionally, the study of international relations has been about institutions, not individuals and the psychology that motivates them. But that is changing. Rose McDermott, professor of international relations at Brown University, introduces the work of Robert Jarvis and others pioneering the field of ‘political psychology.’

With its passion for neoliberal ideology, the US uses its economic weight clumsily in terms of foreign policy, says former state department official and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Jennifer M. Harris. Here she picks the best books for understanding the vital area of geoeconomics.

Most British prime ministers would probably have made the same decision as Tony Blair and followed George W. Bush into war in Iraq in 2003, says the FT's chief foreign affairs commentator. 

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 author of the only authorized history of MI6, Keith Jeffery, tells us about the evolution of the secret intelligence services, their representation in fiction, and the man Fleming may have had in mind when he created James Bond

Postwar Europe was a scene of both physical and moral destruction. The author of Savage Continent, winner of the Hessell-Tiltman History Prize, recommends essential reading for understanding the sheer scale of suffering, dislocation and fighting after the war was over.

History is usually studied and written from the perspective of war, says veteran journalist John Gittings. It can look very different when viewed from the perspective of peace.

The job of the intelligence services is to understand others and help leaders act more wisely, says the author of a new history of the FBI. There’s a balance to be struck between liberty and security but when the CIA and FBI do not harmonise their intelligence missions, people die.

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

The veteran Middle East correspondent gives us his tips for the best reading about the US-led invasion and occupation, and explains why the West shouldn’t have intervened in Iraq in the first place

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

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 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 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

Former Director of Communications to Kofi Annan talks about need for reform, Camp David talks breaking down “the whole atmosphere in the organization became poison”, and his boss. He picks the best five books on the UN

The Director of the Centre for the Study of Global Governance at the London School of Economics says there is fine line between being a hero and being a murderer – that’s why the Geneva convention matters