The Climate Diplomat: a Personal History of the COP Conferences
By Peter Betts, Profile Editions, £25
As a civil servant, Peter Betts dedicated most of his life to tackling climate change. It is therefore only fitting that, following his death in 2023, the publication of his book became the product of an enormous joint effort between family, friends and publisher, similar to the multilateral climate negotiations he participated in during his career.
In The Climate Diplomat, Betts offers an ‘insider’s account’ of three decades of UN Climate (COP) negotiations, tracing the trajectory of international climate talks and reflecting on the challenges for future cooperation. For Ellie Macmillan-Fox, from Chatham House’s Environment and Society Centre, the book’s flair owes much to Betts’s vivid account of ‘gossip and drama’: detailing the relationships between different actors and underlining the role of individual personalities, preferences and, occasionally, fallouts.
In addition to documenting the micro dynamics of these negotiations, Betts zooms out to the bigger picture, showing the evolving positions of major players, especially China, and the interactions between developed and developing countries. This allows him to inject hope into a conversation that often emphasizes the unpredictability of US presidential stances, making a ‘compelling case’ in favour of UN Climate Conferences. Overall, this ‘incredibly moving book’ will inspire those working to end the worsening climate crisis.
The full review appears in the March 2026 issue of ‘International Affairs’
Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia
By Sam Dalrymple, HarperCollins, £25
What do Bahrain, India and Myanmar have in common? Alongside another nine nations, these countries were all once part of the Britain’s vast Indian Empire. Moving beyond increasingly nationalistic histories pedalled by elites with political agendas, Sam Dalrymple argues that the partition stories that underpin the contemporary borders, politics and conflicts of these former colonies are inexorably interlinked and were far from inevitable. Chatham House’s Rheea Saggar commends the author’s ‘accessible and vivid storytelling’ and his ability to exemplify how ‘some monumental decisions about the Indian Empire were ultimately random and haphazard’.
The full review appears in the March 2026 issue of ‘International Affairs’
Furious Minds: the Making of the MAGA New Right
By Laura K Field, Princeton University Press, £30
This chilling book traces the ‘disparate’ sources of the Make America Great Again movement through an investigation of dozens of its ideologues, including Yoram Hazony, Peter Thiel and Patrick Dennen. The author Laura Field painstakingly documents the emergence of a ‘New Right’ and how it is shaping Donald Trump’s, anti-liberalism and foreign policy priorities. In his joint review, Mariano Aguirre Ernst, an international politics analyst, praises the ‘in-depth context’ the book provides and which will help anyone make sense of the ‘shocking daily news coming from the United States’.
The full review appears in the March 2026 issue of ‘International Affairs’
Global China: a Critique of Chinese and Western Narratives
By Tim Summers, Bristol University Press, £85
As the wise Sinologist John King Fairbanks once said: ‘At any given time the “truth” about China is in our heads.’ Tim Summers examines how China’s rise has been discussed in academic debates and ‘demonstrates the limits of each narrative’, echoing Fairbanks’s warning from the 1970s. The book offers ‘valuable insights’ into three narratives, showcasing how academic analyses, particularly surrounding a geopolitical rivalry, have translated into policy solutions and been used to ‘mobilize support for a more hawkish stance towards China’. Summers’s critique is ‘essential reading’ according to Associate Professor Biao Zhang, of the China University of Political Science and Law.
The full review appears in the March 2026 issue of ‘International Affairs
