Thursday, July 2, 2009

Ten worst books in international relations

Daniel W. Drezner named the 10 worst books in international relations for Foreign Policy. His criteria:
to earn a place on this list, we're talking about:

* Books by prominent international policymakers that put you to sleep;
* Books that were influential in some way but also spectacularly wrong, leading to malign consequences.
One title on the list:
Kenichi Ohmae, The End of the Nation State: The Rise of Regional Economies.

Plenty of management consultants have tried to write the Very Big Book. And plenty of authors have predicted the demise of the nation-state in their books. Ohmae encapsulates both of these trends. Still, there's something extra that puts him on this list -- over 90% of the footnotes in this book are to... other works by Kenichi Ohmae. It's the most blatant use of the footnote as a marketing strategy that I have ever seen.
Read about all ten books on Drezner's list.

--Marshal Zeringue