The year’s best stories

In 2025, Foreign Policy contributors leaned on their unique areas of expertise to weigh in on the buzziest books of the year. Whether it was geostrategist Zbigniew Brzezinski’s onetime research assistant reviewing a biography of his boss or celebrated novelists recommending their favorite climate fiction, the reviews below shed new light on titles that are driving ongoing conversations around history, strategy, and foreign affairs.

By Theodore Bunzel, May 16

In 2025, Foreign Policy contributors leaned on their unique areas of expertise to weigh in on the buzziest books of the year. Whether it was geostrategist Zbigniew Brzezinski’s onetime research assistant reviewing a biography of his boss or celebrated novelists recommending their favorite climate fiction, the reviews below shed new light on titles that are driving ongoing conversations around history, strategy, and foreign affairs.

By Theodore Bunzel, May 16

How can we make sense of Zbigniew Brzezinski? Zbig, as he was known, was a complex figure—and one essential to understanding postwar U.S. foreign policy.

U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s Polish-born national security advisor was “the Democrats’ Cold War sage who found admirers on Ronald Reagan’s foreign-policy team; an inveterate Russia hawk who was an arch-nemesis of neoconservatism in the George W. Bush years; and an early backer of Barack Obama,” writes Theodore Bunzel, Zbig’s former research assistant.

According........

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