I’m currently watching the remake of the Legend of the Galactic Heroes anime, which, for those who don’t know, is a space opera that focuses on a never ending interstellar conflict between two factions, the Galactic Empire and the Free Planets Alliance. Alongside its huge emphasis on military tactics, which I am really digging, one thing that really stuck out to me was its strong applicability to International Relations and Foreign Policy. For instance, (spoilers) >!after the Free Planets Alliance captures Iserlohn from the Empire, they do not take the pragmatic route and sue for peace from a position of strength. Instead, they plan and execute an invasion of the Empire, with the goal of liberating the population. However, they ignore serious concerns about logistics, despite strong recommendations by their admirals, because they assume that, since this is a struggle for liberty, the local population would help their efforts. Unfortunately for them, the Galactic Empire’s most competent admiral predicts this move and removes all food supplies from the outlier planets. By the time the Alliance ‘liberates’ them, they get bogged down trying to supply their navy and feed the occupied planets. This operation then becomes a military, political, and humanitarian catastrophe.!< I don’t know about any of you, but this reminded me about the terrible side effects of American foreign policy in the Middle East, especially its 2nd war in Iraq, as well as liberal international relations theory’s inclination to see geopolitics as a struggle between democracies and autocracies.
While I plan to read the books this anime is based off of, I am also interested in reading other book series that explore similar themes. I would prefer novels that are heavily concerned with great power relations with regional powers, geopolitical rivalries between great powers, foreign policy errors, etc. I would also prefer books with moral complexity, especially when extremely hard decisions need to be made to ensure the state survives. For genres, I typically enjoy fantasy, science fiction, and historical fiction, but am open to additional ones.
Oh, nonfiction would be welcome too! I could use the excuse to add to my political science section in my bookshelf lmao.
Thanks a lot in advance, everyone!
by Heirof_Numenor
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China Miéville’s _The City & The City_ and _Embassytown_
Charles McCarry’s _The Tears of Autumn_, as well as the related _Shelley’s Heart_ and _The Better Angels_
Richard Condon’s _The Whisper of the Axe_ and _The Manchurian Candidate_
Ross Thomas’s _The Fools in Town are On Our Side_ and _The Seersucker Whipsaw_
Len Deighton’s _Berlin Game, London Set, Mexico Match_ trilogy
John le Carré’s _The Spy Who Came In From the Cold_
James Grady’s _Six Days of the Condor_
Olen Steinhauer’s _The Tourist_ trilogy (plus the fourth book if you really like them)
Augusto Roa Bastos’s _I The Supreme_
I’m a nonfiction kind of guy so I’ll stay in my wheelhouse. I’d start here:
*Prisoners of Geography* by Marshall
*Command* by Freedman and, if you have time, *Strategy*
*World Order* by Kissinger.
{{The Folding Knife by K. J. Parker}}