Governing the World (Penguin Books)

This is the compelling and provocative history of world government, from acclaimed author Mark Mazower. It is shortlisted for the RUSI 2013 Duke of Wellington Medal for Military Literature. In 1815 the shocked and exhausted victors of the decades of fighting that had engulfed Europe for a generation agreed to a new system for keeping the peace. Instead of independent states changing sides, doing deals and betraying one another, a new, collegial 'Concert of Europe' would ensure that the brutal chaos of the Napoleonic Wars never happened again. Mark Mazower's remarkable new book recreates two centuries of international government - the struggle to spread values and build institutions to bring order to an anarchic and dangerous state system.