The 10 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:

Paul Ehrlich, The Population Bomb.

The first of many, many, many books in which Ehrlich argued that the world's population was growing at an unsustainable rate, outstripping global resources and leading to inevitable mass starvation. Ehrlich's book committed a triple sin. First, he was wrong on the specifics. Second, by garnering so much attention by being wrong, he contributed to the belief that alarmism was the best way to get people to pay attention to the environment. Third, by crying wolf so many times, Ehrlich numbed many into not buying actual, real environmental threats.

Read about another book on Drezner's list.

Also see: Top 10 books for students of international relations.

--Marshal Zeringue