Call for Professional Reading Lists

[Cyrano]

Lot of great books on these lists, but there's been a few I've found especially informative and enjoyable that I haven't seen so far:

Inside CIAs Private World: Declassified Articles from the Agency's Internal Journal 1955-1992 , selected and edited by H. Bradford Westerfield.

There's a lot of good material about the CIA out there, but you can't beat now-declassified articles by actual CIA agents and analysts (the agency has an internal journal, Studies in Intelligence weblink: https://www.cia.gov/library/center-f...ies/index.html , aimed at improving their methods). Besides being a fascinating glimpse into the methods of the organization, many of them are brilliant pieces by some of the finest minds the agency has to offer. The pieces examining methods of political analysis are invaluable for the improvement of one's mental toolbox, but the whole book was incredibly exciting to me. Heuer's piece on the Nosenko case was great too.

Also I'd recommend, America Unrivaled: The Future of the Balance of Power, edited by G. John Ikenberry. It's a collection of highly readable and exhilarating essays by international relations theorists offering their explanation of the state of the world as of 2001, when it was published. Kenneth Waltz and Stephen Walt have my two favorite essays, but none of them are dull or unpersuasive. For anyone who wants to interpret foreign policy on the largest scale; that of grand strategy and the international system.

Also great, but needing no explanation are:

The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, by Paul Kennedy.
Perception and Misperception in International Politics, by Robert Jervis.

I think someone already mentioned Command in War, by Martin van Creveld, but that's a risk I'm willing to take.