6 Books on the Diplomacy That Stopped Wars, and the Diplomacy That Didn't

Diplomacy is not only about preventing wars between states; it is also about preventing societies from becoming so divided that dialogue itself becomes impossible. In Arguably Contentious, former Vice President of India M Hamid Ansari examines this broader meaning of diplomacy through the fault lines shaping India and the wider world.

His reflections on secularism, pluralism and the “idea of India” acquire particular resonance in the current political scenario. His close attention to West Asia also offers a valuable lens on how India must balance interests with principles. The book ultimately makes a compelling case for dialogue and restraint in an increasingly polarised world.

Buy here: Arguably Contentious: Thoughts on a Divided World

If diplomacy is the art of preventing conflict, Interventions is also a record of what happens when that art falls short. Drawing on more than four decades at the United Nations, including ten years as Secretary-General, Kofi Annan takes readers behind the scenes of some of the defining crises of the modern era—from Kosovo, Lebanon and Israel-Palestine to the bitter divisions over the Iraq War.

Just as importantly, he confronts the UN’s failures in Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur, showing how the absence of political will can turn diplomacy’s warnings into tragedies. His account is particularly relevant to a world still grappling with wars where international institutions struggle to translate consensus into action.

Buy here: Interventions: A Life in War and Peace

Steve Coll’s The Achilles Trap examines the decades-long relationship between Saddam Hussein and the United States, revealing how misread intentions, secrecy, paranoia and distorted intelligence gradually narrowed the space for diplomacy. By reconstructing Saddam’s worldview alongside the calculations of American policymakers, diplomats and intelligence officials, Coll shows how assumptions can become dangerous when they harden into policy.

The book offers a sobering lesson for today’s geopolitical rivalries: adversaries do not necessarily act according to the logic we assign to them. When leaders mistake their own assumptions for an understanding of the other side, diplomacy can become a pathway not to peace, but to war.

Buy here: The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the United States and the Middle East, 1979-2003

The Cold War offers perhaps the clearest reminder that peace can exist alongside the constant possibility of catastrophe. In The World of the Cold War, Vladislav Zubok revisits the confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union, challenging the familiar narrative of a straightforward ideological struggle that ended with the triumph of one side.

Instead, he places diplomacy, decolonisation, Soviet weakness, non-Western actors and historical contingency at the heart of the story. His account reveals how treaties, strategic calculations and fragile understandings helped keep an intensely divided world from descending into direct superpower war.

Buy here: The World of the Cold War 1945-1991

Bruce Riedel’s JFK’s Forgotten Crisis brings different sides to the pivotal war of 1962: the Sino-Indian War. He offers a detailed account of Kennedy’s response to China’s invasion of India and his efforts to prevent the conflict from widening.

The book explores the complex history behind the China-India rivalry, including Tibet and the origins of the disputed border, while revealing the diplomatic calculations that shaped Washington’s response. It also sheds light on Kennedy’s engagement with India and Pakistan, including efforts to keep Pakistan from entering the conflict.

At its heart, JFK’s Forgotten Crisis is a study of war, diplomacy, leadership and the consequences of decisions made when regional conflicts threaten to become something much larger

Buy here: JFK's Forgotten Crisis: Tibet, the CIA, and the Sino-Indian War

Target Tehran offers a behind-the-scenes account of Israel’s long campaign to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, revealing how espionage, cyber operations, sabotage, targeted killings and diplomacy have been woven together as instruments of statecraft.

Yonah Jeremy Bob and Ilan Evyatar trace the increasingly complex confrontation between Israel and Iran, including Israel’s cooperation with the United States and the use of intelligence gathered from a covert Mossad operation to challenge Iran’s declarations about its nuclear programme. Beyond the covert operations, the book explores how the Iranian nuclear question has reshaped the wider Middle East.

Buy here: Target Tehran

History rarely offers a simple formula for preventing war. Sometimes diplomacy succeeds because leaders recognise the cost of escalation; at other times, mistrust, miscalculation and political ambition close the door to compromise. From the Cold War to West Asia, from the Sino-Indian conflict to Iraq, the pattern remains strikingly familiar: wars are often shaped long before the first shot is fired.

Reading these books offers a deeper understanding of the choices, calculations and failures that shape moments of crisis. They show that diplomacy is rarely dramatic when it works—it is often a conversation sustained, a misunderstanding corrected, or a compromise made before the world notices how close it came to catastrophe.

Perhaps that is the enduring lesson of history: peace is not simply the absence of war, but the presence of people willing to prevent it.

Your next read: How to Think Like a Diplomat: 10 Books on Negotiation and Strategy