Christopher Clark’s Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947 is a historical work of the highest tier. Clark writes an excellent summary of the entire history of Prussia from its humble beginnings as Brandenburg—an Electorate within the Holy Roman Empire—to its abolition by the Allies after Germany’s defeat in Second World War.

In last two editions of the Marshall Islands Journal, many contributors have expressed their disappointment at the RMI government in voting against a UN Resolution for a ceasefire in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. Here, I make the case that the RMI made the right vote.

Whereas Volume One of Mein Kampf follows Hitler from his youth as a boy in his native Austria to his early career as a member of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, Volume Two is about the political philosophy and guiding principles of the party. It begins with a general philosophy of the state and its citizens and ends with recommendations for German foreign policy.

If you want to understand Adolf Hitler, not what he did, but why he did, then this is a must-read. Only in the pages of Mein Kampf do we get in the mind of Germany’s future dictator and truly understand his motives and vision of reality—a vision stained by social Darwinism and anti-Semitism.

Pillsbury concludes the book discussing what a China led world order would look like in the year 2049, assuming China is successful at supplanting the USA as the world’s leading superpower—a future where internet censorship is normal, a future with significant air pollution and contamination, not to mention cancer villages, and a future where China proliferates weapons to America’s enemies for profit.

My favorite part about On China is that I felt like a fly on the wall amongst some of the world’s most powerful individuals and their conversations, as the outcome of these conversations would go on to shape geopolitics until our present day.