Benjamin Isakhan, Shamiran Mako and Fadi Dawood’s edited collection State and Society in Iraq is a timely volume reminding us of the dynamism and long-standing activism of Iraq’s diverse constituencies and their historical and ongoing resistance to state dictates.

Alyssa Ayres’ Our Time Has Come: How India is Making its Place in the World is an ambitious, evidence-packed and tightly argued celebration of India’s economic and political rise.

Eileen Chanin’s Capital Designs: Australia House and Visions of an Imperial London is a meticulously researched and illustrated account of the little-known history of the Australian High Commission in London.

In Bapak Angkatan Udara: Suryadi Suryadarma, Adityawarman Suryadarma gives a biographical account of his father’s life and career as the founder of Indonesia’s air force.

Kenneth B Pyle’s Japan in the American Century taps the author’s extensive knowledge of Japanese history to deliver an in-depth and important account of Japan as it rises, falls and rises again.

Brendan Taylor’s The Four Flashpoints: How Asia Goes to War is a model of policy-engaged scholarship that should be required reading for anyone interested in understanding contemporary threats to peace in the Asia-Pacific region.

In Rise and Resist, Clare Press takes a look at the developments in 21st-century democracy.

“Intelligence and the Function of Government”, edited by Daniel Baldino and Rhys Crawley, contains a great deal of useful material on the Australian Intelligence Community (AIC), intelligence issues and intelligence in relation to government.

Island off the Coast of Asia – Instruments of Statecraft in Australian Foreign Policy written by Clinton Fernandes is a radical analysis of the genesis and development of Australia's foreign policy. It is an essential if depressing read for those wishing to understand the origins of our external policies.

ASEAN expert Shaun Narine offers an exhaustive analysis of the organisation’s history, institutions and international linkages with a view to determining its role in the next decade.