Foreign Policy

Sponsored Content

The shortlist for the 2024 Lionel Gelber Prize has been selected by an international panel of practitioners, journalists and scholars. This will be the 34th awarding of the prize, which honours the world’s best book on international affairs published in English. The winner of the prize receives a $50K award.

Judith Gelber, chair of the Lionel Gelber Prize Board, emphasized how well the nominated authors represent excellence in their conveying their subject matter.  “The jury has chosen five books that explore topics critical to our understanding of the forces that influence the global economy and international cooperation,” she said. “They each exemplify the values of the Lionel Gelber Prize with elegant writing on important issues.”

The nominees are as follows:

  • Power and Progress: Our 1000-year struggle over technology and prosperity by Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson (PublicAffairs, Hatchette Book Group)
  • Underground Empire: How America weaponized the world economy by Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman (Macmillan, Henry Holt and Co. U.S.; Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Press, U.K.)
  • Homelands: A personal history of Europe by Timothy Garton Ash (Yale University Press)
  • Seven Crashes: The economic crises that shaped globalization by Harold James (Yale University Press)
  • We, The Data: Human rights in the digital age by Wendy H. Wong (MIT Press)


This year’s shortlist was selected by the 2024 Lionel Gelber Prize Jury: University of Toronto’s Prof. Janice Gross Stein; Prof. Rosa Brooks of Georgetown University Law Centre; Prof. Francis J. Gavin of Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and journalists Iain Martin and Eric Reguly.

Stein, chair and longest-serving member of the Lionel Gelber Prize jury panel offered personal congratulations to all authors of the shortlisted titles. “Being shortlisted is the real prize. Every one of these is an important book that is beautifully written and makes a significant contribution. I loved reading every one of them.”

The winner of the prize will be announced on March 6, 2024. The winning author will give a lecture at the Munk School on April 18, 2024. The Lionel Gelber Prize was founded in 1989 by Canadian diplomat Lionel Gelber. The award is presented annually by University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. 

For further information, please visit https://gelber.munkschool.utoronto.ca/ or follow @gelberprize on Facebook and Twitter.