Reading Groups

Dig into the ideas and history of U.S. foreign policy. Deepen your knowledge of today’s challenges. Study the principles that can animate sound responses in the future. Connect with peers who share your interests.

The John Quincy Adams Society conducts regular reading groups on international affairs. Most groups offer two options for participation: an in-person session at a DC-area restaurant and a digital discussion session aimed at those outside DC or otherwise unable to attend in-person programs. The Society is able to provide copies of the book to eligible participants.

Our reading groups are open to people who meet any of the following criteria:

  • Current undergraduate and graduate students at U.S. universities (including U.S. university students on study abroad at a foreign university) who hope to work in U.S. foreign policy
  • People currently working in U.S. foreign policy
  • People actively seeking work in U.S. foreign policy

Upcoming reading groups:

  • Leap of Faith: Hubris, Negligence, and America’s Greatest Foreign Policy Tragedy by Michael J. Mazarr
    Facilitator: John Allen Gay
    In-person option: Wednesday, March 29 (Register here.)
    Remote option: Monday, April 3 (Register here.)
  • Pacific Power Paradox: American Statecraft and the Fate of the Asian Peace by Van Jackson
    Facilitator: Patrick C. Fox
    In-person option: Monday, April 24 (Register here).
    Remote option: Wednesday, April 26 (Register here).
  • Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump by Spencer Ackerman
    Facilitator: A. J. Manuzzi
    In-person option: Tuesday, June 6 (Registration opens soon).
    Remote option: Wednesday, June 7 (Registration opens soon).

Past reading groups include:

  • The Twenty Years’ Crisis: 1919–1939: An Introduction to the Study of International Relations by E. H. Carr
  • How to Go to Work: The Honest Advice No One Ever Tells You at the Start of Your Career by Lucy Clayton and Steve Haines
  • The Ambassadors: Thinking about Diplomacy from Richelieu to Modern Times by Robert Cooper
  • Psychology of a Superpower: Security and Dominance in U.S. Foreign Policy by Christopher Fettweis
  • Active Defense: China’s Military Strategy Since 1949 by M. Taylor Fravel
  • How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr
  • American Diplomacy by George Kennan
  • Has China Won?: The Chinese Challenge to American Primacy by Kishore Mahbubani
  • The Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams and International Realities by John J. Mearsheimer
  • The Irony of American History by Reinhold Niebuhr
  • Covert Regime Change: America’s Secret Cold War by Lindsey A. O’Rourke
  • The False Promise of Liberal Order: Nostalgia, Delusion, and the Rise of Trump by Patrick Porter
  • Not One Inch: America, Russia, and the Making of a Post-Cold War Stalemate by Mary Elise Sarotte
  • Overreach: How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise by Susan L. Shirk
  • Tomorrow, the World: The Birth of U.S. Global Supremacy by Stephen Wertheim
  • The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War by Craig Whitlock

The Society is also able to sponsor faculty-led reading groups at universities.