Brookings Institution Press: 357 books

Participatory Budgeting-the experiment in democracy that could redefine how public budgets are decided in the United States. Democracy Reinvented is the first comprehensive academic treatment of participatory budgeting in the United States, situating it within a broader trend of civic technology...

How to stabilize the security relationship between Washington and Beijing. The U.S.-China relationship has not always been smooth, but since Richard Nixon’s opening in the early 1970s, the two countries have evolved a relationship that has been generally beneficial to both parties. Economic...

Harold Brown served as U.S. secretary of defense when the Soviet Union posed an existential threat with superior conventional force capability and a daunting nuclear weapons arsenal. No one could have been better suited to deter the Soviets during that most dangerous period in the Cold War. A...

In a relatively short time, the EU has become one of the most important actors on the world stage. This updated second edition of The Foreign Policy of the European Union explores the goals and effectiveness of the EU's external actions after adoption of the Lisbon Treaty. The book brings together...

Amid the current turmoil in the Middle East, Understanding Tahrir Square sounds a rare optimistic note. Surveying countries in other parts of the world during their transitions to democracy, author Stephen Grand argues that the long-term prospects in many parts of the Arab world are actually quite...

With distrust between the political parties running deep and Congress divided, the government of the United States goes to war. The war is waged without adequately preparing the means to finance it or readying suitable contingency plans to contend with its unanticipated complications. The executive...

Why are America's public schools falling so short of the mark in educating the nation's children? Why are they organized in ineffective ways that fly in the face of common sense, to the point that it is virtually impossible to get even the worst teachers out of the classroom? And why, after more than...

The paradox of U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia The Obama administration’s pivot-to-Asia policy establishes an important place for Southeast Asia in U.S. foreign policy. But Washington’s attention to the region has fluctuated dramatically, from the intense intervention of the cold war...

China's path to political reform over the last three decades has been slow, but discourse among Chinese political scientists continues to be vigorous and forward thinking. China's Political Development offers a unique look into the country's evolving political process by combining chapters authored...

The United States had never lost a war-that is, until 1975, when it was forced to flee Saigon in humiliation after losing to what Lyndon Johnson called a "raggedy-ass little fourth-rate country." The legacy of this first defeat has haunted every president since, especially on the decision...

American Federalism in Practice is an original and important contribution to our understanding of contemporary health policy. It also illustrates how contentious public policy is debated, formulated, and implemented in today's overheated political environment. Health care reform is perhaps...

The uncertainty and inconsistency surrounding federal and state laws for medical marijuana use, distribution, and research is placing unnecessary obstacles in the way of suffering patients, their families, and the people trying to help them. In The Medical Marijuana Mess, senior fellow John...

All societies face a key question: how to empower governments to perform essential governmental functions while constraining the arbitrary exercise of power. This balance, always in flux, is particularly fluid in today's China. This insightful book examines the changing relationship between that state...

America needs better options for resolving potential crises In recent years, the Pentagon has elevated its concerns about Russia and China as potential military threats to the United States and its allies. But what issues could provoke actual conflict between the United States and either country?...