Warning about War: Conflict, Persuasion and Foreign Policy was voted Best Book by the International Communications section of the International Studies Association, with the judges describing it as “an exceptional project in the critical role of persuasion in foreign policy”.

The book, written by Professor Christoph Meyer (King’s College London), Chiara De Franco (University of Southern Denmark) and Florian Otto (Control Risks), looks at how and when warnings about conflict are listened to and what can be done to improve the effectiveness of warnings in pursuit of preventing future harm.

The authors offer a new theoretical framework explaining how distinct 'paths of persuasion' are shaped by a select number of factors, including conflict characteristics, political contexts, and source-recipient relations.

The book, published by Cambridge University Press, is the first study to integrate persuasion attempts by analysts, diplomats and senior officials with those by journalists and NGO staff. Its comparative design encompasses three states (the US, UK, and Germany) and international organisations (the United Nations, European Union, and Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe) and looks in depth at four conflict cases: Rwanda (1994), Darfur (2003), Georgia (2008) and Ukraine (2014).

The authors will receive their award at next year’s International Studies Association conference.