Among this year's books on international politics, economics, and history, Foreign Affairs has named The Assault on the State: How the Global Attack on Modern Government Endangers our Future (Polity Press) by political scientists Jeffrey Kopstein, UC Irvine, and Stephen Hanson, William & Mary, one of its top selections for 2025. The book is among Foreign Affairs’ 36 overall picks for the year, and one of the top three in the political and legal category.

In the Assault on the State, Kopstein and Hanson argue for the defense of modern government against forces intent on its destruction. The reviewer notes: "Hanson and Kopstein persuasively argue that the global backlash against 'unelected bureaucrats' will lead not to freer societies but to ones marked by corruption and authoritarianism. They warn of a return to a premodern form of political rule, whereby private interests overseen by a strongman leader appropriate state power for their own narrow ends."

Kopstein is a Dean's Professor of political science at the University of California, Irvine. He’s written widely on democracy and dictatorship, political violence, and comparative politics. Hanson is the Lettie Pate Evans Professor of Government at William & Mary and author of numerous scholarly books and articles on Russian, post-communist, and European politics in comparative perspective.

Check out a Q&A with the coauthors as they outline critical factors and actors contributing to the erosion of democratic institutions, the need for effective strategies that may reverse this slide, and what the future holds if current trends are left unchecked.