The Lionel Gelber Prize

The winner of the 2025 Lionel Gelber Prize is To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power by Sergey Radchenko

Jury Chair and University Professor Janice Stein reflected, “Sergey Radchenko has written a masterpiece. To Run the World made me think differently about the Cold War that took place last century and think differently about what Russia is doing now. Rich in original material, laced with wonderful stories so beautifully told, this is a magisterial history for our times.”

Chosen by a jury of international journalists, practitioners and scholars, the Gelber Prize is awarded annually to the best book on international affairs published in English. The Prize is presented by the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. The winner will receive $50,000.

The winner will be announced on March 19, 2025. The winning author will take part in a hybrid event hosted by the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy on April 9, 2025.

An international panel of practitioners, journalists and scholars has announced the shortlist for the 2025 Lionel Gelber Prize. This will be the 35th awarding of the prize, which honours the world’s best book on international affairs published in English. The winner will receive $50,000 CAD and will be chosen from the following five titles:

• Dollars and Dominion: US Bankers and the Making of a Superpower by Mary Bridges (Princeton University Press)
• The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America's Invasion of Iraq by Steve Coll (Penguin Random House)
• The Good Allies: How Canada and the United States Fought Together to Defeat Fascism during the Second World War by Tim Cook (Penguin Random House Canada)
• To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement by Benjamin Nathans (Princeton University Press)
• To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power by Sergey Radchenko (Cambridge University Press)