Book 1: Lessons
Letters to Professionals Starting out in International Development
The foundation of the series. Lessons examines international development through the lens of evidence, institutional learning, and lived experience. Drawing from Malawi, the United Nations, and beyond, it asks a deceptively simple question: what actually works, and why?
Book 2: Beggars in Suits
A Study in Elite Capture and the Corruption of Good Intentions
An examination of how power sustains itself behind the language of reform, advocacy, and development. Beggars in Suits explores the incentives, institutions, and actors that benefit from maintaining the status quo, even while claiming to challenge it.
Book 3: Systemic Nonsense
Untangling the Logic Behind a World That Runs on Illogic
A critique of systems that produce outcomes nobody claims to want. From global governance to development practice, Systemic Nonsense investigates how contradictory incentives, inherited assumptions, and institutional inertia continue to shape decisions and outcomes.
Book 4: Impossible Economies
How Big Governments Have Failed Small Nations Throughout History
Why do some countries remain trapped despite decades of interventions, reforms, and assistance? Impossible Economies explores the historical, political, and economic forces that have shaped development trajectories and examines what sustainable prosperity may actually require.
Book 5: So Wrong for So Long
An Inquiry into How Bad Ideas Survive, and How Good People Enable Them
A study of institutional failure and intellectual humility. So Wrong for So Long examines why flawed assumptions can persist for generations, why evidence is often ignored, and what it takes for individuals and organizations to change course.
Book 6: We Are Still at War
Inside the Quiet Wars Big Powers Still Wage [Without Armies]
A reflection on power in the modern world. Moving beyond traditional definitions of conflict, We Are Still at War explores economic leverage, diplomacy, trade, technology, and the enduring struggle for influence in an increasingly interconnected global system.
Book 7: A New Normal [World 2.0]
What Works? In What Context? Under What Circumstances? Why?
The concluding volume of the series looks forward. Drawing together lessons from governance, economics, technology, and human behavior, A New Normal explores what a more effective, equitable, and evidence-driven future might look like—and how we might build it.
