Books

Getting Better: Why Global Development Is Succeeding and How We Can Improve the World Even More (Basic Books, 2011). Argues that even where income growth has disappointed, life across the developing world has improved dramatically — people are healthier, better educated, and freer than before — and that by the measures that matter most, development is succeeding.
The Upside of Down: Why the Rise of the Rest Is Great for the West (Basic Books, 2014). Makes the case that America’s so-called decline is only relative to the newfound success of other countries — and that the growing prosperity of the developing world is an opportunity, not a threat.
Results Not Receipts: Counting the Right Things in Aid and Corruption (Center for Global Development, 2017). Argues that the aid world’s focus on policing corruption through controls and paperwork can undermine the very results aid is meant to deliver, and urges a different approach to tackling corruption in development: a focus on outcomes.
Close the Pentagon: Rethinking National Security for a Positive-Sum World (2020). Argues that traditional battlefield warfare is going extinct while the national security threats of the next fifty years — climate change, pandemics, global financial meltdowns — don’t need a military response, and that foreign-policy institutions and budgets should be overhauled toward diplomacy and global engagement.
The Plague Cycle: The Unending War Between Humanity and Infectious Disease (Scribner, 2021). Traces the long contest between people and pathogens, showing how infectious disease has shaped civilisation — and how humanity has steadily turned the tide.
Your World, Better: Global Progress and What You Can Do About It (2021). Written for the smart, engaged middle-school reader, it shows how life has improved across health, wealth, rights, and the environment, and what young people can do to keep it improving. It is available to download free, with all author royalties going to UNICEF.