Christopher J. Coyne’s In Search of Monsters to Destroy: The Folly of American Empire and the Paths to Peace (2022) (henceforth In Search of Monsters) is a profound and timely examination of the U.S. government’s interventions abroad and their consequences on domestic freedoms and global relations. Using historical and contemporary cases, this book critiques the hubris of empire-building, pointing out its incompatibility with genuine liberal principles. In Search of Monsters builds on Coyne’s important work on the political economy of foreign intervention, and on his research on the efforts by the U.S. government to engender change in other societies through a variety of interventions.

KEYWORDS: Christopher Coyne, In Search of Monsters to Destroy, Authoritarianism, Democratization, The Middle East