Gary Bass, the William P. Boswell Professor of World Politics of Peace and War at Princeton University, is the author of Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia (Knopf); The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide (Knopf); Freedom's Battle: The Origins of Humanitarian Intervention (Knopf); and Stay the Hand of Vengeance: The Politics of War Crimes Tribunals (Princeton University Press).

Judgment at Tokyo won the Arthur Ross Book Award from the Council on Foreign Relations, was the finalist for the Mark Lynton History Prize, a finalist for the Cundill History Prize, and longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize. It was named one of the year’s 10 best books by The Washington Post, one of the 12 essential nonfiction books by The New Yorker, one of the 100 notable books by The New York Times, one of the 10 essential books by The Telegraph, and a New York Times Book Review editors’ choice, as well as a best book of the year by The Economist, Foreign Affairs, and Air Mail. It was the book of the week in The Observer and The Sunday Times.

The Blood Telegram was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in general nonfiction and won the Arthur Ross Book Award from the Council on Foreign Relations, the Bernard Schwartz Book Award from the Asia Society, the Lionel Gelber Prize, the Cundill Prize in Historical Literature, the Robert H. Ferrell Book Prize from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, and the Ramnath Goenka Award in India. It was a New York Times and Washington Post notable book of the year, and a best book of the year in The Economist, Financial Times, The New Republic, and Kirkus Reviews. Freedom's Battle was a New York Times notable book of the year and a Washington Post best book of the year. 

Bass has written articles for International Security, Ethics, Philosophy & Public Affairs, The Yale Journal of International Law, and other journals, as well as numerous book chapters in edited volumes. A former reporter for The Economist, he writes often for The New York Times, and has also written for The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, and other publications.

He won the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching, Princeton’s highest recognition for teaching, as well as the Stanley Kelley Teaching Prize in the Politics Department. A.B. Harvard College, Ph.D. Harvard University.

Selected Publications

Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2023).

The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013).

Freedom’s Battle: The Origins of Humanitarian Intervention (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008).

Stay the Hand of Vengeance: The Politics of War Crimes Tribunals (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000).

Selected Honors and Awards

Pulitzer Prize finalist in general nonfiction.

Council on Foreign Relations' Arthur Ross Book Award.

Asia Society’s Bernard Schwartz Book Award.

Lionel Gelber Prize.

Cundill Prize in Historical Literature.

Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations’ Robert H. Ferrell Book Prize.

Ramnath Goenka Award.