TORONTO – Books that explore the emergence of a new China, the manipulative goals of authoritarian Russia, and the end of post-war democracy are on the short list for the Lionel Gelber Prize.

The five titles include Elizabeth C. Economy’s “The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State” from Oxford University Press and Timothy Snyder’s “The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America” from Tim Duggan Books.

Also on the list is Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt’s “How Democracies Die,” published by Crown.

The jury also liked Rania Abouzeid’s “No Turning Back: Life, Loss, and Hope in Wartime Syria” from W.W. Norton & Company, and Adam Tooze’s look at the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis, “Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World,” from Viking.

Founded in 1989 by Canadian diplomat Lionel Gelber, the $15,000 award honours non-fiction books in English on foreign affairs that seek “to deepen public debate on significant international issues.”

It is presented annually by The Lionel Gelber Foundation in partnership with Foreign Policy magazine and the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. The winner will be announced Feb. 26.