Books and glasses

Best of the fortnight - 28 January 2022

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Each fortnight BISA Director, Juliet Dryden, scours the internet for IR-related content that might interest you. Here she brings you this week's best readings and podcasts to keep you up to date with what's happening around the world.

Russia/Ukraine

The United States

China

  • What does Xi JinPing want? The Chinese leader won’t let the West’s qualms about his country’s human rights record stand in the way of making China the world’s most successful economy. Kerry Brown for Prospect Magazine
  • Podcast: Politics and language: decoding the CCP. Listen to a discussion on the power of political language and how the Chinese Communist Party makes the most of it. And why it’s important to control the historical narrative. With Rana Mitter and Bill Bishop. From Chinese Whispers.

Middle East

The best of the rest

  • God is back. From the rise of Islamic extremism to American evangelism, the twenty-first century is seeing a religious renaissance. Adrian Wooldridge for Engelsberg Ideas
  • In the superstate: What is technopopulism? Wolfgang Streeck for the London Review of Books
  • Podcast: The next big thing. What’s coming in the tech revolution and who will it shape our politics. Listen to TALKING POLITICS
  • Podcast: Anti-vax sentiments. Rivka Galchen looks at two recent books on the history of vaccine opposition and reluctance, from smallpox to covid, including the role of 'Big Supplement' and the effectiveness of mandates. An LRB podcast.

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