Best of the week - 12 February 2021

12 February 2021

Each week 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.

COVID-related

Populism in the pandemic age. Will the COVID-19 crisis fuel populism, or extinguish it? Jeremy Cliffe in the New Statesman
Europe’s vaccine crisis has revealed to the UK and Ireland the true nature of the European Union. Helen Thompson in the New Statesman
Podcast: How can Europe recover from the economic consequences of COVID-19? An interview with Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank from the Economist Podcast series.

United States

Biden rises to America’s crisis. Andrew Adonis in Prospect Magazine
What will Donald Trump’s foreign policy legacy be? Lawrence Freedman in the New Statesman
Podcast: A guide to the (latest) Impeachment trial from The Daily
Short of war: how to keep US-Chinese confrontation from ending in calamity. Kevin Rudd in Foreign Policy
Accomplice to carnage: how America enables war in Yemen. Robert Malley and Stephen Pomper in Foreign Affairs
The case against foreign policy solutionism. Why the Biden Administration should manage global problems not try to solve them. Richard Fontaine in Foreign Affairs.

Russia

Face off: the most extraordinary struggle between Vladimir Putin and Alexei Navalny. Luke Harding and Andrew Roth in the Guardian
Navalny and co: brave journalists risking everything to hold Putin to account. Elisabeth Schimpfössl and Ilya Yablokov in The Conversation
Putin’s Palace. Read Tony Wood in the London Review of Books.

Rest of the world

The Arab Spring: when the US needed to step up, it stood back - now all eyes on Biden. Michelle Bentley in The Conversation
After a decade of conflict, the same old problems remain after the Arab Spring. Simon Mabon assesses the situation in The Conversation
Saudi Arabia’s houses of horror for disobedient women. Read Ola Salem’s harrowing account in Newline Magazine
Why are Al Qaeda in Iran? Cole Bunzel in Foreign Affairs
Why did it take a coup? The military’s takeover in Myanmar has prompted a re-evaluation of the military’s role in society. Timothy McLaughlin in the Atlantic
Podcast: The last untamed frontier from Intelligence Squared. A discussion about the world’s oceans. Too big to police, and under no clear international authority, these immense regions of treacherous water play host to rampant criminality and exploitation. Ian Urbina speaks to Helen Czerski about the piracy, smuggling, beauty and danger of our oceans
Podcast: The coup in Burma: a discussion with Thant Myint-U on the latest developments in Burma (Myanmar), following the overthrow of Aung San Suu Kyi's government. What prompted the generals to act? What do the protestors want? And what does it mean for the future of Burmese democracy? From TALKING POLITICS
Podcast: Why Rihanna cares about the farmers’ protests in India (and you should too), and other issues such as Myanmar, the Proud Boys, the double standards when critiquing Israel, and the political situation in Haiti. From Pod Save the World
Podcast: Bentham on pleasure. Listen to an analysis of Jeremy Bentham’s Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation as a definitive early statement on utilitarianism: how do we achieve the greatest happiness of the greatest number? This History of Ideas podcast looks at Bentham’s rationale for this approach and the many criticisms it has faced.