Best of the week - 29 January 2021
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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.
Something to cheer us all up
- Podcast: Live long and prosper: learning from the world’s longevity hotspots. Reasons to be Cheerful with Ed Miliband and Geoff Lloyd.
COVID-related
- The pandemic disaster that might not matter. Will the country’s vaccine drive leave a more lasting legacy than the death toll? Tom McTague in the Atlantic
- Coronavirus vaccines. Expect details. A report from the Economic Intelligence Unit
- Podcast: Biden’s pandemic problem from Politics Weekly Extra
- Podcast: COVID-19 and the vaccine: a shot of hope and a return to normal? Listen to Intelligence Squared.
Global politics
- What the United States can learn from the past 50 years about its place in the world. Jonathan Tepperman and Fareed Zakaria in Foreign Policy
- The return of great power diplomacy: read about the ideas behind the original conception of the UN and the spirit of Locarno. Andrew Ehrhardt for Engelsberg Ideas
- Nineteen conflict prevention tips for the Biden Administration. A report from the International Crisis Group.
United States
- America is back. The delusion of normalcy that haunts the United States. Liam Kennedy in The Conversation
- The last chance for American internationalism. Confronting Trump’s illiberal legacy. Hal Brands in Foreign Policy
- Joe Biden and the attractions of Augustine. Read Alexander Lee’s essay in Engelsberg Ideas
- Can Joe Biden restore America? Emily Tamkin in the New Statesman
- History’s lesson for Biden: stuff happens. Niall Ferguson for Bloomberg Opinion.
UK
- Union in crisis as poll reveals voters want a referendum on Scottish independence. Tim Shipman and Jason Allardyce in the Times
- The UK international aid commitment. A report from the Institute for Global Change.
Europe
- Soul searching in Europe. Amelia Hadfield in The Conversation
- Charlie’s war. France’s problem with Islam. Jeremy Harding in the London Review of Books
- How Alexey Navalny changed Russian politics forever. Thomas Rowley in Open Democracy
- Alexei Navalny’s return adds to Putin’s worries. Read Liana Semchuk in The Conversation
- The beginning of the end for Putin? An interview with Gary Kasparov in Foreign Policy
- Germany is pouring cold water on the Biden-Europe love fest. Should we expect transatlantic trouble? Constanze Stelzenmuller in Foreign Policy
- Armin Laschet is no Angela Merkel. He may still win the German chancellorship. What would his programme look like? Paul Lever writes for Prospect Magazine
- Podcast: A look at Germany, Italy, coalitions and vaccines. Listen to this week’s TALKING POLITICS
- Podcast: Listen to Aleksei Navalny and the future of Russia from the Daily podcast.
Middle East/Africa
- Biden verses the dictators: will the new President’s Middle East policy finally prioritise human rights over realpolitik? Ruth Michaelson in Prospect Magazine
- US strategy in Syria has failed. The US must accept it can’t rebuild a failed state. Robert S. Ford in Foreign Affairs
- After IS. Patrick Cockburn in the London Review of Books
- Arab spring, European winter. Read H A Hellyer in Politico
- Qatar makes up with its neighbours but will it last? Mustafa Menshawy in The Conversation
- Don’t sacrifice Jordan for Saudi-Israeli peace. Michael Sharnoff in Foreign Policy
- Sisi’s last stand as he jails opponents and human rights defenders. Abdulrahman Mansour in Foreign Policy
- The United States must move forwards, not backwards on Iran. A return to the nuclear deal would be a mistake. Amos Yadlin and Ebtesam El-Ketbi in Foreign Affairs
- The case against the Iran deal. Michael Oren and Yossi Klein Halevi in the Atlantic
- The myth of a responsible withdrawal from Afghanistan. Read Laurel Millar in Foreign Affairs
- Ethiopia’s long war. Read Maaza Mengiste in the London Review of Books
- On ‘rooftop of Africa’ Ethiopia’s troops hunt fugitive former rulers. The New York Times.
Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash
