Best of the week - 30 April 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.
Best of the best!
- The new battle of ideas. How an intellectual revolution will reshape society. Paul Collier in the New Statesman
- The contradictions of Edward Said. Why the intellectually restless author of Orientalism was an icon to the left but an irritant to everyone else. Thomas Meaney in the New Statesman
- Podcast: Communicating evidence to policymakers. Politicians and civil servants are hungry for data to help design effective policy. How do we best collect and communicate this evidence - to support good governance and public accountability? Listen to David Spiegelhalter on Risky Talk
- Podcast: Difficult woman. A celebration of the history of feminism in 11 fights. Listen to Helen Lewis in Intelligence Squared.
Getting ‘reading ready’ for COP26
- Immobility: The neglected flipside of the climate displacement crisis. Kira Walker for the New Humanitarian
- Podcast: The dream not just the nightmare. A vision for tackling the environmental crisis. Listen to Reasons to be Cheerful with Ed Miliband and Geoff Lloyd
- Podcast: Can the US win back its climate credibility? Listen to the Daily podcast with Coral Davenport.
Covid around the world
- What history tells us about post-pandemic booms. The Economist
- ‘We are witnessing a crime against humanity’. Arundhati Roy on India’s Covid catastrophe
- Podcast: Fear and loss. Inside India’s coronavirus crisis. Listen to the Daily with Jeffrey Gentleman
- Bolsonaro’s death drive. The Brazilian President has engineered a humanitarian catastrophe. Julie Blunck in Prospect Magazine
- Jair Bolsonaro has created a calamity. Alfredo Saad Filho and Fernanda Feil for The Conversation.
Global affairs, issues and ideas
- Joe Biden was a boring candidate. Now he draws comparisons with FDR. Are they justified? Read more from the Economist
- Biden’s ‘stratagem’ is not a grand strategy for a superpower. Marwan Bishara for Al Jazeera
- What comes after the forever wars. An era of US grand strategy comes to an end. What should come next? Stephen M Walt in Foreign Policy
- The most dangerous place on earth. American and China must work harder to avoid a war over the future of Taiwan. Read more from the Economist
- Israel and Iran are pulling the United States toward conflict. David C Hurtzer, Aaron David Miller and Steven N Smith in Foreign Affairs
- Female soldiers are changing how armed forces work. The Economist.
China
- China’s self-defeating economic statecraft. How not to win allies and influence geopolitics. Audrye Wong in Foreign Affairs
- The strong armed philosophy of the Chinese state isn’t new. Roel Sterckx for Engelsberg Ideas
- The jarring reality Hong Kong’s dissidents see from jail. Timothy McLoughlin in the Atlantic.
Europe and Russia
- The triumph of the Motherland. Does nostalgia for the Soviet Union define and sustain the modern Russian nation? Arkady Ovstovsky for Engelsberg Ideas
- Europe needs to embrace China’s threat to the world. Hal Brands for Bloomberg Opinion
- Philanthropic Imperialism: France’s grant plan for the Western Sahel. Stephen W Smith in the London Review of Books
- Podcast: After Merkel, what? Listen to Hans Kundnani talk about the prospects for German politics in the run-up to September's federal elections, now that the cast list of possible successors to Merkel is known. From TALKING POLITICS.
Asia, Middle East and Africa
- Armenia’s history of grief. Neil Hauer in Foreign Policy
- Why Mohammed Bin Salman suddenly wants to talk to Iran. Trita Parsi in Foreign Policy
- Israel tries its hand at ‘maximum pressure’ on Iran. Michael Koplow in World Politics Review
- After the two state solution. New Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts must focus on equality. Marwan Muasher in Foreign Affairs
- The Palestinians need a new approach. Time for a new beginning. Hussein Agha and Ahmad Samih Khalidi in Foreign Affairs
- Mozambique would become Africa’s next piracy hotspot. Sebastian Rowe-Munday for World Politics Review
- Podcast: What Deby’s death means for Chad and the region. Listen to Crisis Group experts Richard Moncrieff and Claudia Gazzini from Hold your Fire! an International Crisis Group podcast.
Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash
