Best of the week - 5 March 2021

5 March 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

Lesson from a year of Covid. A year of scientific breakthroughs and political failures. What we can learn for the future? Yuval Noah Harari in the Financial Times.
Vaccines alone will not eliminate Covid. We need a long-term post-lockdown vision. Philip Ball in Prospect Magazine
It’s only a matter of time before we turn on the unvaccinated. Nick Cohen in The Guardian
China must stop hiding its vaccine data. Eyck Freymann and Justin Sebbing in Foreign Affairs
To democratize vaccine access, democratize production. Matthew M Kavanagh, Mara Pillinger, Renu Singh and Katherine Ginsbach in Foreign Policy
Can humanity conquer the virus? John Gray in the New Statesman
Podcast: Can Bill Gates vaccinate the world? Listen to the Daily podcast.

Global politics

Opening up the order. How to make the world order more inclusive. Anne-Marie Slaughter and Gordon LaForge in Foreign Affairs
Development depends on more than aid. A new US agency promises to harness the power of private investment. Gayle E Smith in Foreign Affairs
From Syria to China, dictators are still getting away with murder. Jonathan Freedland in the Guardian.

UK/Europe

Why the government must reverse its drastic cuts in aid to Yemen. Philip Collins in the New Statesman
Fake letters to politicians. It’s ok to test whether MPs reply to constituents. Philip Cowley in The Conversation
Emmanuel Macron promised a new French liberalism. Now he’s crushing it. Louise Michel in Prospect Magazine
Podcast: Northern Ireland: Past, Present, Future. Historians Richard Bourke and Niamh Gallagher about the history of Northern Ireland's relationship to the rest of the UK. Listen to TALKING POLITICS.

United States

Colossal restrained. Renewal at home requires restraint abroad. Charles A Kapchun
America is back. But can the allies ever trust it again? Daniel Baer in Foreign Policy
To hell with unity. Finton O’Toole in the New York Review of Books
Christopher Lasch – contrarian critic of America’s elites. Matthew Goodwin for Engelsberg Ideas

China

What could cause a US-China war? Joseph S. Nye Jr for the Project Syndicate
Podcast: China in the 90s: why did it rise? Listen to Rana Mittar, Helen Thompson and Niall Ferguson talk to Iain Martin about what happened to China in the 90s, and what created the conditions for China's spectacular rise in the new millennium.