Best of the week - 9 October 2020
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 news
- When will the COVID 19 pandemic end? Excellent overview from Mckinsey and Company
- The unravelling of America: Anthropologist Wade Davis on how COVID-19 signals the end of the American era. Read Rolling Stone
- Go ahead. Laugh at their expense. The mad king and his courtiers learnt a lot about COVID 19. Caitlin Flanagan for the Atlantic
- Philosophy for a Time of Crisis. Eric Weiner in The Wall Street Journal.
UK politics/Brexit
- A look at the European Commission’s initiation of legal proceedings against the UK in respect of provisions in the Internal Market Bill. Read Kenneth Armstrong’s expert analysis.
- Podcast: Can Boris Survive Brexit? From TALKING POLITICS.
US election/politics/foreign policy
- Mike Pence is the future. God help us. Jonathan V Last in the Bulwark
- Lawrence Freedman examines why Trump’s polarisation strategy may only led to defeat. In New Statesman
- Anne Applebaum on how Trump is a super spreader of disinformation and the single biggest reason Americans distrust science, the electoral system and each other. Read the Atlantic
- Trump vs Biden. Who is engaging the most followers on Facebook? Read this interesting analysis from Tristan Hotham in The Conversation
- Rogue Superpower: Why this could be an Illiberal American Century by Michael Beckley in Foreign Affairs
- Trump’s praetorian guard. Jonathan Stevenson in the New York Review of Books
- Podcast: Thomas Friedman and Robert Peston on the final days of the Presidential race from Intelligence Squared
- Podcast: The Ezra Klein Show. Fareed Zakaria on how Biden and Trump see the world and want to shape it.
European affairs
- Macron’s not worried about Muslims, he’s worried about Le Pen. H. A. Hellyer analysis in Foreign Policy
- How to beat the far right. Greece’s Golden Dawn had unlimited momentum until it was stopped by a court case. Read Yiannis Baboulias in the Atlantic
- Is Turkey’s military overstretched? Allison Meakem asks the question in the Economist
- Tainted elections in Kyrgyzstan in the Economist
- Podcast: The Mile End Institute bring us ‘30 Years of German Reunification’: A look at the historical context of a divided (and subsequently reunited) Germany, the 1989-90 revolution, the response of the British Government, and legacies of reunification.
Middle East
Kasra Aarabi looks at the militarisation of Iran’s presidency. The IRGC and the 2021 elections
How the Arab world turned against Hezbollah. Lizzie Porter in Prospect
Jordan’s endless transition. Ursula Lindsey in the New York Review of Books.
In other news
Podcast: International Crisis Group brings us ‘Hold your fire' a series of podcasts which examine international conflict around the world
Podcast: ‘The winner takes it all: the dark side of meritocracy’. We often hear about the idea of meritocracy but philosopher Michael Sandel thinks it isn’t such a good thing. Listen to Reasons to be Cheerful.
Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash
