Best of the fortnight - 22 October 2021

Each fortnight 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.

Getting ready for COP26

• Think big on climate. The transformation of society in months has been done before. George Monbiot in the Guardian
• The key insight that defined 50 years of climate science. Robinson Meyer in the Atlantic
• Joe Biden is in no position to lecture the world on climate change. Aaron White in Open Democracy
• Storms lie ahead in clash of climate champions. The global warming battle is not for the faint hearted says Bernice Lee for Chatham House
• Podcast: Funding innovation to fight climate change. Fighting the climate crisis requires investment, innovation, and on-the-ground know-how. How can innovative climate tech companies make it to the market and why are workers at Silicon Valley’s biggest companies flocking to fight climate change. Listen to Exponential View.

United States

• Them and us. How America lets its enemies hijack its foreign policy. Ben Rhodes for Foreign Policy
• The end of American militarism: Biden must confront Washington’s addiction to force. Andrew J Bacevich and Annelle Sheline in Foreign Affairs
• Resistance is futile. How the war on terror supercharges state power. Thomas Hegghammer in Foreign Affairs
• Taiwan needs unambiguous American support. Richard Haass and David Sacks for Foreign Affairs
• Podcast: The life and career of Colin Powell. Listen to the Daily from the New York Times.

China

• Remembering Liu Xiaobo’s moral critique of modern China. Kerry Brown for Engelsberg Ideas
• How China escaped shock therapy. The market reform debate. Rebecca E Karl for the London Review of Books
• How Hong Kong’s elite turned on democracy. Tom McLaughlin for the Atlantic
• Will Europe ever really join the United States in confronting China? Stephen M. Walt for Foreign Policy
• Podcast: China, friend or foe? Is China an enemy that needs to be reined in, or a potential partner with whom the West should engage? Hear the arguments and decide for yourself. Listen to Intelligence Squared.

UK and Europe

• Britain’s distasteful soccer sellout. Tom McTague for the Atlantic
• Not so great Britain: The UK’s hapless part in the US-Australian submarine deal exemplifies the post-Brexit nation’s problems. How to stay relevant in world affairs after jilting its biggest trade and diplomatic partner, the EU. Jonathan Stevenson in the  New York Review of Books.
• Infernal allies. Over the past century, the Anglo-French relationship has at times been testy, even violent. But when the chips are down, Britain and France find a way of getting along. James Barr for Engelsberg Ideas
• Éric Zemmour: the far right polemicist’s ideas have a long history in France. Alain Policar in The Conversation
• The Balkans Question: The future of the Balkans is being decided by a clash between the liberal idealists and conservative realists. Timothy Less for Engelsberg Ideas
• Each side needs the other. Warsaw and Brussels win no win battle over rule of law. David M Herszenhorn, Lili Bayer and Maia de la Baume in Politico
• Péter Márki-Zay: Hungarian opposition’s ‘non-political’ candidate may not be enough to beat Orbán. Umut Korkut in The Conversation
• What has happened to Western Europe’s centre right. Tim Bale and Cristobal Rovira Kaltwasser for The Conversation
• Podcast: Can we fix capitalism? Should capitalism be reformed or replaced? Former Greek Finance Minister and economist Yanis Varoufakis and Gillian Tett US editor at large at the Financial Times discuss and debate their visions for a post-COVID economy
• Podcast: ‘Free’.  Lea Ypi, Professor of Political Theory at LSE talks about what it really means to be free drawing upon her own childhood in Stalinist Albania.  From Marxism to liberalism and back again, this is a conversation that brings political ideas to life. From TALKING POLITICS.

Middle East. Afghanistan, Myanmar, Hong Kong

• What the loss of freedom feels like. Kim Ghattas in The Atlantic
• Order before peace. Kissinger’s Middle East diplomacy and its lessons for today. Martin Indyk for Foreign Affairs
• Biden’s Syria policy threatens normalising Assad’s crimes. Charles Lister in Foreign Policy
• Syrian war crimes. Will justice be lost in translation? Charlotte Bailey in the New Humanitarian
• Russia is not a Mideast superpower. Washington shouldn’t overhype the threat from Russia. Frederic Wehrey and Andrew S .Weiss in Foreign Affairs
• Yemen: talks between Saudi Arabia and Iran offer hopes for an end to bitter seven year war. Simon Mabon in The Conversation
• In Lebanon: Stefan Tarnowski for the London Review of Books
• Egypt: lost possibilities. What the revolution opened up in our lives beyond activism and then eventually took away. Yasmine El Rashidi  for the New York Review of Books
• Afghanistan shows the American dream of remaking the world is over. John Gray in the New Statesman
• Podcast: The decision of my life. Listen to how one 18-year-old woman’s life has been transformed under Taliban rule. From the Daily, a New York Times podcast
• The deadly stalemate in post-coup Myanmar. A special report from International Crisis Group.

The best of the rest

• Podcast: The aristocracy of talent: An exploration of the historical origins of meritocracy and how such a revolutionary concept has become corrupted and subject to attack from all sides of the political spectrum. With Adrian Wooldridge and Emma Barrett. A podcast from the Mile End Institute.

Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash