Best of the fortnight - 27 January 2023

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.

Global issues

• Podcast: Empathy in decision making, analysis and open source intelligence. Harry Kemsley, Sean Corbitt, Claire Yorke and Marie Sklodowska-Curie for Janes
• Jacinda Ardern and the ‘politics of kindness’. A lasting legacy? Hilde Coffe for the Conversation
• Greta Thunberg’s arrest shows why we must abolish the Energy Charter Treaty. Theresa Kofler and Niels Jongerius for openDemocracy

UK and Europe

• Why some migrants are deemed more deserving than others in Global Britain. Nando Sigona and Michaela Benson for openDemocracy
• Census data shows England and Wales are more ethnically diverse – and less segregated – than ever before. Gemma Catney and Richard Wright for The Conversation
• The feminist movement in Eastern Europe: struggles in a changing landscape. Lucy Martirosyan for openDemocracy
• EU lines up 70 projects to rival China’s Belt and Road infrastructure spending. Barbara Moens for Politico

Russia and Ukraine

• Putin’s miscalculation: deficiencies in Russia’s armed forces. Fred Kaplan in the New York Review of Books
• Ukraine must fight the war but plan for peace. Jonathan Powell for Prospect Magazine
• Many Tanks. Ukraine needs the arms required to win. Peter Caddick-Adams for the  Critic
• Ukraine war: why Poland is piling pressure on allies to increase military support for Kyiv. Christoph Bluth for The Conversation
• Border crossings and troubles. Sheila Fitzpatrick in the London Review of Books
• Germany has a  special  historical  responsibility towards Ukraine  and  should  lead a coordinated European ‘Leopard Plan’ to send modern battle tanks to the  embattled east European democracy. Timothy Garton Ash  for History of the Present
• Ukraine war: Kremlin’s campaign of misinformation keeps Kyiv and its allies guessing. Stefan Wolff for The Conversation
• Russia rekindles its old friendship with South Africa its old ally against apartheid.  Stephen Chan for the Conversation
• Podcast: The future of Ukraine and how middle powers are reshaping the world. Listen to the discussion from Intelligence Squared
• Podcast: Tanke schön: a breakthrough for Ukraine. From the  World Review in the New Statesman

USA

• America’s China policy is clearly not working. Henry M. Paulson Jnr for Foreign Affairs
• We need to preserve American democracy. Here’s how to do it. Richard Haass for the Council for Foreign Relations
• Anti-trans trend in US will inevitably lead to violence. Chrissy Stroop for openDemocracy
• What really took America to war in Iraq. Melvyn P. Leffler for The Atlantic

China

• China’s epidemic of mistrust. How Xi’s covid u-turn  will make the country harder to  govern.  Lynette H. Ong for Foreign Affairs.
• China’s population decline is a result of decades of botched family planning measures and will have global implications. Christina Maags for The Conversation
• Taiwan’s Urgent Task: A Radical New Strategy to Keep China Away. Michael Brown for Foreign Affairs
• China’s New Anti-Uyghur Campaign. James Millward for Foreign Affairs
• Podcast: Covid’s legacy. How will China remember the pandemic? From Chinese Whispers

Asia

• Will India Ditch Russia? Sameer Lalwani and Happymon Jacob for Foreign Affairs
• Uzbekistan’s energy crisis reveals authoritarian habits die hard. Kamil Mamedov for openDemocracy
• What’s next for the Azerbaijani blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh? Bashir Kitachayev for openDemocracy

Latin America

• Peru riots: unrest in southern Andes lays bare an urgent need to decolonise. Alonso Gurmendi Dunkelberg for The Conversation
• Brazil’s military is supposed to safeguard democracy – yet its power and self-image are a problem. Antony Pereira for The Conversation
• The five big challenges for Lula’s presidency of Brazil. Filip Tirado for the Conversation
• More journalists killed in Latin America and Caribbean than Ukraine in 2022. Tom Phillips for The Guardian
• Podcast: Insurrections and elections in Brazil and the US.  A look at disinformation and the role played by social media platforms and how conspiracy theories percolate online.  Listen to Independent Thinking from Chatham House

Middle East

• Huge protest in Israel over rightwing government’s judicial changes. Bethan McKernan for The Guardian
• Israel’s president: Where Iran casts a shadow, human rights recede. Isaac Herzog for Politico
• A crisis of confidence in Egypt. The Economist
• The Arab awakening: when the dream met reality. Benedetta Berti for Engelsberg Ideas

Africa

• Ethiopia after the war. How America’s approach to the country should change. Michelle Gavin for Foreign Affairs
• Gender Freeze. Ebenezer Obadare for Council on Foreign Relations
• Podcast: China in Africa and conflicts in 2023. Listen to Independent Thinking from Chatham House

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