Best of the fortnight - 28 January 2022

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.

Russia/Ukraine

• Geopolitics – the key to understanding Russia foreign policy. Gabriel Gorodetsky for Engelsberg Ideas
• The Putin Doctrine. A move on Ukraine has always been part of the plan. Angela Stent in Foreign Policy
• Ukraine isn’t the West. Richard Sakwa for the Spectator
• The Ukraine crisis is reminding NATO why it was formed in the first place. Mark Webber for The Conversation
• The war in Ukraine could have global consequences. Human suffering, economic shock and geopolitical realignment. Read more in the Economist
• Some believe Putin has not only Ukraine, but the whole of the West, exactly where he wants it. A more balanced consideration is in order.  Eliot A Cohen for the Atlantic
• Is conflict inevitable when core regions overlap? Charly Salonius-Pasternak for Engelsberg Ideas
• The battle for the future of the West. The real prize in Ukraine is the end of American influence in Europe. Tom McTague in the Atlantic
• Ukraine a country wounded by eight years of crisis. Stefan Wolff and Tatyana Malyarenko for The Conversation
• The US in naïve about Russia. Ukraine can’t afford to be. Anne Applebaum in the Atlantic
• Ukraine and Russia: two countries whose memories of a shared past could not be more different. Felix Krawatzek and George Soroka
• Podcast: Standoff in Ukraine: the politics that led to a crisis. Fiona Hill for Intelligence Squared.

The United States

• Don’t call Biden a failed president yet. Gary Gerstle in the Guardian
• The overstretched superpower. Does America have more rivals than it can handle? Hal Brands in Foreign Affairs
• A report card on Joe Biden’s first year in office. Clodagh Harrington and Alex Waddan in The Conversation
• Lost innocents. The US’s shameful failure to protect civilians. Sarah (Holewinski) Yager in Foreign Affairs
• Podcast: Biden gets a supreme court pick. Listen to its implications from the Daily podcast
• Podcast: American civil war - One year on from Biden’s inauguration. What’s gone wrong and what’s the strategy behind this presidency? From TALKING POLITICS.

China

• What does Xi JinPing want? The Chinese leader won’t let the West’s qualms about his country’s human rights record stand in the way of making China the world’s most successful economy. Kerry Brown for Prospect Magazine
• Podcast: Politics and language: decoding the CCP. Listen to a discussion on the power of political language and how the Chinese Communist Party makes the most of it. And why it’s important to control the historical narrative. With Rana Mitter and Bill Bishop. From Chinese Whispers.

Middle East

• Generation Gaza. The young have pride despite privations. Veteran war correspondent Janine di Giovanni revisits Gaza and finds resilience and hope among its 2 million Palestinian residents—two thirds of whom are under the age of 25. Vanity Fair
• Lost illusions. Sylvain Cypel’s transformation from liberal Zionist to ferocious critic of Israel. David Shulman in the New York Review of Books
• Video: Lebanon. A state on the brink. Two years on from a disastrous economic crisis, a new video from Crisis Group shows a street level view of Beirut’s despair giving voice to those living in a state nearing collapse.

The best of the rest

• God is back. From the rise of Islamic extremism to American evangelism, the twenty-first century is seeing a religious renaissance. Adrian Wooldridge for Engelsberg Ideas
• In the superstate: What is technopopulism? Wolfgang Streeck for the London Review of Books
• Podcast: The next big thing. What’s coming in the tech revolution and who will it shape our politics. Listen to TALKING POLITICS
• Podcast: Anti-vax sentiments. Rivka Galchen looks at two recent books on the history of vaccine opposition and reluctance, from smallpox to covid, including the role of 'Big Supplement' and the effectiveness of mandates. An LRB podcast.

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