Best of the fortnight - 6 May

6 May 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.

Global Politics

How to save the postwar order. The United States should rethink its defence of the system. Michael J. Mazarr in Foreign Affairs
Can nuclear deterrence preserve the long peace between major powers? Lawrence Freedman for Engelsberg Ideas
Eve of a foreign policy revolution. Melissa Conway charts the growth of feminist influence in foreign affairs and the challenges still to be overcome.
The trouble with the ‘free world’. Why it’s a bad idea to revive the cold war concept. Peter Slezkine in Foreign Affairs.
Podcast: Does China want to change the international rules-based order? A look at China's attitude to and involvement in international organisations, past and present. With Rana Mitter, a historian at the University of Oxfodr and Yu Jie, senior research fellow at Chatham House among guests. A Chinese Whispers podcast.

Russia and the Ukraine War

Russians at war. Putin’s aggression has turned a nation against itself. Andrei Kolesnikov for Foreign affairs
Liberation without victory. Zelensky explains what Ukraine needs to survive. Anne Applebaum and Jeffrey Goldberg in the Atlantic
Our hypocrisy on war crimes. The US history of moral evasiveness around war time atrocities undermines the very institution that might eventually bring Putin and his subordinates to justice: The international Criminal Court. Finton O’Toole in the New York Review of Books
Russian tests and Putin threats recall the nuclear fears of the Cold War. Michael Mulvihill for the Conversation
Ukraine and words that lead to mass murder. First comes the dehumanisation and then comes the killing. Anne Applebaum for the Atlantic
Why Washington should take Russian nuclear threats seriously. Stephen M. Walt for Foreign Policy
The problem with Russia’s sanctions busting arms industry. Daniel Salisbury for the Conversation
How the West can drive a wedge between India and Russia. Jack Watling & Sidharth Kaushal for Engelsberg Ideas
Why India chose a path of ‘proactive neutrality’ on Ukraine. Swaran Singh for the Conversation
Podcast: Should we be headed for the bunker? As the war in Ukraine continues to grind on, will anything change the current balance on the ground? Listen to Deep State Radio with Rosa Brooks of Georgetown University discusses with Max Boot of the Washington Post, Suzanne Nossel of PEN America, and Angela Stent of the Brookings Institution. A New Statesman podcast.

Russian history

Podcast: The Rest is History. A new four part series on the later years of the Soviet union, its fall, Putin’s early life and his subsequent years in power with Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook

Episode 1: Young Putin, the KGB and the Soviet Union. Was Putin a nationalist or a communist? What changed from Brezhnev to Gorbachev? What was Putin doing in East Germany during the Soviet twilight years?
Episode 2: The Fall of the Soviet Union. From the 70th anniversary of the Russian Revolution in 1987 to the fall of the Soviet Union on Christmas Day 1991, this episode is jam-packed full of late Soviet drama. Tune in now to hear about the abuse Yeltsin received after his attempted suicide, the failed Soviet coup of 1991 and Putin's return from East Germany.
Episode 3: Yeltsin, Economic Chaos and President Putin 'You certainly won't understand what ordinary Russians see in Vladimir Putin if you don't understand what happened in the 1990s. A time of utter, utter collapse.' In part three of our Soviet Union, Russia and Putin series, Tom and Dominic drill down into the details of the chaos in 90s Russia, the laughing stock
Episode 4: Putin's Russia 'In the noughties, Russian democracy becomes a form of show business' In the final instalment of our Russia mini-series, Tom and Dominic reach the climax of Putin’s rise to power, charting how a former KGB agent managed to climb from relative obscurity to become the uncrowned Tsar of Russia. The episode also touches on his relationship with oligarchs such as Roman Abramovich, the hall of mirrors he's created, and a look at how his character has changed over the course of his presidency.

UK and Europe

Macron won and so did the far right. Yasmeen Serhan for the Atlantic
Macron’s victory is good news for Ukraine. Paul Lever for Prospect Magazine
Could Macron be forced to appoint Lean-Luc Melenchon as prime minister? Ido Vock for the New Statesman
What is the EU’s role in wartime? The Ukraine invasion has shown both the strengths and the limitations of Europe’s foreign and security policy. Paul Lever for Prospect Magazine
Podcast: What next for France, Europe and the World? An analysis of one of the most intense elections in Europe of recent years with Sophie Pedder, Paris bureau chief at The Economist and author of ‘Revolution Française: Emmanuel Macron and the Quest to Reinvent a Nation’, and Ben Judah from the Atlantic Council. From Intelligence Squared
Podcast: Do we get the leaders we deserve? A live debate on British politics with David Runciman, professor of politics at Cambridge University, Stephen Bush, a political columnist and associate editor at the Financial Times, Hannah White, deputy director of the Institute for Government, Billy Bragg, singer-songwriter, Dr Rachel Clarke, a NHS palliative care doctor and Lucy Nethsingha, a Lib Dem politician.