Best of the fortnight - 8 October 2021
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Each week BISA Director, Juliet Dryden, scours the internet for IR-related content that might interest you. Since she was unable to bring you a 'Best of the week' last week, this week's edition of 'Best of the week' is actually a 'Best of the fortnight' covering the past two weeks. Take a look at the fortnight's best readings and podcasts to keep you up to date with what's happening around the world.
Global issues including COP26
- What’s the point of this year’s UN climate summit in Glasgow? Federica Genovese and Patrick Bayer in The Conversation
- Beyond reasonable doubt. Climate science and the limits of appropriate scepticism. Lawrence M Krauss for Prospect Magazine
- COP26. How the UK started the climate crisis. Adam Ramsay for Open Democracy
- A manifesto for justice for COP26 and beyond. Faharna Yamin in the World Today
- The fake history of civilized states. So called civilizational states including Russia, China and India invoke face histories to justify and buttress their contemporary political settlements. Christopher Coker for Engelsberg Ideas
- Podcast: Have I got Tooze for you. Adam Tooze on Covid, climate & learning from history. What is the response to Covid around the world and what it means for everything from the rise of China to the future of the Green New Deal. Listen to Reasons to be Cheerful with Ed Miliband and Geoff Lloyd
- Podcast: How Network Effects Rule the World. Google, Facebook, Apple, and Uber are just some of the enormous companies that derive part of their value from network effects: the more users they have, the more value they provide. Serial entrepreneur and early-stage investor James Currier is one of the world’s foremost experts on networks, and on the companies that use them best. He joins Azeem Azhar to discuss how companies with network effects dominate markets, and why their influence will likely continue to grow. Listen to Exponential View
- Podcast: Connectivity and conflict. A more interconnected world was supposed to bring us closer together, but Mark Leonard, director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, says the opposite has occurred. He argues that technology and a lack of joined up thinking is affecting communication on every level. From standoffs between nation states to individuals hurling insults on social media. Listen to Intelligence Squared.
UK and Europe
- Global Britain is becoming a stooge of the US. Victoria Honeyman in The Conversation
- Podcast: Is Identity politics is tearing society apart or is it a call for social justice for everyone? Debate: For the motion Lionel Shriver and founding chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission Trevor Phillips. Against the motion Labour politician David Lammy and Guardian journalist, the late Dawn Foster. Listen to Intelligence Squared podcast
- Podcast: Who gets on in modern Britain? Sociologist Sam Friedman argues Britain faces a powerful ‘class ceiling’ that affects who can access certain jobs and then progress in them. From Reasons to be Cheerful podcast series
- How revelations about Czech PM could push country further from the EU. Felip Kostelka in The Conversation
- Podcast: From Bismarck to Merkel. Why German chancellors always matter more than we think. A look back at some of the great pre- and post-war German chancellors and the impact they have had on Europe and on Britain. Listen to Christopher Clark , Katja Hoyer, Timothy Garton Ash and Matthew Karnitschnig. From Westminster Insider podcast series
- Podcast: German politics. Politico’s chief Europe correspondent Matthew Karnitschnig explores the consequences of the German elections. Who were the real winners and losers? Are there lessons for centre-left parties in other countries, including the Labour Party in Britain? From TALKING POLITICS.
United States
- The rot of democracies; If American succumbs to its internal divisions, to its preoccupation with partisan feuding and its desire to withdraw from international politics, the world order, such as it is, will crumble. Eliot A Cohen for the Atlantic.
- Biden wants to convince the UN that America is back. The world is not so sure. Richard Gowan for Politico
- Podcast: Downstream: Could Donald Trump win in 2024? Listen to Nina Turner, co-chair of the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, to discuss the American left under Biden, the prospect of Donald Trump running in 2024 and how American workers can build a more progressive politics. From Novara Media
- Podcast: What is the future of the West? Iain Martin is joined by leading security and international relations experts to discuss the legacy of 9/11, the future of Western-led interventions and the meaning of the NATO exit from Afghanistan. Can the West continue to shape world order or is it being replaced?
China
- Beijing and the UN. Fifty years on. Rosemary Foot for the Diplomat
- China is a declining power and that’s the problem. Hal Branda and Michael Beckley in Foreign Policy
- Why China is changing the world. Backlash is building but China can’t seem to recalibrate. Peter Martin in Foreign Affairs
- Taiwan: How the ‘porcupine doctrine’ might help deter armed conflict with China. Zeno Leoni in The Conversation.
Afghanistan
- The last days of interventionism. Afghanistan and the delusions of maximalism. Rory Stewart in Foreign Affairs
- What the war in Afghanistan could never do. Adam Sewer for the Atlantic
- Podcast: Avoiding another Afghanistan: Could Al-Shabaab Seize Power in Somalia? Many people in the Somali capital Mogadishu watched with apprehension as the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan. Could Somalia, struggling against its own Islamist insurgency, Al-Shabaab, face a similar fate? From Hold your Fire? An International Crisis Group podcast.
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