Best of the week - 3 July 2020

3 July 2020

Each week 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.

COVID-related news

Engelsberg Ideas: Peter Frankopan on why the crisis has the capacity to be apocalyptic

Down but not out? Globalisation and the threat of COVID-19. Read the new report from the Economist Intelligence Unit

Why singing spreads coronavirus. Natasha Hinde looks at the science for the Huffington Post

Podcast: What went wrong in Brazil? Listen to the Daily.

UK Politics

The fatal delusions of Boris Johnson. Finton O’ Toole for the New Statesman

Britain needs to build a better brand. Mark Dejevsky for Unherd

Podcast: Talking Politics on Brexit in the age of COVID with Anand Menon, Catherine Barnard and Helen Thompson.

US-China Relations

Are the USA and China entering a new Cold War? Timothy Garten Ash looks for at the long term in the Guardian

Stephen Walt in Foreign Policy looks at the reasons behind the U.S.-China Cold War

How China scammed Hong Kong? Li Zheng Lian takes a look for the New York Times.

USA politics and election

Benghazi probe offers a road map for Trump’s Russian bounty briefing. Read Kyle Cheney’s analysis in Politico

Will Biden be a surprisingly active President?

Why America is losing the information war. Nina Jankowicz for Unherd

Unpresidented: the world of Trump. Finton O’Toole for the New York Review of Books

Podcast: Can he do that? A new podcast series from the Washington Post. How did the Founding Fathers see the American presidency? Jeffrey Rosen, president of the National Constitution Centre, offers explanations for why there aren’t more limitations on what the president can do, and how the role has evolved over time.

Economy

Podcast: Listen to Reimagining capitalism for a broken world from Exponential View with Azeem Azhar.

Middle East

With only $7.7 billion in Syrian aid pledged, Steven Erlanger for the New York Times argues this is not nearly enough to stop Syria in its downward spiral

Talk of annexation in the West Bank and the failure of any peace process

Podcast: With the imminent annexation of parts of the West Bank listen to The Hundred Years War on settlement, occupation and struggle in Palestine with Rashid Khalidi from Novara Media.