What We’re Reading

Preei Aroon Niall Ferguson’s The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West. Shorter Ferguson: All the violent conflicts in the 20th century were due to a combination of economic volatility and ethnic friction in areas of imperial decline. Just read the intro and the epilogue of this 654-page tome, and ...

By , a former managing editor of Foreign Policy.
604099_war_of_the_world_15.jpg
604099_war_of_the_world_15.jpg

Preei Aroon

Preei Aroon

Henry Bowles

  • The Uncontainable Kurds, by Christopher de Bellaigue in the New York Review of Books. A lengthy examination of Kurdish politics in Turkey that grapples with what an increasingly autonomous Kurdistan will mean for the Kurdish diaspora.

NASA/Wallops

Mike Boyer 

  • Greenland’s Glaciers Take a Breather, by John Tierney at his new blog at the New York Times. Turns out Greenland’s glaciers aren’t melting after all.
  • Viewpoint, by Sarah Vine in the Times of London. Pierre Baynard, a French literary professor, has written a book that explains how to pretend you’ve read books you haven’t. Sorry, professor, but that’s something folks in Washington mastered long ago.

Michael Cognato

  • The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia is more than a decade old, but Peter Hopkirk’s landmark book is as relevant now as it ever has been. Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the former Soviet states of Central Asia have been host, prize, and foil to great power schemes for more than a century. The real-life scheming and adventures are far more intriguing than fiction ever could be.

Prerna Mankad

  • Recasting the Euro-Atlantic Partnership (pdf), by Franklin D. Kramer and Simon Serfaty. This paper from the Center for Strategic and International Studies recommends the creation of a new “Euro-Atlantic Forum” to coordinate what are now ad hoc arrangements between the EU, individual European countries, NATO, and the United States. But will creating more bureaucracy really help solve the problems with the existing bureaucracy?

Carolyn O’Hara

  • Taking on Guantanamo, by Marie Brenner. Vanity Fair, March 2007. I never watched JAG. But if the military lawyers on the television show had been half as compelling as the JAGs who sued President Bush because they think his military tribunals are unconstitutional, I would have tuned in for sure.

Kate Palmer

  • Across Arab World, a Widening Rift, by Anthony Shadid. Washington Post, Feb. 12, 2007. The Sunni-Shiite rift in Iraq is old news; more and more, sectarian violence is breeding mistrust, hostility, and instability throughout the Middle East region and beyond, the Post reports.

Blake Hounshell is a former managing editor of Foreign Policy.

More from Foreign Policy

The USS Nimitz and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and South Korean Navy warships sail in formation during a joint naval exercise off the South Korean coast.
The USS Nimitz and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force and South Korean Navy warships sail in formation during a joint naval exercise off the South Korean coast.

America Is a Heartbeat Away From a War It Could Lose

Global war is neither a theoretical contingency nor the fever dream of hawks and militarists.

A protester waves a Palestinian flag in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, during a demonstration calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. People sit and walk on the grass lawn in front of the protester and barricades.
A protester waves a Palestinian flag in front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, during a demonstration calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. People sit and walk on the grass lawn in front of the protester and barricades.

The West’s Incoherent Critique of Israel’s Gaza Strategy

The reality of fighting Hamas in Gaza makes this war terrible one way or another.

Biden dressed in a dark blue suit walks with his head down past a row of alternating U.S. and Israeli flags.
Biden dressed in a dark blue suit walks with his head down past a row of alternating U.S. and Israeli flags.

Biden Owns the Israel-Palestine Conflict Now

In tying Washington to Israel’s war in Gaza, the U.S. president now shares responsibility for the broader conflict’s fate.

U.S. President Joe Biden is seen in profile as he greets Chinese President Xi Jinping with a handshake. Xi, a 70-year-old man in a dark blue suit, smiles as he takes the hand of Biden, an 80-year-old man who also wears a dark blue suit.
U.S. President Joe Biden is seen in profile as he greets Chinese President Xi Jinping with a handshake. Xi, a 70-year-old man in a dark blue suit, smiles as he takes the hand of Biden, an 80-year-old man who also wears a dark blue suit.

Taiwan’s Room to Maneuver Shrinks as Biden and Xi Meet

As the latest crisis in the straits wraps up, Taipei is on the back foot.