Foreign Policy Blogs

The FPA’s Must-Reads (Jan 25-Feb 1)

Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Kuwait's Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khalid Al-Hamad Al-Sabah chat prior to a group photo in March 2012. Photo Credit: REUTERS/Brendan Smialowski/Pool

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Kuwait’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khalid Al-Hamad Al-Sabah chat prior to a group photo in March 2012. Photo Credit: REUTERS/Brendan Smialowski/Pool

The Spy Novelist Who Knows Too Much
By Robert F. Worth
The New York Times Magazine

Gérard de Villiers, an 83-year-old Frenchman and author of the longstanding S.A.S. series, has been cranking out novels at a rate of roughly four to five a year for fifty years.  The Times profiles the author and the “geopolitical acumen” surrounding his work.

Live, from Beirut…
By Mitchell Prothero
Foreign Policy

Lebanon’s media reflects the diversity of the country, which “isn’t a country so much as it’s a place, full of people,” according to one of Prothero’s friends, but with little mixing of ideas.  It’s with this in mind that Prothero sets out to see if the media’s diversity can help communities move away from a culture of polarity.

Palestine: How Bad, and Good, Was British Rule?
By Avishai Margalit
The New York Review of Books

British rule in Palestine last roughly thirty years from 1917 to 1948.  While thirty years may not be much for a country with a three-thousand year history, it’s had a profound effect on Palestine — and Israel — today.  At the end of the day, how does British rule stack up against Israeli rule in Palestine today?

The Doctor, the CIA, and the Blood of Bin Laden
By Matthieu Aikins
GQ

The story of Dr. Shakil Afridi–the man believed to have played a crucial part in the killing of Osama bin Laden, and who is in Pakistani prison serving a prison term for treason–isn’t just one of the latest tensions between America and Pakistan. It’s a microcosm of the relationship, featuring both the players (CIA, ISI, Islamist terrorists) and the motivations (nationalism, revenge, suspicion, counter-terrorism, and money) that hold sway in U.S.-Pakistani relations.

State and the Stateswoman
By Michael E. O’Hanlon
Foreign Affairs

Secretary Clinton’s legacy may be a matter of hot debate.  O’Hanlon reflects on the high points, Clinton’s strengths and weaknesses as secretary of state, and if this legacy will have an effect on what happens in 2016.

Blogs:

Uncertainty About Yair Lapid and the Peace Process by Rob Lattin
What’s on the Menu for France in 2013? by Maxime Larive
Ending “Doormat Politics” In Somalia by Abukar Arman
The Economics of U.S. Foreign Policy by Julia Knight
Timbuktu’s Cultural Treasures & the ICC by Kimberly J. Curtis