Foreign Policy Blogs

The FPA’s Must Reads (January 11 – January 17)

1024px-Barack_Obama_speaks_at_Camp_Lejeune_2-27-09_4

President Barack Obama speaks to service members and civilians during a visit to Camp Lejeune, N.C.(M. Ayotte)

60 Words And A War Without End: The Untold Story Of The Most Dangerous Sentence In U.S. History
Buzzfeed
By Gregory D. Johnsen

Just three days after 9/11, the U.S. Congress passed the Authorization for Use of Military Force, a document authorizing the president to take necessary action against these attackers. Twelve years later, it is still as active as ever. Johnsen’s account of how the balance of power has shifted from the legislative branch to the executive branch is truly a must read.

President Obama’s NSA reforms show both promise and peril
The Verge
Verge Staff

The Verge clearly breaks down this Friday’s speech by addressing NSA reforms and compares it against the reforms proposed by an independent review panel last year.

The hunt for Mukhtar Ablyazov: Banker, criminal, fugitive, victim?
Euromoney
By Eliot Wilson

The former head of the BTA bank Mukhtar Ablyazov would like to think he is Kazakhstan’s very own Khodorkvosky, a victim of unjust political persecution. Eliot Wilson tells the dramatic story of how this post-Soviet oligarch may actually have come much closer to emulating America’s very own Bernie Madoff.

The Odd Sheikh Out: A Complex Problem
War On The Rocks
By Adam Elkus

Exploring a fictional scenario, Adam Elkus draws real life lessons about the roles of uncertainty, difficulty and complexity as social problems in the conduct of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Inside the Incredible Booming Subterranean Marijuana Railroad
GQ
By Jason Kersten

Jason Kersten reports on the rapidly growing underground tunnels pumping tons of marijuana across the Mexican border into the United States.

Blogs:

A Candid Discussion with Kamran Bokhari of Stratfor by Reza Akhlaghi
Mao Revisited by Gary Sands
Data Driven: Global Cancer Control Through Understanding and Partnership by Elyse Lichtenthal
Sderot Media Center: “Gaza must be taken under consideration in the peace talks” by Rachel Avraham
Oil companies real beneficiaries of forthcoming extension of Canadian highway to Arctic Ocean by Mia Bennett