Foreign Policy Blogs

FPA’s Must Reads (March 29 to April 5)

A member of the Free Syrian Army holds his weapon as he sits on a sofa in the middle of a street in Deir al-Zor April 2, 2013.  REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

A member of the Free Syrian Army holds his weapon as he sits on a sofa in the middle of a street in Deir al-Zor April 2, 2013.
REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

Land of Many Nationalisms
By Helen Gao
Dissent

Chinese leaders are increasingly finding themselves walking a tight line between two forms of “love of country”: One, the chest-thumping nationalism founded on resentment of foreign powers pushing China around; the other, a more introspective form, focusing on the challenging realities of life in the People’s Republic.

Will Clinton’s Agenda Survive?
By Kathleen Parker
Newsweek

Although Hillary Clinton’s push for an international movement of women and girls started in 1995, her work at the State Department truly institutionalized this global movement — through a ripple effect, the “Hillary effect.” The question begging now, of course, is can the “Hillary effect” sustain itself without Madame Secretary at the helm?

The Next Korean War
By Keir A. Lieber and Daryl G. Press
Foreign Affairs

North Korea’s recent gush of threats against South Korea and the West has issued in reassurances from politicians in the U.S. and beyond. But, as Lieber and Press say, the threat of nuclear war on the peninsula is not a remote idea, and Washington should act accordingly.

Sultan Erdogan: Turkey’s Rebranding Into the New, Old Ottoman Empire
By Cinar Kiper
The Atlantic

To some, the notion that a revived Ottoman Empire is on the rise, soon to replace the Europe-facing, Western-dressing modern nation of Turkey. But is that really what Erdogan’s going for?

The Jew in the Box
By Benjamin Weinthal
Foreign Policy

“The Whole Truth,” an exhibit at the Jewish Museum Berlin, was sure to cause some controversy, centering itself around Jews from around the world (one at a time) sitting in a plexiglass box answering questions about “Jewishness” and Judaism. Yet in an effort — likely a well-intentioned one — to explain Judaism to the German public and normalize German/German-Jewish relations, “The Whole Truth” has tapped into a complex and wobbly relationship between Germans and German Jews, to say the least.

Blogs:

A Candid Discussion with Barbara Slavin by Reza Akhlaghi
Is Lebanon’s Disassociation Policy Coming to an End? by Alexander Corbeil
Holy War: A One-Sided Affair by Tim LaRocco
The Great Latin American Class Debate by Richard Basas
Security in the Sahel: U.S. Partnerships Can Resolve Crisis by Calvin Dark