Foreign Policy Blogs

The FPA’s must reads (June 5–12)

Photo Credit: Annette Bernhardt via Flickr

Photo Credit: Annette Bernhardt via Flickr

The Hillary in Our Future
Michael Tomasky
The New York Review of Books

In this review of Peter Schweizer’s Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich, Tomasky looks at the controversy surrounding the donations from foreign governments to the Clinton Foundation and the speaker fees paid to Bill and Hillary. The issue, notes Tomasky, is the media is currently “[n]ot primed to investigate, or primed to scrutinize, or even primed to rake over the coals.” Instead, it’s “[p]rimed to take down” to the Clintons.

The Poet Who Died for Your Phone
By Emily Rauhala
Time

Emily Rauhala tells the story of Xu Lizh, a 20-something factory employee and poet who committed suicide in September 2014. Xu’s poetry sheds light on the lives of those factory workers charged with an array of electronic devices, as well as on the wave of suicides that brought their plight to the world’s attention.

The Missing Forty-Three: The Government’s Case Collapses
By Francisco Goldman
The New Yorker

Since the disappearance of 43 students in the Mexican city of Iguala eight months ago, the country has faced countless street protests, and its government has struggled with “an unprecedented credibility crisis” both at home and abroad. Francisco Goldman, who has been reporting on the incident for months, outlines some of the newest developments in the case.

What is Code?
By Paul Ford
Bloomberg

At 38,000 words, Paul Ford’s essay on the nature of code, hardware and everything in between might take more than one sitting. You’ll even get a personalized certificate of completion if you make it through the whole piece, so don’t be surprised when your browser tries to access your webcam.

Passion Points
By Eli Epstein
Mashable

There’s more to recent technological developments than hooking up your refrigerator to the Internet of Things or being able to program your coffee maker with your phone. In this Mashable piece, Eli Epstein looks at three stories showing how some recent technological developments has empowered and inspired people around the world.

Blogs:

Beijing Asserts, Hanoi Beefs Up by Gary Sands
Jeb Bush’s Bush Problem by Hannah Gais
BURDEN OF PEACE: A Candid Discussion with Filmmaker Joey Boink by Paul Nash
U.S. Policy Toward China: New Maps to Navigate Islands and Banks? by George Paik
Regulating Against Corrupt Practices, FIFA Edition by Richard Basas