FPA’s Must Reads: April 19-26

People celebrate in front of the Paris City Hall on April 23, 2013, hours after the French National Assembly adopted a bill legalizing same-sex marriages and adoptions for gay couples, defying months of opposition protests. In its second and final reading, a majority of lawmakers approved the bill by a vote of 331 to 225. AFP PHOTO / BERTRAND GUAYBERTRAND GUAY/AFP/Getty Images

The Rise of Big Data
By Kenneth Neil Cukier and Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger
Foreign Affairs

The Internet may have transformed the way we do business, live and govern, but a lesser-known technological trend, “big data,” has also been making waves. The premise — that we can learn more from a large body of information things than from smaller amounts — doesn’t just shape communication, but is altering how we comprehend society as a whole.

In Defense of Henry Kissinger
By Robert D. Kaplan
The Atlantic

“To be uncomfortable with Kissinger is…only natural,” says Kaplan. It may be easy to look back and condemn these measures knowing there’s an end in sight that doesn’t involve all-out nuclear war. His realism is “analytically timeless,” and he’s become a measure of 20th and 21st century statesmanship.

In the Kenyan Cauldron
By Joshua Hammer
The New York Review of Books

Kenya’s election in March was supposed to demonstrate the country’s move into the modern, post-tribal era, says Hammer, and Uhuru Kenyatta was the symbol of that transformation. With an indictment from 2011 by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity in the aftermath of the 2007 elections, Kenyatta’s reformist image was tainted by a darker reputation, one that he seems to want to brush away.

The Wanderer
By Yulia Yuzik
Foreign Policy

It isn’t easy to be Degi Dudayev, son of the late Dzhokhar Dudayev — president of a briefly independent Chechyna. And, despite his father’s history and influence, he hasn’t picked up the mantel of Chechen independence; he’s stayed transient, dwelling in Lithuania, away from the usual Chechen immigrant communities in Europe.

Inside America’s Dirty Wars
By Jeremy Scahill
The Nation

In an effort to hunt down Anwar al-Awlaki, an American of Yemeni descent and member of Al Qaeda, the U.S. ended up with two other dead American citizens — one, an editor for Inspire, the AQAP English language magazine, and the other al-Awlaki’s eldest son. Scahill investigates the strike, whether it was a mistake, and why the adminstration hasn’t publicly acknowledge it as such.

Blogs:

Venezuela Election Wrap-Up by Marie Metz
As NATO Draws Down, Feuding Neighbors’ Elections May Heat Up by Jason Anderson
The Beginning of History: European addiction with the extremes by Maxime Larive
A Candid Discussion with Ramin Jahanbegloo by Reza Akhlaghi
Boston Bombers: Is America’s Skewed Asylum System to Blame? by Vadim Nikitin