FPA’s Must Reads (May 17-24)

 

A pedestrian carrying an umbrella walks through a Memorial Day display of United States flags on the Boston Common in Boston, Massachusetts May 23, 2013. According to the Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund, the flags are planted on the Common for fallen Massachusetts service members at the Memorial Day holiday, which will be celebrated May 27 in the U.S.
REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Russian Spy Games
By Edward Lucas
Foreign Affairs

The Cold War may have officially ended and the rest may be the new policy, but Russia and the U.S. are still adversaries, says Lucas. While Ryan Fogle’s, the 29-year-old third secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, gamble may seem absurd, the extraordinary thing about the case is actually that the Russians made it such a public scandle, which are by convention not published. But with Putin’s regime facing a recession and a decline in popularity, renewing anti-Westernism with a spy scandle should come as no surprise.

Tocqueville in China
By Rebecca Liao
Dissent

Tocqueville’s been imported to China, and after a plug by China’s anti-corruption czar, has become one of the best-selling titles in the last few months. Liao examines China’s fascination with Tocqueville and the relevance of the text to the modern Chinese government.

A Day in the DRC
By Armin Rosen
The Atlantic

Goma, a city of roughly one million inhabitants in the province of North Kivu, DRC, is a city “built by conflict” but not defined by it. A thoughtful piece on a trip through this city in the “conflict-prone” province of North Kivu.

An ‘Epic’ Mess in Iran
By Abbas Milani
The New Republic

With a list of vetted candidates due to be announced on Tuesday, Khamenei’s so-called “epic election” seems like it might be on the rocks. Former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who announced his candidacy at the last minute and who has been shunned by the mouthpieces of Ahmadinejad and Khamenei, has put Khamenei in a lose-lose situation: Throw him out and lose the “epic election” or allow him to run, thereby failing in his eight-year mission to discredit him.

Pulp Liberation Army
By Isaac Stone Fish and Helen Gao
Foreign Policy

Military fantasy novels are far from new — as Fish and Gao note, Tom Clancy can imagine a situation where the U.S. attacks Beijing all he wants. In China, however, facing strict censorship and unforgiving review boards, these fantasies of foreign wars and invasion are not permitted to be published, forcing authors online. In the process, these novels have become vehicles of self-reflection, exploring Chinese identity through imagined conflicts.

Blogs:

A Candid Discussion with Eric Trager by Reza Akhlaghi
Somalia and the Slippery Slope of ‘Jubbaland’ by Abukar Arman
India, Pakistan and China: The importance of regional powers in a post-U.S. Afghanistan by Tyler Hooper
Beyond the Amended Arab Peace Initiative by Justin Scott Finkelstein
Analysis: The Arctic Council’s Kiruna Vision by Mia Bennett