The FPA’s Must Reads (August 16-23)

M3 Lee tank, training exercises, Fort Knox, Kentucky, United States in 1942. [Alfred Palmer]Can We Trust Google With the Stratosphere?
By Will Butler
The Atlantic

Google’s latest plan, Project Loon, aims to drastically expand Internet access to regions usually without it. But there are legal issues involved with its “idealist” balloons, such as in the airspace they wish to fly or the unprecedented proprietary technology, not to mention the debate over whether or not these devices count as drones. Google is navigating the open space of the law on its journey to the skies.

How Turkey Went From ‘Zero Problems’ to Zero Friends
By Piotr Zalewski
Foreign Policy

Turkey’s previous policy of “zero problems with neighbors” has cracked under the strain in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. With Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s bombastic approach to the Egyptian coup being slammed by Israeli and Egyptian government officials, the non-interference policy has come to an end, and Turkey has found  the region is less willing to bend to its will than previously expected.

How Laura Poitras Helped Snowden Spill His Secrets
By Peter Maass
The New York Times Magazine

Documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras has focused her reporting and documentary filmmaking on survelliance and national security for years. While used to receiving emails from potential sources, she received an email from a stranger with a staggering amount of information, each email followed by some version of “This I can prove.” That stranger was Edward Snowden.

Bradley Manning trial revealed a lonely soldier with a troubled past
By Paul Lewis
The Guardian

Bradley Manning’s defense team painted a tragic portrait of a lonely and confused young soldier with childhood full of neglect, from an alcoholic mother to his well-documented gender identity disorder. Manning claimed he entered the military to qualify for the educational scholarships that would pay for his university. Little did he know he was to become Fort Meade’s most famous recruit.

Evolve or Expire
By Tarek Osman
Foreign Affairs

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood will be facing a clash in the coming weeks and years. Tarek Osman claims the group will likely witness a painful internal rift dividing those who want to give in to victimhood and respond to violence with violence and those who realize that it is time to move on, leading to the Brotherhood’s fragmentation.

Blogs:

All eyes on China as Cargo Vessel Takes to the North by Mia Bennett
On the Ground in Egypt: Two Views from Two Egyptians by Justin Scott Finkelstein
Airing Out the Situation Room by Jason Anderson
Ecuador Reverses Course by Joe Gurowsky
India Should Not Leave Nawaz Sharif Hanging by David J. Karl