The FPA’s Must Reads (August 2-9)

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad (2nd R) attends Eid al-Fitr prayers at Anas bin Malek mosque in Damascus August 8, 2013, in this handout photograph released by Syria ‘s national news agency SANA. Syrian rebels said on Thursday they targeted al-Assad’s motorcade heading to a Damascus mosque to mark the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, but state television showed him unharmed and the government denied he had been attacked.
REUTERS/SANA/Handout via Reuters

Soldiers of Misfortune
By Colum Lynch
Foreign Policy

David Bax, a former military engineer, came to Somalia to teach American-backed peacekeeping forces to avoid al-Shabab’s bombs. He’s stirred up controversy in his effort to save a crew of relief workers from an attack by militants in Mogadishu. Instead of receiving an award, his U.N. career may now be on the line.

A Save-the-World Field Trip for Millionaire Tech Moguls
By Max Chafkin
The New York Times Magazine

Scott Harrison started charity: water in 2006 as an answer to conventional philanthropy — its inefficiency and over-the-top celebrity culture. Now he’s leading a trip for millionaire tech mogols through Ethiopia, pushing for a new model for international philanthropy. An interesting profile on Harrison and his work in development.

Boys and Girls
By Andrew O’Hagan
London Review of Books

There are two types of children, says O’Hagan, at the juvenile detention facility in Kandahar: the loud ones — those arrested for theft and similar crimes — and the quiet ones — the child jihadis, egged on by their parents. Tabish, supported by UNICEF, is the only organization set on rehabilitating this second group, the child jihadis.

The Wrong Way to Punish Putin
By Daniel Treisman
Foreign Affairs

The showdown over gay rights and Edward Snowden has played right into Putin’s hands. In this article, Treisman analyzes when and how the West should criticize — that is, actively criticize — Russian politics. All in all, it’s really a matter of what does and doesn’t line up with public opinion in Russia.

The Ghost Rapes of Bolivia
By Jean Friedman-Rudovsky
Vice

“No one knew what to do, and so no one did anything at all,” says Friedman-Rudovsky on a set of mysterious rapes in the South American Mennonite community. She covered the Manitoba rape trials in 2011, now, in 2013, she’s returned to the community to see how it’s handling it all a couple years later.

Blogs:

If It’s Sunday, It’s…Time to Bash Russia by Jason Anderson
Talking ‘Smart Power’ With Admiral Stavridis by Oliver Barrett
Brazil’s Vulnerable Public Security Strategy by Karina Junqueira de Almeida
What “Extending a Hand to the Poor” Too Often Really Means by Tom Garry
John Kerry reels them in by Tom Squitieri