The FPA’s Must Reads (December 7 – December 13)

The Leading Global Thinkers of 2013
Foreign Policy

Foreign Policy compiles and analyzes this year’s 100 most influential thinkers, organizing them into easy-to-understand categories in a visually delightful must-read.

Was Hillary Clinton a Good Secretary of State?
By Susan B. Glasser
Politico Magazine

Hillary Clinton has variously been lauded as the most consequential Secretary of State in the past 60 years and criticized for not sufficiently addressing the tough issues, concentrating on projecting an electable image for the next presidential elections. In this absorbing profile, Glasser examines Hillary Clinton’s greatest achievements and greatest failures.

Back in the USSR
By Michael Weiss
Foreign Policy

With biting criticism, Michael Weiss argues that the ongoing Euromaidan protests sweeping Ukraine have little to do with power politics or aspiring to join the European Union. Instead, Ukrainians are reacting to a fear of following Belarus to stagnation.

The Lobotomy Files: Forgotten Soldiers
By Micheal M. Phillips
Wall Street Journal

After World War II, the U.S. government lobotomized at least 2,000 veterans in an attempt to prevent the kind of debilitating psychological damage that many veterans experienced in World War I. The story of Roman Tritz, one of the few still surviving lobotomized veterans, epitomizes the enduring complexity of treating the psychological wounds of war.

Whose sarin?
By Seymour M. Hersh
London Review of Books

Hersh argues that in making the case for Bashar al-Assad’s responsibility in Syrian chemical weapons attacks, the Obama administration not only left out critical pieces of intelligence, but also distorted evidence to make a stronger case for intervention. Now the U.S. and the UN may have to contend with yet another rogue agent with chemical weapons capabilities.

Missing American In Iran Was Working On Unapproved Mission
By Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman
Associated Press

In 2007, an American citizen, purportedly traveling on private business, disappeared at an Iranian tourist resort. Apuzzo and Goldman reexamine this seemingly forgotten case to uncover the true story of an unapproved an unapproved CIA mission, government coverup, and a secret spy war.

Blogs:

China’s Crackdown on Western Journalists: How Should America Respond? by Mark C. Eades
Britain’s Bold and Blistered Year on Human Rights by Sara Chupein-Soroka
Why Do We Love (or Hate) Drones? by Hannah Gais
Rise of the Radicals: The Uncertain Political Space of India and Bangladesh by Ashikur Rahman
China’s ADIZ; or, What the Heck Is Going On in the East China Sea? by Scott Monje