A diplomat is a person who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you actually look forward to the trip.
Caskie Stinnett

By Azra Isakovic

Thursday, February 11

Good morning

Welcome to Your Thursday Briefing

Books

Michel Foucault – “The Last Man Takes LSD – Foucault and the End of Revolution” by Mitchell Dean and Daniel Zamora | Verso Books
Pandémie – Les capitalismes à l’épreuve de la pandémie, par Robert Boyer  | Éditions La Découverte

Must-Reads

Welfare State – « Welfare without the welfare state »: the death of the postwar welfarist consensus, by Anton Jäger & Daniel Zamora | NewStatesman
Nord Stream 2 – The Battle of Nord Stream 2 Narratives  Michael Richter | Riddle
China – The Roots of Cultural Genocide in Xinjiang  Sean Roberts | Foreign Affairs
Pandemic – Merkel’s Pandemic Failure  Markus Feldenkirchen | Der Spiegel
Taiwan –  The State Department’s Bipartisan Taiwan Diplomacy  Jimmy Quinn | Nat’l Review
Trump – Trump’s Worst 2 Military Mistakes for Biden to Fix  Bradley Bowman | Foreign Policy
Technology – Innovation Wars, Christopher Darby and Sarah Sewell | Foreign Affairs
Digital – Competing with China’s Digital Silk Road, Jonathan E. Hillman | Center for Strategic and International Studies
Digital/NATO – Cyber Defence in NATO Countries: Comparing Models, Alessandro Marrone and Ester Sabatino | Istituto Affari Internazionali
Health/Europe – Why Europe Is Falling Behind on Vaccines, Eyck Freymann, Elettra Ardissino, Foreign Policy
US/Yemen – Accomplice to Carnage: How America Enables War in Yemen, Robert Malley and Stephen Pomper, Foreign Affairs
Energy – How tech went big on green energy, Leslie Hook and Dave Lee, Financial Times
Energy – Biden faces climate dilemma over LNG exports to Europe, Dave Keating and Justin Gerdes, Energy Monitor
Climate – Welcome to the Era of Competitive Climate Statecraft, Carolyn Kissane, Foreign Policy
China/Central and Eastern Europe – China’s Eastern Europe Strategy Gets the Cold Shoulder, Stuart Lau, Politico
Black Sea – Strategic sovereignty in the EU’s Southeastern neighborhood: The Black Sea as part of a larger geopolitical region, Stefan Meister | Heinrich Böll Stiftung

Research & Analysis

Proliferation – Strategic Risk Reduction between Nuclear-Weapons Possessors, by  Corentin Brustlein | IFRI 📥 PDF
France/Defense – Rethinking our Defense in the Face of 21st Century Crises, Institut Montaigne 📥 PDF
US/OSCE – United States of America General Elections | OSCE
US/EU/India – Paths to Post-Pandemic Partnership, Mihir Swarup Sharma, German Marshall Fund
EU/India – The EU-India Partnership: Follow-up, Focus, and Free Trade, Maurice Fermont, German Marshall Fund

Podcasts

Covid, saison 3 (3/4) : Etats-Unis : la paupérisation qui vient |  France Culture