“You can do everything with bayonets, but you are not able to sit on them”
Otto Von Bismarck

By Azra Isakovic

Friday, April 30, 2021

Good morning

Welcome to Your Friday Briefing

Featured

Imperialism – The Enduring Legacy of Kwame Nkrumah, An interview with William Shoki, Benjamin Talton, Anakwa Dwamena | Tribune

Great down-to-earth interview about Nkrumah and his legacy in the new @tribunemagazine https://t.co/aqMRE1hUj9 pic.twitter.com/lJu8436a4P

— Quinn Slobodian (@zeithistoriker) April 29, 2021

Books

France/Afrique – Le piège africain de Macron, Antoine Glaser, Pascal Airault | Fayard
Review – The influence of the Soviet economic model and the lessons for China  Branko Milanovic | Global inequality
Review – Kubrick’s Human Comedy, Andrew Delbanco | The New York Review of Books

“I must have complete total final annihilating artistic control over the picture,” Stanley Kubrick once wrote on a contract for a film. Yet the fanatical perfectionist was also an artist of Melvillean ambition, whose heart was as large as his mind https://t.co/YB2BT4wwSA

— The New York Review of Books (@nybooks) April 29, 2021

Must-Reads

US – Biden’s 100-day strategy: Under-promise and over-deliver, Elaine Kamarck | Brookings
US – The Biden 100-Day Progress Report | Foreign Policy
US/Germany – Joe Biden’s 100 Days of Solitude: How Germany is botching the transatlantic restart with the new US administration, Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff and Andrea Rotter | IPQ
Egypt – Is History Coming for Sisi’s Regime?  Robert Kaplan | Foreign Policy
India – India’s ‘Scenes From Dante’s Inferno’  Zarir Udwadia | Financial Times
China – The Hidden Weakness of China’s Military  Steve Sacks | The Diplomat
US/China – How to Fight a Maritime War Against China  James Holmes | 1945
India – India’s Covid Tsunami  Shashi Tharoor | Project Syndicate
China – China Grows Military Education Diplomacy in Cen. Asia  Erica Marat | PONARS
US/Taiwan/China – Washington Avoids Tough Questions on Taiwan and China  Charles Glaser | FA
Germany/Climate – ‘Historic’ German ruling says climate goals not tough enough, Kate Connolly | The Guardian
EU/China – The Belt and Road Initiative: Forcing Europe to Reckon with China? Jennifer Hillman and Alex Tippett | Council on Foreign Relations

Research & Analysis

Arms Control – The Future of Strategic Arms Control, Rebecca Lissner | Council on Foreign Relation
Digital/Security – Quantifying Risk: Innovative Approaches to Cybersecurity, Adam Bobrow | GMF
Health/Global – Pandemic preparedness and response: Beyond the WHO’s Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator, Kaushik Basu, Lawrence Gostin and Nicole Hassoun | Brookings
EU – The EU’s arms control challenge, Clara Portela | EUISS

🚨New Chaillot paper🚨As we wait for the next #NPT #RevCon @DrClaraPortela shows the EU can act as a bridge-builder bewteen opposite camps and lay the groundwork for a new arms control system.

Read here: https://t.co/ItgqLZDCbI pic.twitter.com/x3C6JaZfv3

— EU Institute for Security Studies (@EU_ISS) April 28, 2021

Podcast

100 premiers jours de Biden – Joe Biden, le révolutionnaire qu’on n’attendait pas | L’Heure du Monde