Your Tuesday Briefing

Politics: A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.
Ambrose Bierce


By Azra Isakovic

Tuesday, February 09

Good morning

Welcome to Your Tuesday Briefing

Books

About : Le temps du paysage. Aux origines de la révolution esthétique, Jacques Rancière | La Fabrique, by Laurent Folliot | Books & Ideas
À propos de : Techno-féodalisme. Critique de l’économie numérique de Cédric Durand, par Thibault Darcillon | La Vie des idées


Ukrainian Business – Exclusive: First ‘Excerpt’ From Hunter Biden’s Memoir  Kyle Smith, New York Post

Must-Reads

OpenLux – Entre la France et le Luxembourg, une faille fiscale pour l’immobilier de luxe | Le Monde
OpenLux/Luxembourg – Shedding Light on Big Secrets in Tiny Luxembourg, Antonio Baquero, Maxime Vaudano, Cecilia Anesi, Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project
France – How consultants like McKinsey took over France, by Paul de Villepin & Elisa Braün | POLITICOEurope
US/China – Why is Biden proposing a massive stimulus plan for … Chinese manufacturers? | Bruno Maçães
China – China Ends the Clubhouse Spring  Melissa Chan, Foreign Policy
Digital/US – US’s flawed approach to 5G threatens its digital future, Eric Schmidt, Financial Times
US/Russia –Dealing With Biden’s America, by Dmitri Trenin | Carnegie Russia
Digital/US – How the United States Lost to Hackers, Nicole Perlroth, New York Times
Technology/China –From Lightbulbs to 5G, China Battles West for Control of Vital Technology Standards, Valentina Pop, Sha Hua and Daniel Michaels, The Wall Street Journal
EU/Energy/Climate – EU urged to quit energy treaty as companies sue over climate action, Mehreen Khan, Financial Times
China/Central and Eastern Europe – Baltic vs. Beijing: Lithuania, Estonia snub Xi’s eastern summit, Stuart Lau | Politico
Yemen – Accomplice to Carnage in Yemen  Robert Malley & Stephen Pomper, Foreign Affairs

Research & Analysis

UK/China –  Inadvertently Arming China? by Radomir Tylecote & Robert Clark | Civitas think tank 📥 [PDF]


Technology/China – China, Europe and the New Power Competition over Technical Standards, Tim Rühlig | Swedish Institute of International Affairs
US/Africa – Ideas for Policy on Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia  R. Satloff & S. Feuer, Wash. Ins.

Podcasts

Covid, saison 3 (1/4) : L’Europe des vaccins : la grande cacophonie | France Culture

Your Friday Briefing

“Progress, the religion of those who have none.”

Lord Acton


By Azra Isakovic

Friday, February 05

Good morning

Welcome to Your Friday Briefing

Books

Review – « Graveyards of Clerics. Everyday Activism in Saudi Arabia », par Pascal Ménoret | Stanford University Press, by Roman Stadnicki | La Vie des idées
Review – Has Tech Destroyed Democracy? Steven Levy | Wired

Must-Reads

US/China/EU – Macron: EU shouldn’t gang up on China with US,  Rym Momtaz | POLITICO Europe
États-Unis – Joe Biden veut renouer avec une diplomatie fondée sur les « alliances » et les « valeurs »  | Le Monde
Indo-Pacific – Can the EU and the UK Cooperate in the Indo-Pacific? | IPQ
US – Joe Biden’s Peace Force?  William Astore, TomDispatch
US/China –  Biden’s Team Faces the Ugly Facts on China  | New York Post
Myanmar –Suu Kyi Was Right About Myanmar  Luv Puri | Japan Times
Health – How to save the world from long Covid, Simon Kuper | Financial Times
Health Vaccine passports: path back to normality or problem in the making? Natalie Thomas | Reuters
Europe/Health – Europe’s Vaccine Rollout Has Descended Into Chaos, Sylvie Kauffmann | New York Times
Energy – How the race for renewable energy is reshaping global politics, Leslie Hook and Henry Sanderson – Financial Times
Digital – The Digital Transformation of SMEs | OECD
US/Europe/Defense– Europe troop withdrawal plans ‘on hold,’ top general says, Connor O’Brien | Politico
US/Eastern Europe – Biden’s Challenge: Continuing Progress in Eastern Europe Despite Russian Adventurism | Middle East Institute

Research & Analysis

China🇨🇳/Covid19- Chinese COVID-19 Misinformation A Year Later, By Elizabeth Chen | Jamestown Foundation 📥 PDF
EU/Russia – EU Strategic Autonomy in the Shadow of Geopolitical Rivalry: A View from Moscow, Sergey Utkin | FIIA
Deterrence –  Deterrence in the 21st Century: Insights from Theory and Practice,  Frans Osinga and Tim Sweijs, eds. | Hague Centre for Strategic Studies/Springer 
EU/Middle East/North Africa – The EU-MENA partnership: time for a reset, Marc Otte | Egmont 
Trade – Global Trade Today is Global Value Chains, David Henig | ECIPE

Podcasts

A conversation with French President Emmanuel Macron | Atlantic Council

Your Tuesday Briefing

“Power without abuse loses its charm.”
Paul Valéry


By Azra Isakovic

Jan. 26, 2021

Good morning

Welcome to Your Tuesday Briefing

Books

Russia – Russia Rising: Putin’s Foreign Policy in the Middle East and North Africa by Dimitar Bechev (Editor), Nicu Popescu (Editor), Stanislav Secrieru (Editor) | Barnes & Noble
États-Unis/monopoles – Du danger des monopoles  par Pierre-Cyrille Hautcoeur | La Vie des idées

Must-Reads

Egypt’s Arab Spring –#Jan25: 10 years Later by zeynep
Egypt’s Arab Spring – How hopes for Egypt’s Arab Spring were crushed , by Bel Trew | The Independent
Digital – Cyber ‘Deterrence’: A Brexit Analogy, Ciaran Martin, Lawfare 
Digital/EU – 5 things to know about the EU’s new Google cases, Simon van Dorpe, Politico 
US/Economy –Biden set for ‘buy American’ push to boost domestic manufacturing, James Politi, Financial Times
US/Russia – Biden’s predecessors emboldened Putin. Here’s how he can get Russia right, Vladimir Kara-Murza, Washington Post  
Russia/US/Europe –How Russia and the West try to weaken each other, Nicu Popescu, ECFR 
Germany/US – How Germany can Work With Biden to Rebuild Trans-Atlantic Ties, Daniela Schwarzer, DGAP  
EU/Western Balkans/Defense – Enlarging the European Defence Union to the Western Balkans, Dylan Macchiarini Crosson, CEPS 
EU/India – Beijing’s rise rekindles EU-India romance, Barbara Moens, Politico  
Estonia – Estonia gets new government, first female PM, Pekka Vanttinen, Euractiv 
Portugal – President Rebelo de Sousa wins landslide reelection in Portugal, Paul Ames, Politico 

Research & Analysis

Technology – Who is Winning the AI Race: China, the EU, or the United States? Daniel Castro, Center for Data Innovation
Grand Strategy of Restraint – Implementing Restraint  RAND

Podcasts

Histoire du mensonge (2/4) : Calomnies, rumeurs et murmures, comment circulaient les fausses informations ? Xavier Mauduit avc Maïté Billoré, Pierre-Carl Langlais et Julien Schuh | France Culture
Histoire du mensonge (1/4) – Les démocraties ont-elles inventé la propagande ?

China – Four Principles to Guide U.S. Policy Toward China

Your Thursday Briefing

We are not makers of history. We are made by history.
Martin Luther King, Jr.


By Azra Isakovic

Jan. 21, 2021

Good morning

Welcome to Your Thursday Briefing

Books

Samuel Beckett – The Wisdom of Surrender  Andy Wimbush, Aeon
Booksellers – Iconic Paris Bookshop Closes  Julia Webster Ayuso, The Guardian
LRB – Goodbye, Europe  Perry Anderson, London Review of Books
Postmodernism – Is Postmodernism Really Worthless?  Park MacDougald, Washington Examiner

Must-Read

US – Joe Biden’s Inauguration Speech Transcript, Washington Post
US – Donald Trump is Out. Are We Ready to Talk About How He Got In Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic 
US – What to Expect in Biden’s First 100 Days in Foreign Policy, Robbie Gramer, Amy Mackinnon, Jack Detsch, and Christina Lu, Foreign Policy   
US – Biden Wants to Unite the Country. How Can He Do It? Politico Magazine  
US – The Rebels Are Still Among Us, Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic   
Digital – 2021 Is the Year the Internet Gets Rewritten, Tyson Barker, Foreign Policy
Italy – Italy: No Political Crisis, But an Economic One, Valbona Zeleni, The Globalist
Russia – How to Contain Putin’s Russia, Michael McFaul, Foreign Affairs  
Health – Second report on progress, Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, WHO
Health – Wealthy Countries Should Share Vaccine Doses Before It Is Too Late, Lawrence O. Gostin, Eric A. Friedman, and Suerie Moon, Foreign Affairs 
US/Afghanistan – Writing Off Afghanistan: Does Biden Have a Choice? Anthony H. Cordesman, CSIS

Research & Analysis

Digital – A U.S. Grand Strategy for the Global Digital Economy, Robert D. Atkinson, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation 
US/Europe/Technology – Artificial divide: How Europe and America could clash over AI, Ulrike Esther Franke, ECFR 

   

Podcast  

What does President Biden mean for the EU-US relationship? Dan Hamilton, Global Europe Unpacked 
Essential Geopolitics: China vs. Australia  Stratfor Worldview
4 Principles to Guide U.S. Policy Toward China  ChinaFile

 


Welcome to Your Wednesday Briefing

Aucun homme n’a jamais été sage par hasard. ~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca


By Azra Isakovic

Jan. 13, 2021

Good morning

Welcome to Your Wednesday Briefing

Books

Books📚 – Une guerre perdue. La France au Sahel, par Alain Antil | Politique étrangère
Books📚 – « The Back Channel. A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for Its Renewal » de William J. Burns, par Laurence Nardon | Politique étrangère
Books📚 – Les maîtres de l’espionnage par Eugène Berg | Conflits

Must-Reads

Technology – CRISPR and the Slice to Survive, Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker  
Technology/EU/US – EU hopes for ‘tech alliance’ with Biden after Trump Huawei 5G ban, Giannis Seferiadis, Rhyannon Bartlett-Imadegawa, Nikkei Asia 
Turkey –Erdogan’s great game: Soldiers, spies and Turkey’s quest for power, Laura Pitel, Financial Times 
Belarus – Has Lukashenko Won? Slawomir Sierakowski, Project Syndicate
US – Yes, It Was a ‘coup.’ Here’s Why, Fiona Hill, Politico 
US – America’s Authoritarian Adversaries Seize the Moment, Jimmy Quinn, National Review 
US – The Day the internet Came for Them, Nina Jankowicz, Foreign Affairs  
US – Trump Team Makes Last-Minute Moves to Box In Biden on Foreign Policy, Robbie Gramer and Jack Detsch, Foreign Policy  
UK/Indo-Pacific – ‘Global Britain’: The UK in the Indo-Pacific, Anisa Heritage and Pak K. Lee, The Diplomat 
EU – The EU’s enlargement agenda is no longer fit for purpose, Erwan Fouéré, CEPS
How America Can Shore Up Asian Order  Kurt Campbell & Rush Doshi, Foreign Affairs
Does China Need More Russian, Central Asian Gas?  S. Kapitonov & T. Umarov, MT
Bitcoin Has Ambitions for Gold’s Role Gavyn Davies, Financial Times
EU/UK/Trade – The double irony of the new UK-EU trade relationship, André Sapir, Bruegel  
Sweden’s Journey From Model to Pandemic Pariah  C. Karlsson, Worldcrunch

  

Research & Analysis

EU/UK – The EU-UK trade and co-operation agreement: A platform on which to build? Sam Lowe | CER PDF 📥  
Germany – Merkel’s Successor: None of the Above?  Sophia Besch & Christian Odendahl, CER  
US/NAT – The Biden Transition and Reshaping U.S. Strategy: Replacing “Burden Sharing” with Meaningful Force Planning, Anthony H. Cordesman with the assistance of Grace Hwang, CSIS
Arctic – Constant and Changing Components of the Arctic Regime, Alexander N. Vylegzhanin, in Kristina Spohr and Daniel S. Hamilton, editors, Jason Moyer, associate editor

Podcasts

Opération Barkhane – La France doit-elle se retirer du Sahel ? | France Culture
États-Unis/Occupation du Capitole – Un après-guerre mal négocié ? | France Culture

 

Your Wednesday Briefing / 16 December 2020

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. – Plato


Azra Isakovic

16 December 2020

Good Morning

Here’s what you need to know

ArcticThe Arctic and World Order, | Johns Hopkins SAIS/Brookings Institution Press 

Digital/Russia/US – Hackers have vaulted into the heart of America’s government, The Economist 
Digital/EU – The Digital Services Act: ensuring a safe and accountable online environment, European Commission
Digital/EU ­– The Digital Markets Act: ensuring fair and open digital markets, European Commission 
Digital/EU – Putting digital services at the service of Europeans, Margrethe Vestager and Thierry Breton, Irish Times
US/Germany – Preserving America’s Military Posture in Germany, Bradley Bowman and Ben Hodges, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies
US/UK – The US-UK trade talks that Joe Biden inherits, Anna Isaac, Politico 
US/Eastern Mediterranean– American Interests in the Eastern Mediterranean, Eric Edelman and Aykan Erdemir, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies 
EU/US/Turkey/Russia – Peeling Turkey Away from Russia’s Embrace: A Transatlantic Interest, Nathalie Tocci, Istituto Affari Internazionali 
NATO/Russia – NATO-Russia Crisis Brief, Nuclear Crisis Group
US/Democracy – A Democracy Summit Is Not What the Doctor Ordered, James Goldgeier and Bruce W. Jentleson, Foreign Affairs 
EU/Democracy – EU still lacks a ‘silver bullet’ for bringing autocrats to heel, Ben Hall, Financial Times 
Bosnia and Herzegovina –Dayton at 25: Time for Effective and Functional Government in Bosnia, R. Bruce Hitchner, Balkan Insight 

Germany Fares Poorly in Second Wave of Coronavirus  Lukas Eberle et al, Spiegel
China Seems Ready for a Fight Over Taiwan  James Holmes, 1945
China’s Nationalists See a World Turning Their Way  Chris Buckley, New York Times
Maybe Brexit Isn’t So Bad After All  Tyler Cowen, Bloomberg
How the Brexit Fairy Tale Ends  Gavin Esler, The National
Measuring Soft Power  Margaret Seymour, FPRI

The Hidden Cost of Digital Consumption, by Halden Lin, Aishwarya Nirmal, Shobhit Hathi & Lilian Liang (Parametric Press 19/10)
US Indicts Sandworm, Russia’s Most Destructive Cyberwar Unit, by Andy Greenberg (Wired 19/10

Votre briefing du mercredi – Your Wednesday briefing

A daily newspaper should report the news, not play at geopolitics. Rafael Correa


Azra Isakovic

Wed 9 Dec 2020

Good Morning

Voici ce que vous devez savoir – Here’s what you need to know.

Coronavirus/VaccineBlunders Eroded U.S. Confidence in Early Vaccine Front-Runner | The New York Time

The Biden TransitionBiden’s Choice For Pentagon Chief Further Erodes a Key U.S. Norm: Civilian Control | Glenn Greenwald

Covid19The Institutional Crisis and COVID-19, by George Friedman | Geopolitical Futures

Coronavirus/Vaccine  – Who gets it first? | International Politics and Society

EU/US/Digital – ‘Schrems II’: What Invalidating the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Means for Transatlantic Trade and Innovation, Nigel Cory, Daniel Castro, Ellysse Dick, ITIF

EU – Europe is right to risk a double ‘no deal’, Gideon Rachman, Financial Times 

US/Nuclear – Starting off on the right foot: Biden’s near-term arms control and strategic policy challenge, Frank A. Rose, Brookings 
US/Nuclear – Reviving Nuclear Arms Control Under Biden, Steven Pifer, American Ambassadors Review 

EU/UK – Britain is heading for a hard Brexit. Voters now prefer none at all, The Economist 

EU/Technology –EU vs Big Tech: Brussels’ bid to weaken the digital gatekeepers, Javier Espinoza, Financial Times 

US/Europe – A New Beginning with President Biden: Five German and European Priorities for the Transatlantic Agenda | SWP

Turkey/LibyaWhy Turkey Intervened in Libya by Jalel Harchaoui | Foreign Policy Research Institute 📥 PDF

Baltic Security: Managing Adversity Between Russia and Its Northern Neighbors YouTube

China Les nouveaux dazibao | Revue Esprit

US/China –The Trump State Department’s swan song? A strange, flawed China paper, Daniel Baer, Foreign Policy  

Europe/Defense –Europe Can Defend Itself, Barry R. Posen, Survival

 
US – The Reconstruction of America: Justice, Power, and the Civil War’s Unfinished Business, David W. Blight, Foreign Affairs

La laïcité – La laïcité, c’est quoi ? Retour au texte de 1905 avec Patrick Weil | France Culture

La laïcité, c’est quoi ? Retour au texte de 1905 avec Patrick Weil

 

Your Saturday Briefing – Here’s what you need to know

    In our changing world nothing changes more than geography. Pearl S. Buck

Good Morning

Here’s what you need to know

China/ Chinese Communist Party – The Party That Failed China  Cai Xia, Foreign Affairs

China/ Supply Chains  – Does China Pose a Threat to Global Rare Earth Supply Chains? | CSIS

China/Technology –How China is buying up the West’s high-tech sector, Elisabeth Braw, Foreign Policy

US/Defense – Conference Report Summary for the Fiscal Year 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, U.S. House Armed Services Committee 

US/Foreign Policy – A New Direction: A foreign policy playbook on military restraint for the Biden team, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft 

China/Biden  Biden’s Chance to Challenge China  Dan Blumenthal, Newsweek

Vaccines Vaccines Prompt a Wave of Economic Exuberance Robin Wigglesworth, FT

Turkey/EU Turkey Does Its Own Thing  Nigar Goksel & Hugh Pope, Chatham House

RCEPThe Limits of the RCEP  Lee Jong-Wha, Project Syndicate

North KoreaResetting With North Korea  Bonnie Kristian, RealClearWorld

JapanJapan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force Revitalization  Felix Chang, FPRI

Azra_Files : Your Wednesday Briefing

À force de ne jamais réfléchir, on a un bonheur stupide.

Jean Cocteau

Good morning

Here’s what you need to know today

Russia/Japan/ Russia deploys advanced S-300 missiles to disputed islands near Japan | Reuters

Russia/ Moldova/  Moscow Says Call To Leave Moldovan Breakaway Region ‘Irresponsible’ | Barron’s

EU/US – A new transatlantic bargain: An action plan for transformation, not restoration, Julien Barnes-Dacey, et al., European Council on Foreign Relations

China / Australia/ The World in a Vise: Sounding the Alarm on China, Then Running for Shelter By Damien Cave | The New York Times

NATO/China/ NATO should expand its focus to include China, a high-level assessment of the alliance’s future says | The Wall Street Journal

NATO – NATO 2030: United for a New Era. Analysis and recommendations of the Reflection Group appointed by the NATO Secretary General | NATO 

Technology/China/US – The Great 5G Race: Is China Really Beating the United States? Doug Brake and Alexandra Bruer, ITIF 

US/Asia-Pacific/Trade – Rebuild the Trans-Pacific partnership back better, Jeffrey J. Schott, PIIE   

EU/Security – CFSP: The capability-expectation gap revisited, Annegret Bendiek, Minna Ålander, and Paul Bochtler, SWP 

NATO/Europe/ The role of NATO for Europe’s defense Status and options for further development from a German perspective, by Claudia Major | SWP  https://www.swp-berlin.org/publikation/die-rolle-der-nato-fuer-europas-verteidigung PDF 📥 : https://www.swp-berlin.org/fileadmin/contents/products/studien/2019S25_mjr_Web.pdf

EU – Still governing in the shadows? Member states and the Political & Security Committee in the post‐Lisbon EU foreign policy architecture Journal of Common Market Studies 

Europe/China – Europe wakes up to the China challenge, Lionel Barber, Nikkei Asia  

Digital/Europe – How nine digital frontrunners can lead on AI in Europe, McKinsey 

Digital/US/EU – EU-US Cybersecurity Policy Coming Together: Recommendations for instruments to accomplish joint strategic goals, Julia Schuetze, Stiftung Neue Verantwortung 

Disinformation – Tackling online abuse and disinformation targeting women in politics, Lucina Di Meco and Saskia Brechenmacher, Carnegie Endowment   

The Next Liberal Order The Age of Contagion Demands More Internationalism, Not Less By G. John Ikenberry | Foreign Affairs

Syria/ Air strike kills IRGC commander at Iraq-Syria border – Iraqi officials By Reuters Staff

Middle East/Yemen/ The Houthis and misuse of the terrorist organization list | Responsible Statecraft

Middle East/ Yemen/ UN: 11 children killed in 2 attacks in Yemen By AHMED AL-HAJ The Associated Press @AP

Azra_Files : Nov. 27, 2020 – Here’s what you need to know

Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald, The Biden Transition, Technology, Democracy, Press Freedom, Books📚 : Your Friday Briefing, By Azra Isakovic

#Books📚/ “Living in Troubled Times” by Thierry de Montbrial , Executive chairman and founder of IFRI_ | World Scientific https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/11147

#Books📚/ Education & Development in Colonial & Postcolonial Africa. Policies, Paradigms, & Entanglements, 1890s–1980s by Damiano Matasci, Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo, Hugo Gonçalves Dores eds Palgrave Macmillan coll. « Global Histories of Education » #openaccess  http://sfhom.com/spip.php?article3673

#Books📚/ Repenser la « mission civilisatrice ». L’éducation dans le monde colonial et postcolonial au XXe siècle, par Damiano Matasci, Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo, Hugo Gonçalves Dores eds aux Presses Universitaires de Rennes @pureditions coll. « Histoire » #Livres 📚 http://sfhom.com/spip.php?article3672

#Technology/#Democracy/ Demanding Silicon Valley Suppress “Hyper-Partisan Sites” in Favor of “Mainstream News” (The NYT) is a Fraud, by Glenn Greenwald https://greenwald.substack.com/p/demanding-silicon-valley-suppress

#VIDÉO 🎥/ #Technology/#Democracy/ Interview with Edward Snowden (@Snowden) on Silicon Valley Censorship, Biden, and Lurking Press Freedom Dangers, by Glenn Greenwald https://greenwald.substack.com/p/video-interview-with-edward-snowden

#Europe🇪🇺/#France🇫🇷/#PressFreedom/ Video of Police Beating Black Man in Paris Fuels Debate on Filming Officers https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/26/world/europe/Paris-police-beating-video.html

#Europe🇪🇺/#France🇫🇷/#PressFreedom/ Emmanuel Macron’s illiberal plan to protect the French police | Financial Times https://www.ft.com/content/17e7122b-c127-4996-a4ab-c399d05f242a?list=intlhomepage

#Nexit/ New Dutch ‘Nexit’ party threatens Rutte – Forum for Democracy is among the groups hoping to make a splash in regional vote, by Mehreen Khan | Financial Times https://www.ft.com/content/98f94164-2cca-11e8-a34a-7e7563b0b0f4

#Europe🇪🇺/#Bosnia&Herzegovina🇧🇦/#Dayton How to Free Bosnia From Dayton’s Paralyzing Grip  Majda Ruge, ECFR https://ecfr.eu/publication/how-europe-and-the-us-can-take-bosnia-beyond-dayton-25-years-later/

#VIDÉO 🎥/#Libya🇱🇾/ Moment German Commandos Intercept & Raid Turkish Ship Bound For Libya | @zerohedge https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/watch-moment-german-commandos-intercept-raid-turkish-ship-bound-libya

#Chine🇨🇳/ Why the Quad Should Focus on a Strategy to Contain China  James Holmes, TNI