The best of Foreign Affairs

It is the time of evaluations and looking back at what 2012 meant in terms of foreign affairs. I will continue with a couple of reviews and my own evaluations, but for the moment, I will present the choice of Foreign Affairs, outlining the most challenging articles in the last 12 months. My choice is Why Iran should Get the Bomb, an article that was not probably enough discussed.

From the web collection, my favorite is Game of Thrones as Theory, for the potential of using online game theories for foreign affairs. 

As from the best collection of books on foreign affairs, on my priority list I introduced: Cuban Economic and Social Development, A single roll on the dice, on the US diplomacy in Iran, Worlds of Dissent dealing with the policies during the Cold war and Embers of War, about America far and beyond the Vietnam War. 

Book review: The Arab Revolutions

I saw this German collective volume shortly after it was published and was tempted to buy it immediately, interested to read the ideas about the new situation in the Middle East from a German perspective. The Germans were always very interested in the area and they have a lot of well trained specialists that travel often in the area, for academic and economic purposes.

However, I did not expect too much to find so many data and only few evaluations, if any, of the current situation. The overall tone of the book - analysing the 'revolutions' (a term whose opportunity is not discussed at all) in Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Jordan, UAE, Libya - is naively optimistic, as most cases are seen as a fight of 'good' vs. 'evil'. I did not identified any critical perspective of the situation and even less the seeds of the current Islamist debacle in almost the entire area.

For someone with a fresh mind, the book will offer a lot of details and historical information about the 'revolutionary' moment and thus, could be easily used as a basic source for documenting the situation in the Middle East. 

China's redefining role in the world

Shortly after Dambisa Moyo published The Dead Aid, I was more than happy to read it and review it on the blog. I highly appreciated the direct way of documenting the naked truth of the obvious wrong policies of resources in Africa. 

Her newest book - that I did not read it - deals with one of the big questions of the civilizations: China. Yesterday, I visited a big bookstore and was impressed by the impressive number of books dedicated to the mysterious China and the permanent questioning, without too much answering, about the reasons and explanations of the survival of the social and political systems and the success of the Chinese economy in the new global economic order. 

As part of the launching tour of her book - Winner Take All: China's Race for Resources and What it Means for Us, she gave an interesting lecture yesterday at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. According to her interpretation, China moved wisely by attracting neglected trade partners of the West - as Brazil and other Latin American countries as well as African countries, rich in various natural resources. What is very challenging in this approach, an aspect outlined by Moyo, is that China's interests in those countries are purely economic, without any 'colonization' tendencies. A lesson to be analysed further by sociologists and anthropologists as well soon.

Today seems to be for me China's day and I continued the lecture with a fresh new released report by The European Council on Foreign Relations exploring the grassroots social and political changes .

At least from my point of view, I am very far away from a global and coherent understanding of China, even though I am passionate about this country for a long time. The history and culture could bring some light, but it is only the beginning of the understanding process.