Recommended Weekend Reads
November 3 - 5, 2023
Here are our recommended reads from reports and articles we read in the last week. We hope you find these useful and that you have a relaxing weekend. And let us know if you or someone you know wants to be added to our distribution list.
Middle East
“Why Russia and Hamas Are Growing Closer” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The Kremlin purports to take a hard stance on terrorism. Yet since the massacre in southern Israel carried out by Hamas militants on October 7, it has only grown closer to the group. Moscow’s relationship with the militant group Hamas is part of a Middle East strategy meant to boost its standing in the Global South: an effort that has long involved building ties with both Israel and its sworn enemies.
“What Can the IDF Do about Hamas Tunnels?” The Urban Warfare Project Podcast
As the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conduct a ground campaign in Gaza, the threat of Hamas tunnels - estimated to be as much as 600 miles long – will be one of the most significant challenges to contend with. But how many of these tunnels are there? What can Israeli forces do about the tunnels when they encounter them? In this episode, host John Spencer talks to Dr. Daphne Richemond-Barak, the world’s preeminent expert on tunnel warfare. She is a professor at the Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy, and Strategy at Reichman University, author of the book Underground Warfare, and creator of the International Working Group on Subterranean Warfare.
“The Persian-Russian Connection” Lawfare
Tehran’s ties to Russia are growing, making Iran a stronger force in the region and increasing the danger it poses to the United States and its allies. From Tehran’s perspective, an informal alliance with Russia is ideologically and historically odd, but it is strategically enticing. Iran and Russia have been rivals for almost two centuries, and Iran’s former Supreme Leader, Ruhollah Khomeini, hated the Soviet Union almost as much as he hated the United States. Moscow’s interest in Tehran is a bit harder to explain. It starts with a range of common interests that are generally anti-U.S., opposed to democratic values, and wary of Sunni Muslim fundamentalism.
“The Decolonization Narrative Is Dangerous and False” The Atlantic
It does not accurately describe either the foundation of Israel or the tragedy of the Palestinians. The decolonization narrative has dehumanized Israelis to the extent that otherwise rational people excuse, deny, or support barbarity. It holds that Israel is an “imperialist-colonialist” force, that Israelis are “settler-colonialists,” and that Palestinians have a right to eliminate their oppressors. (On October 7, we all learned what that meant.) It casts Israelis as “white” or “white-adjacent” and Palestinians as “people of color.” This ideology, powerful in the academy but long overdue for serious challenge, is a toxic, historically nonsensical mix of Marxist theory, Soviet propaganda, and traditional anti-Semitism from the Middle Ages and the 19th century.
China
“China Expands Its Political Influence in Russia East of the Urals” The Jamestown Foundation
Beijing is increasing its political influence in Siberia and the Russian Far East to better support its expanding economic activities. These efforts are directed at the political and business elites, who are the major stakeholders in deciding which firms can operate in their respective regions. These tactics have generated both local and regional concerns in Russia. Chinese efforts are generating resistance from the local populations that resent their regional leaders kowtowing to China.
Political Economy
“The New Economy Security State” Foreign Affairs
In the past decade, economics and national security have collided, turning government inside out and upside down. The definition of security has expanded beyond matters related to warfare and terrorism, as previously disregarded economic and environmental problems such as food insecurity, energy shortages, inflation, and climate change have moved to the “very core” of the official U.S. National Security Strategy. To address the new problems of economic security and avoid a downward spiral that could threaten the global economy, U.S. officials must reckon with a major task: nothing less than a transformation of the U.S. government. The past offers the wrong guidance, and the current predicament calls for an exacting reassessment.
“Long Live Globalization: Geopolitical Shocks and International Trade” IMF Working Papers
Are geopolitical tensions leading to a reversal in globalization? Using U.N. voting patterns from 1948 to 2021 to measure geopolitical similarity, Serhan Cevik of the International Monetary Fund finds that trade relationships were “resilient to occasional shifts in the geopolitical landscape” and that the geopolitical alignment between countries had statistically insignificant effects on their level of trade. The physical distance between countries and their respective levels of income were much more important factors, with proximity and higher incomes predicting increased trade between countries. Cevik argues that despite recent shocks, “the widely used indicators of globalization...have rebounded strongly,” and thus, “there is no systemic retreat in trade globalization due to geopolitical developments.”
Chart of the Week
Talking Politics at Work is Increasingly Cool for Gen Z
Bloomberg reported recently how various generations feel about talking about politics at work. According to a recent survey by Glassdoor, “Gen Z” (those born in the late 1990’s and early 2010’s) are increasingly comfortable bringing up the topic of politics. According to Glassdoor, three in five US workers have done so with colleagues over the last year. Millennials (born in the early 1980s to the early 200’s) and Gen X (born in the late 1960s to early 1980s) feel even more comfortable beating Baby Boomers (born from 1946 to 1964).
Interestingly, roughly 50 percent of Gen Z workers said they would not apply for a job at a company where the CEO supports a political candidate they disagree with – in contrast with Millennials (40 percent taking that stance) and Gen X and Baby Boomers (both roughly at 30 percent with that view).
