Read Around the World in a Weekend: March 25, 2022
Please find our recommended weekend reads covering key issues and events around the world. We hope you find these informative, useful, and perhaps even fun. Please let us know if you want us to add anyone to our mailing list.
Russia/Ukraine/Belarus
OMFIF “Russia sanctions, the renminbi, and the dollars future – The red herring returns”
The author, a former senior US Treasury official, argues that with the imposition of severe financial sanctions on Russia, rumblings that China will provide Russia a lifeline, and rumors Saudi Arabia will denominate oil prices in renminbi, markets are once again abuzz about the dollar’s future global financing role. The red herring is back!
Rand Corporation “Russia’s Problems with Military Professionalization”
The internet is littered with reports of Russian soldiers seemingly stalled in convoys, deserting their units, and being unable to maintain their equipment. An effort to collect and confirm the instances of Russia's abandoned, destroyed, and captured military systems had to be terminated due to the inability of its contributors to keep up with the pace at which it is happening. While the internet is not reality, some may wonder if this is really the same Russian military that has been feared around the world for decades?
Rand Corporation “Russian Grand Strategy: Rhetoric and Reality”
First published in September 2021 (and included in an earlier Read Around the World), we thought it worthwhile to reconsider this large review and assessment of Russia’s – and Putin’s – Grand Strategy going forward.
Chatham House’s Belarus Initiative “Poll of Belarusians’ Views on the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine”
The poll, conducted between March 5-14, showed only three percent of the urban population support Belarusian troops being involved in the war on Ukraine. And a majority of them do not support Russian troops being based in Belarus as well expecting the war will have “serious socio-economic consequences” on their way of life.
United States
Defense One “State of Defense”
The daily defense publication takes an in-depth look at the state of the US Defense posture, branch by branch, in the face of growing security risks around the world.
Foreign Policy “US Grand Strategy After Ukraine”
Seven leading foreign policy strategists weigh in on how the war will shift US foreign policy in the short, medium, and long term.
AmCham EU “The Transatlantic Economy 2022”
The Transatlantic Economy 2022 presents the most up-to-date facts and figures about the economic relationship. The study includes dedicated profiles for 30+ European countries and all US states. This year’s study features new insights into how the war in Ukraine affects the transatlantic relationship, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, prospects for the recovery, global supply chain issues, relations with China and the transatlantic energy economy.
University of Virginia Center for Politics “Are Latinos Deserting the Democratic Party? Evidence from the Exit Polls”
One key question in American politics is the trajectory of Latino voters. Donald Trump performed better in 2020 with Latino voters than he did in 2016, particularly in places like South Texas and South Florida. However, an analysis of the longer-term trend in Latino presidential voting shows that this growing voting bloc is not necessarily trending one way or the other. Presidential incumbency appears to have a stronger influence on Latino voters than on other demographic groups.
Africa
Institute for Security Studies (South Africa) “Africa holds the answers to Europe’s wartime energy crisis”
Europe needs to swap its dependence on fossil energy from Russia with renewables from Africa. For example, Theoretically, the Sahara could supply four times the world’s current energy demand. Even a fraction of that could replace the energy from Russian gas imports. Solar can also ramp up rapidly, perhaps beating the plans to build more liquefied natural gas terminals.
Latin America
Wilson Center “China’s Investments and Land Use in Latin America”
The report argues that in order to understand the environmental impacts of China’s trade and investment in Latin America requires nuance. It focuses on multiple factors behind the environmental degradation associated with the soy, copper, beef, and pork industries: the nature of the resource, local legal frameworks, and global industry standards. The report highlights cases in which poor decision-making by both Chinese companies and Latin American countries is driving resource extraction to a tipping point.
Middle East
Carnegie Middle East Center “Only Going to Get Worse”
In this YouTube interview, the chief of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) discusses the growing challenge of the water scarcity situation in the Middle East and Africa.
Book Recommendation of the Week:
The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, And the Pillage of an Empire
(by William Dalrymple, Bloomsbury Press 2019, 552 pages)
Imagine a giant private equity firm that operates with complete impunity, no government regulation or oversight, no bounds on their greed. They take over a large swath of a foreign country and begin to mint money, figuratively and literally. And they also have their own army, which they deploy to subdue the locals whenever they complain too much.
Welcome to the East India Company, which we learn all about in the superb “The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of An Empire,” written by William Dalrymple.
A corporate history that grabs you and gives you a vivid, and at many points, horrifying portrait of arguably the most powerful companies in history.
What makes Dalrymple’s book particularly interesting – and differentiates it from numerous other histories of the East India Company – is his deep and thorough research of Indian source material. He gives a fresh, holistic account of the Company not just from the Western perspective but also from the Indian perspective. And that is important because with it comes an illuminating portrait of the majesty and richness of the various Indian, Iranian, and Afghani dynasties that thrived – and died – during the Company’s operations.
What I found rather stunning in Dalrymple’s history of the Company is something I suspect most readers will not expect: The Company was, by and large, a rather poorly run operation. There are numerous instances of near-collapse – once almost cratering the entire British economy and forcing the collapse of multiple leading British and Continental European banks (which Dalrymple cleverly compares to the 2008 financial crisis).
But the money the Company made in the good years. Oh, the money! Staggering sums even by today’s standards. Many a poor or lower-middle-class English boy with a sense of adventure struck out to Bombay or Madras or some other balmy place in India where they Company operated, returning to London years later filthy rich (albeit, only if they survived the near constant warfare and deadly sicknesses). The most prominent of all of them being Lord Clive. Richard Clive was born in 1725, one of thirteen children to a modestly successful lawyer. He proved to be a violent, nasty boy – even running a protection racket as a teenager. With these rough skills and dangerous disposition, he journeyed to India in 1744 as a simple clerk.
I do not want to ruin Dalrymple’s extraordinary and devastating portrayal of Clive in India, but I’ll tease you with this: when all was said and done, Clive ended up being the wealthiest man in all of Europe. He became Lord Clive, 1st Baron Clive, a man so rich that his wife’s pet ferret even had its own diamond-studded necklace. But money doesn’t buy happiness, and clearly, Clive never found it. He ended up killing himself in 1774 at his massive Berkley Square mansion at the age of 49 by stabbing himself in the throat with a penknife.
This is an important book to understand how Britain gained much of its long-term wealth that survives even today and how India – once a great empire itself – was devastated by the Company and still struggles with the repercussions. It is beautifully written with countless colorful stories of battles and palace intrigue, transporting the reader to the place and a time long ago. It is indeed a great read.ke it stand out