Wednesday, April 27, 2011

The Tyler Cowen - Global Affairs Edition

We're back after some sun on the beaches of Puerto Galera. There is a lot of news to catch up on and articles to recommend. As such, we're breaking today's edition of links into pieces. The Global Affairs Edition summarizes the best writing of the past five days on global issues.
  1. Great insight on North Korea from Russia. I need to dig deeper into the Cheonan incident. 
  2. Pacifism. Via Marginal Revolution
  3. The resurgence of the veil and the broader implications of Islamism not as a religious force but a socio-political one.
  4. Another article questioning the widely-accepted connection between prosperity and democratization. I still think they're conflating revolution and democratization
  5. A sweepingly comprehensive overview of The Arab Spring. Ranging from a summary of the Tunisian tipping point to the historical comparisons to Communism and 'Common Sense' to the role of technology in revolutions. The picture it paints for the Middle East's future is not a rosy one but it is far more realistic than most analyses which look only forward. As always, a Maslow's Pyramid understanding of what's needed strikes me as the most obvious. 
"The truth of the matter is that Europe's requirements for the next three or four years of foreign food and other essential products -- principally from America -- are so much greater than her present ability to pay that she must have substantial additional help or face economic, social, and political deterioration of a very grave character."

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