Publications Review 31.05.2013

In this issue you will find: Criminal Insurgencies in Mexico, Dalai Lama, China’s drones, Syrian Crisis, Economic crisis in the EU, the US in 2023, Tax avoidance by multinational corporations, Turkey-EU relations, Western Balkans.

Web portal for young scholars of foreign policy e-International Relations published a review by Robert Bonner on a collection of articles “Criminal Insurgencies in Mexico and the Americas: The Gangs and the Cartels Wage War” edited by Robert J. Bunker. According to the review:

“Robert J. Bunker’s wide ranging edited collection provides valuable insight into the activities of Mexican drug cartels and gang activities – though the analysis is often short on policy prescriptions”.

The book “The Hurrying Stone” by Shaun Benton is now available for purchase at Amazon.com.

“A memoir by a British-South African human rights writer whose mission to help the Dalai Lama led to a geopolitical vortex of discovery. A mystical passage towards Buddhist tantra through the hues of Africa’s ubuntu consciousness and the Rasta doctrine of its diaspora, it is a journey that sails above the shallow currents of race and nationality as it links the personal to the political, asks whether we are helpless in the face of manipulation and destiny, and speaks truth to – and from – power while offering succour in the complicated, ever-changing world of the 21st century.”

In his article in Foreign Affairs Andrew S. Erickson, professor at the U.S. Naval War College and a research associate at Harvard’s Fairbank Center, analyzes the consequences of China’s possession of drones. Dr. Erickson argues that despite growing Beijing military power, its behavior will continue to be constrained by politics.

In his op-ed published in Fareed Zakaria’s blog on CNN, professor Mark Katz (George Mason University) argues that Barack Obama needs to act in Syria and help Syrian opposition to topple regime of Bashar al-Assad.

In a recent article published by Other News Mário Soares, former president and prime minister of Portugal, criticizes neoliberal ideology “that places usurious markets, offshore bank accounts, and money for the sake of money, above state power”. M. Soares, argues that Europe is facing a straightforward dilemma:

“Either we fight against unemployment, widespread poverty, recession and in defense of the welfare state in its broader sense, or, if we wait too long, the EU will fall into the abyss”

In other, somewhat futuristic article published by Other News Mattea Kramer and Jo Comerford from The Nation describe the US in 2023, ten years after the first across-the-board federal budget cuts known as sequestration. The authors argue that budget cuts were introduced in early 2013 undermine a nation built on sound public investment and shared prosperity and would eventually turn America into Third World Country.

Nobel Prize-winning economist from Columbia University Joseph Stiglitz in his column in the Guardian argues that a global deal is needed in order to combat tax avoidance currently practiced by multinational corporations.

The pan-European think-tank European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) issued a collection of analytical essays on Turkey and Turkey-EU relations “What Does Turkey Think?” (edited by Dimitar Bechev). In another ECFR article Dimitar Bechev argues that current economic crisis undermined the narrative of convergence between the EU and the Western Balkans.