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Some favorite resources:
Foreign Policy/World Affairs
On-Line Publications
If you only had time for three, which would they be? Here are my picks.
The Economist On-Line Edition
Well-written, thoughtful, and international in perspective; about half the articles are free online.
Particularly good at multi-part, in-depth articles on issues rarely covered elsewhere,
such as the E.U.'s troubling demographics.
Wall Street Journal Online
An solid resource for global business and political issues. The coverage of Asia is particularly good; you also have full
access to the other Dow Jones publications such as Barrons and Far East Economic Review
for the $79 annual fee.
Scientific American
Substantive and accessible. Although not directly political,
each issue explores at least one politically charged topic (for example, global warming,
or the Religious Right's attempts to subvert science via "creationism"). Many feature articles are free online.
Alternative: Nature (registration required)
or The New Scientist.
Additional research / resource links
Books
My qualifications for making this list? Absolutely none. It's just for fun--mine, and hopefully yours.
I've set this up following my First Rule of Capitalism: Always Lose Money. (At least that's been my experience.)
Some of these titles are out of print or difficult to find, so on the off chance that a
visitor might actually want a copy, I've put in some links to Amazon.com.
Should a hapless visitor be gripped by a momentary madness and actually buy something from
Amazon, then as an official Amazon Associate I get 5% of sales,
which works out to about 1.25 minutes of my annual web hosting expenses; a very solid loss
on both time and expenses, as per my typical business acumen.
Of the vast number of geopolitical/economics titles published
(both popular and academic), only a few are of enduring importance. Here are my picks.
The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else
By Hernando De Soto
The failure of either socialism and capitalism to alleviate poverty, inequality, corruption and
oppression in the developing world has created one of the greatest and most vexing problems of the post-war era.
Although "paradigm shifts" are bandied about rather freely nowadays, this book has truly fundamental insights into the role of property rights and the intellectual, legal and poltical
infrastructure needed to establish them in developing societies.
The Future of Life
by E.O. Wilson
It's all too easy to become desensitized to the ecological crises our planet faces;
this eminent scientist/writer encapsulates the dire global situation in clear, persuasive prose.
Great Wall and the Empty Fortress:
China's Search for Security
by Andrew J. Nathan and Robert S. Ross
Amidst all the chaff and hysteria written about China, this little book is a breath of fresh air. By explicating the Chinese worldview,
much sense is made of heretofore inexplicable blunders and threats made by the Chinese leadership.
The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II
by Iris Chang
It's virtually impossible to understand the East-Asian geopolitical situation without reading this book (or an equivalent
source about the brutality of the Japanese occupation). China, Korea, et. al. have not forgotten, and a re-armed Japan
will not go unanswered. This book helps explain why a strong and enduring U.S. presence in Asia is essential.
Among the Believers: An Islamic Journey
by V.S. Naipaul
Although it was published 20 years ago, this remains a powerful and accessible exploration of the Islamic
world and Islamic worldview. Naipaul has been criticized as unsympathetic; I would hazard that he is simply unsentimental about failed cultures
(see India: A Wounded Civilization for another
example); he raises hackles because he refuses to be an apologist to the "multicultural" view
that all cultures, belief systems and power structures are equally worthy. This is of course pure balderhash.
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