Hello all,

I just discovered this subfourm and have been enjoying the conversations around global affairs as it's a hobby of mine to try to understand.

I'm wondering which resources you all use to educate and inform? I subscribe to Foreign Affairs and read a lot of CFR's content.

 

I had education and exposure over years in the military. Obviously focused on threats/conflict but they certainly recognized the value of broad and deep understanding to inform planning and decisions.

If I'm interested in a country or region's current issues, I'll start with a history book, so I have context where they came from. Or a documentary video for Cliff's notes. Then dive into the current events, books, periodicals, news, whatever.

Geopolitics is also informed by a range of more local issues and events.

The Economist is decent. I consider WSJ a must-have, in addition to quality journalism they're not very biased (other than being pro business) and still take their traditional 4th Estate ethical obligations quite seriously. They also attract a lot of interesting opinion pieces.

I tend to suspect that if you rely on a single source, however good, you get a one dimensional perspective.

 

Hi Tyler,
At the risk of seeming condescending, I will offer my two cents. My apologies in advance if some of my recommendations are embarrassingly basic.

Magazine Foreign Affairs is outstanding. Published every two months.

Sites:
The Brookings Institute
The International Institute for Strategic Studies
As a reference source I would recommend an account with JSTOR. It has an extraordinary amount of academic papers and publications that are available to regular people who are not enrolled students or faculty.. (note, sometimes I do find restricted access)
I will let others list their sources regarding web sites and such that keep up with the Russian/Ukrainian war.

My personal opinion is if lacking foundational knowledge, reading current articles, listening to podcasts, and following the news can create a jumble of facts/opinions that don't truly add to understanding. Lacking the foundations can lead a person to take some factual data, apply reasonable thought processes, and end up with spectacularly incorrect conclusions.
To play off a regular contributor's line as a twist, to understand it's foundations, foundations, foundations.

So, unless you got it in your mother's milk, or are an actively enrolled student, that leaves us with books. Lots and lots of them.
I should spend time to give some structure and chronological order to my coming list, but that would take more time than i have. Hence, they may be a bit haphazard and i will forget some that should be included. Obviously there are thousands of them that I omit from ignorance. Hopefully others can recommend better ones (also I can add them to my knowledge base)

For a baseline of the world we live in and philosophies as to how we should approach human civilization and our relationship to the world:
'Plato's Revenge" by William Ophuls
"The Great Work: Our Way into the Future" by Thomas Berry (note: Thomas, not Wendall Berry)

In my opinion still the most comprehensive work on how totalitarian states come about:
"The Origins of Totalitarianism" by Hannah Arendt
Written in the 50's, perhaps others can update with a better one.

To gain insight in what it is to live as a vassal state/colony under Russia:
"The Captive Mind" by Czesław Miłosc.
"Imperium" by Ryszard Kapuścinski
"A Biography of no Place" by Kate Brown

For current Russia/Ukraine war:
"The Ukrainian Night" by Marci Shore. A book on the 2014 Maidan revolution. It corrects a fair number of false narratives that concern this 2014 event.
"The Gates of Europe" and "The Russo-Ukrainian War" both by Serhii Plokhy

Russia/Putin:
There are so many books on Russian history I can't choose. The last one I read was probably 50 years ago, so will let you choose.
"Putin's World" by Angela Stent....to understand Putin and not willing to join the world order
"Memory Makers" by Jade McGlynn. How WW2 history, and false history, is central to Russian identity. Orwell's insight on controlling the past is used pervasively by all authoritarian/nationalist governments.
"The Vory" by Mark Galeotti
"Putin's War Against Ukraine" by Taras Kuzio. Very out of date regarding this war but gives a crisp description of the Russian organized crime internal war that directly affects present day Russian Govt and how Ukraine came to revolution in 2014. Also the only English chapter I know of explaining the Donbas region and how it is what it is.

General geopolitics:
"A World in Disarray" by Richard Haass
"Liberal Leviathan" by G. John Ikenberry
" The Marshall Plan" and "The Battle of Bretton Woods" by Benn Steil are great overviews of the world order that emerged from ww2.

I have more but am running out of time. If this isn't what you had in mind, or it just isn't interesting i will desist.


Timothy Snyder's:
"Bloodlands'
"black Earth"
"The Road to Unfreedom"

 

Thank you so much for this. It's super helpful and looks like a great place to start.

I've been subscribed to Foreign Affairs for years but as you mentioned it's easy to form opinions and without the foundational knowledge it's easy to get them wrong.

Thanks again!

 

Yeah I'd almost consider online classes, continuing education, or video series (I recall that there are some).

 

And just monitoring current events is a help too.

https://www.politico.eu/article/far-...cdu-spd-polls/

A number of foreign countries have reasonably reliable news outlets,

https://www.dw.com/en/top-stories/s-9097

https://www.bbc.com

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/internatio...SAAEgK5vPD_BwE

https://www.dutchnews.nl

https://www.brusselstimes.com

 

Don't know if I will get ambitious enough to add to my earlier post, but was remiss in omitting Hedley Bull's "The Anarchical Society"

I add a number of books my 'to read' list from the book reviews provided at the back of each Foreign Affairs issue.

 

CIA WorldFactbook is good: https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/

DOS has travel advisories, very civilian in nature but still valuable: https://travel.state.gov/en/internat...dvisories.html

BBC business section is less political and at the end of the day, everything in the world is measured by a dollar sign: https://www.bbc.com/business

 

Yes, CIA and State are very useful for baseline info. I always check if I'm traveling anywhere remotely sketchy.

 

Pravda. FSB intelligence directives. Kremlin press releases.

There's lots of places to get the real information if you just open your eyes and go to the better sources. (that's 100% sarcasm).