What Caught My Eye (no. 18)
Some interesting articles and podcasts that caught my eye this week
Here’s this week’s edition of articles I thought worth reading and sharing. Don’t hesitate to recommend your own reads; I may include some as well.
Christopher Clary, Four Days in May: The India-Pakistan Crisis of 2025, Stimson Center, May 28, 2025. An inside look into how the clash between India and Pakistan last month escalated quickly and could easily have let to far greater disaster, with a warning that the crisis isn’t over.
Vladimir Putin’s sickening statistic: 1m Russian casualties in Ukraine, The Economist, June 2, 2025. Russian casualties in its war in Ukraine with Ukraine have topped one million — with a quarter of those killed in action. That’s an extraordinary number by any measure, but especially so since this is a war by choice for which ordinary Russians will only fight in return for exorbitant compensation.
Jon B. Wolfsthal, Hans Kristensen and Matt Korda, Why We Should Worry About Nuclear Weapons Again, Washington Post, June 4, 2025. An alarming look at how changes in global politics are increasing the possibility of a nuclear weapon being used. Our long nuclear peace may be coming to an end, and we’re underprepared for addressing this threat.
Xi Jinping’s plan to overtake America in AI, The Economist, May 25, 2025. China is taking a different approach to AI development, focusing more on its application than the technology’s development. This may be a smart way to beat the US to the benefits of AI.
Anditi Bhandari and Mehul Srivastava, How Israel is forcing Gazans off their land, Financial Times, June 1, 2025. A graphical look at how large swaths of Gaza are being depopulated and Israel is preparing to force 2 million people to live in a small sliver of land in the strip’s south.
David Brooks, The Democrats’ Problems Are Bigger Than You Think, New York Times, June 5, 2025. The Times columnist argues that the Democratic problem is bigger than campaigning, messaging, and reaching critical voters. It is the lack of a counter-narrative to the MAGA narrative that now dominates Washington and American politics generally.
David Sanger, It’s a Really Bad Time to Be an Expert in Washington, New York Times, June 6, 2025. The Times White House correspondent surveys the loss of expertise throughout the government and the concerted effort to transform government into a top-down managerial system with all the consequences that will entail.
A foreign policy debrief with Jake Sullivan, The Rachman Review, May 28. The FT’s Foreign Affairs commentator interviews Jake Sullivan about his time as President Biden’s national security adviser. Key insights into Afghanistan, Ukraine, Gaza, China, and more.
Happy reading, watching, and listening!