The World Next Week: Summer Reading Special

In this special edition, CFR.org Editor Robert McMahon, CFR's Director of Studies Jim Lindsay and Senior Fellow for Defense Policy Janine Davidson share their summer reading lists. Listen in for book recommendations. 

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Hosts
  • James M. Lindsay
    Senior Vice President, Director of Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair
  • Janine Davidson
    Former Senior Fellow for Defense Policy, Council on Foreign Relations
  • Robert McMahon
    Managing Editor

Show Notes

In this special edition, CFR.org Editor Robert McMahon, CFR's Director of Studies Jim Lindsay and Senior Fellow for Defense Policy Janine Davidson start off the summer with a list of books that they will be reading in the weeks ahead. Listen in for recommendations from their reading lists.
 

Robert McMahon's list:

  • Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
  • Pig Tales: An Omnivore's Quest for Sustainable Meat by Barry Estabrook
  • The Wright Brothers by David McCullough

James Lindsay's list:

  • In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made by Norman Cantor
  • The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order 1916-1931 by Adam Tooze
  • How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World by Steve Johnson 

Janine Davidson's list:

  • The Unraveling by Emma Sky
  • Ghost Fleet by Peter Singer
  • The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh

Censorship and Freedom of Expression

In this special episode to mark World Press Freedom Day, Jeffrey Gedmin, cofounder and editor-in-chief of American Purpose and former president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, joins Robert McMahon and Carla Anne Robbins to discuss the global state of press freedom. They cover the challenges that a growing number of journalists face in exile or imprisonment, the U.S. role in upholding freedom of the press, and more.

China

Secretary of State Antony Blinken wraps his second visit to China as tensions mount over Beijing’s military support of Russia’s war in Ukraine and ongoing threats in the South China Sea; International Workers’ Day on May 1 comes at a time of revived labor activism over wages and inequality; and U.S. President Joe Biden approves a $61 billion foreign aid package providing critical military assistance to Ukraine, potentially improving the situation on the ground in the war with Russia.

India

Concerns grow over the widening Middle East conflict after Iran launches three hundred ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones at Israel; European Union (EU) leaders discuss how to bolster aid to Ukraine amid an uptick in Russian attacks and the situation unfolding in the Middle East; India kicks off the world’s largest democratic election—spanning more than forty-four days—where the incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is expected to win again; and warming water temperatures cause a mass bleaching of coral reefs.

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