Weekly Links

Francisco Goya, from “the Disasters of War”. Via Wikimedia.

By Taylor Marvin

Francisco Goya, from "the Disasters of War". Via Wikimedia.
Francisco Goya, from “the Disasters of War”. Via Wikimedia.

Foreign jihadis fight for shrines in Syria (via Toby Matthiesen, via Marc Lynch), and photojournalism from the continuing battle for Aleppo.

Human Rights Watch urges combatants to allow civilians to flee the strategically-located city of al-Qusayr, which government forces reportedly have retaken.

A new video visualizes deaths by location in Syria over the course of the conflict (via Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations).

Mitchell Lerner argues that China cannot be the sole solution to North Korean intransigence.

New reporting indicates the CIA could not determine the affiliations of  “about one of every four of those killed by drones in Pakistan” between September 2010 and October 2011 (via Mike Gullion).

Ahsan Butt says grad school teaches a sanitized history of warfare, a view Vikash Yadav agrees with.

How driving a bus in Guatemala City became one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.

President Obama has appointed Susan Rice as his new national security advisor, and Samantha Power, author of A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, is to replace her as UN Ambassador. Amy Davidson asks if experience has tempered both’s perceived advocacy of liberal interventionism. Peter Beinart views the choices as Obama freeing himself from GOP foreign policy preferences — “what Obama’s saying is that the Democratic Party has finally freed itself from the long shadow of Vietnam” — while Daniel Larison disagrees.

On Turkey’s ongoing street protests, which have now turned fatal:

Suparna Chaudhry questions whether the protests will change Turkish politics.

Steven A. Cook and Michael Koplow ask how democratic Erdogan’s Turkey really is, as does Jay Ulfelder: “We see a regime in which (paraphrasing Tilly) state agents increasingly use their power to punish their perceived enemies and reward their friends.”

Foreign Policy hosts new media footage from the unrest, and Aaron Stein collects photos from Occupy Gezi.

Justin Vela asks a teenage demonstrator why he’s protesting: “Because I hate the government.”

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan follows a familiar playbook and blames foreign actors for the unrest. Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc apologized for heavy-handed police tactics.

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