Weekly Links

Elizabeth Butler, “Remnants of an Army,” 1879. Via wikimedia.

By Danny Hirschel-Burns

Elizabeth Butler, “Remnants of an Army,” 1879. Via wikimedia.
Elizabeth Butler, “Remnants of an Army,” 1879. Via wikimedia.

In light of protests, and seemingly a coup in Burkina Faso, The Wall Street Journal offers some background. Links between Burkinabe protesters and their Senegalese counterparts have made the movement stronger. Finally, Ken Opalo analyzes similar circumstances in other African countries to attempt and predict what might be next.

Jay Ulfelder writes on political inertia and our faulty expectations of change.

Musa al-Gharbi argues the West’s preoccupation with ISIS is a product of Islamophobia, and that Mexican cartels are even more dangerous. At Warscapes, Michael K. Busch offers a rebuttal. Somewhat relatedly, Joshua Keating on the often fuzzy distinction between terrorists and rebels.

The mechanisms through which political patronage and tribal identity dominate Sudanese political life.

Marijke Verpoorten delivers a rebuttal to a recent, and controversial, BBC documentary on the Rwandan genocide.

Veteran reporter Patrick Cockburn has an essay touching on Turkey’s relationship with the Kurds and ISIS’ assault on Kobane. Yazidis who have fallen victim to the conflict are now living in squalid conditions. Finally, tracing the life of an ISIS leader from his small village in Georgia to the front lines in Syria.

Rutherford B. Hayes, forgotten in the United States, remains immensely popular in Paraguay for granting the country most of its territory.

Stalin was a rational actor writes Anne Applebaum.

Though the conflict in the Central African Republic has often been portrayed as a sectarian one, religion is not proving itself impervious to division as anti-balaka forces turn on fellow Christians.

The future of Middle East-focused political science and what it means for those hoping to become academics.

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