The World Next Week: Summer Reading Special

In this special edition, CFR.org Managing Editor Robert McMahon, CFR's Director of Studies Jim Lindsay and Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow Elizabeth Saunders 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.

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Hosts
  • James M. Lindsay
    Senior Vice President, Director of Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair
  • Elizabeth N. Saunders
    Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations, and Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, George Washington University
  • Robert McMahon
    Managing Editor

Show Notes

In this special edition, CFR.org Managing Editor Robert McMahon, CFR's Director of Studies Jim Lindsay and Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow Elizabeth Saunders 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.

 

Elizabeth's books:

Anxious Politics: Democratic Citizenship in a Threatening World, by Bethany Albertson and Shana Kushner Gadarian

Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars, by Nathalia Holt

Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, by Margot Lee Shetterly

Finale: A Novel of the Reagan Years, by Thomas Mallon


Robert's books:

Pumpkin Flowers: A Soldier’s Story, by Matti Friedman 

One Child: The Story of China’s Most Radical Experiment, by Mei Fong 

Rome 1960: The Olympics that Changed the World, by David Maraniss
 

Jim's books:

Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam, by Fredrik Logevall

The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins

Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen, by Mary Norris 

Russia

Russia holds its presidential election with the Kremlin aiming to orchestrate a sweeping endorsement of President Vladimir Putin; the U.S. Congress continues its partisan battles over the 2024 budget as concerns of shutdown and aid to allies mount; the U.S. Library of Congress flexes its soft power by awarding Elton John and Bernie Taupin with the Gershwin Prize; and the crisis in Haiti worsens.

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Negotiators attempt to establish a six-week cease-fire and hostage exchange deal between Israel and Hamas before the start of the sacred Islamic month of Ramadan; Portugal holds a snap parliamentary election with a far-right party gaining traction; international films gain prominence at the ninety-sixth Academy Awards; and Chinese President Xi Jinping breaks with the thirty-year tradition of the premier’s press conference after the National People’s Congress.

United States

U.S. President Joe Biden delivers his last State of the Union address before elections to a polarized Congress; Iran holds its first parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections since the 2022 protests sparked by the death of activist Mahsa Amini; Bosnia and Herzegovina marks independence as ethnic divisions fester; and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) welcomes Sweden as its newest member state.

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