If you are like me, you are pining for your next installment of Game of Thrones (and the Memorial Day week off was cruel, though not as cruel as the torment we have seen of late). In the meantime, I give you your weekly dose of Thursday Morning Dinklage. Top stories this week:
- Steve Walt puts the flawed but necessary peer review process in perspective
- Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’s letter to oft-dead Mokhtar Belmokhtar for his unwillingness to be a good team player has been translated and is a classic (I sense a new Sahel version of The Office)
- Belmokhtar’s group pulls off some new attacks in Niger
- Great story on how Timbuktu’s manuscripts were saved
In others news:
- Laurie Garrett’s two-part blog post on global health expanded to seven
- Universities and the struggle to source clothing from reputable suppliers
- Burma is no longer the feel good story of the year; attacks up on Muslims by Buddhists (wrecking the mystique of peace-loving Buddhists in the West)
- Pranab Bardhan questions the new fad of experiment-based development in a review of four books
- Al Qaeda leader killed in Pakistan; polio worker shot in Pakistan
- Lisa Friedman wonders if Pakistan can survive climate change; arch Tweet, “can Pakistan actually survive until climate change hits”
- Can’t actually post without mentioning conservation! – Emergency UN meeting on Central African elephants
The apparent surprise at Buddhist violence in Burma reminds me of Stanley Tambiah’s book “Buddhism Betrayed? Religion, Politics, and Violence in Sri Lanka.”