A Half-Filled Cup of Coffee that You Poured and Didn’t Drink

by Eric Martin

Quite frequently I read interesting and engaging pieces but don’t have the time/knowledge-base to put together a post on the topic.  I usually shy away from aggregator-style linkage though (it seems so un-ObWi), and so these pieces end up unmentioned by me on this blog. However, some readers might appreciate the pieces in question and would not come across them via another route.  So in that spirit, here are some recent foreign policy related articles/posts that I’ve read and won’t necessarily write about, but which I recommend.  For your edification:

1. The newest member of the American Footprints crew’s review of the Combatting Terrorism Center’s report on the role of Iran in Iraq.  Readers will be interested to learn that the CTC does not buy into a couple of memes that are popular in Bush supporter circles: that Moqtada al-Sadr is Iran’s vassal whereas ISCI and Dawa are opposed to Iran, and that the SOFA was a blow to Iran (as discussed by Matt Duss here).

2.  Speaking of Matt Duss, this is an excellent article on the influence of Shiite religious authorities on Iraqi politics – with a concise and informative history of some of the players.

3. Anand Gopal discusses some recent efforts to peel away combatant factions from the Afghanistan insurgency – effectively split off "moderate" Taliban groups from those more closely associated with al-Qaeda.  In that sense, the "moderation" of a given faction has more to do with its relationship with al-Qaeda than in its religious or democratic leanings.  The successful execution of this strategy represents the best hope for our success in Afghanistan, even if I remain somewhat dubious of its prospects.

4. While on the subject of Afghanistan, Ghaith Abdul Ahad embeds with the Taliban and the offers a rare peek behind enemy lines.  A nice companian piece would be Nir Rosen’s similar embed endeavor. (first article via)

5. My Newshoggers co-blogger, Kenneth Anderson, has an informative article out about the economic underpinnings of the conflict in Congo.  Yes, also about the Benjamins.

6. Nils Gilman on "Deviant Globalization" – or the globalization of the illicit economy.