Friday’s Reading List

By Taylor Marvin

Edmund Dulac, ‘Prince and Princess’, 1911. Via Wikimedia.

What I read this week:

France in Mali: the end of the fairytale. How the French got airstrikes in Mali. A primer on the country’s armed groups.

Voices from contested Mali — the French intervention remains popular.

Rape has become a “significant” part of the war in Syria. Assad remains confident he can endure the conflict. Also see Marc Lynch on the lost opportunity for diplomacy.

CJ Chiver’s fascinating look at how Iranian ammunition has entered Africa’s wars.

2013 is the year of the settlement, Michael Koplow writes.

Another brutal condemnation of Zero Dark Thirty’s torture politics, this time from Steve Coll.

Growing up gay in Iran. Relatedly, sanctions, unsurprisingly, are not popular in Iran. “Many Iranians, however, don’t just blame the Islamic Republic for the dire economic conditions — they blame the financial sanctions, which they view as hostile as any armed attack.”

Ólafur Arnalds – Everything Must Change