Friday’s Reading List
By Taylor Marvin

Hungarian stamp with a jinni from the One Thousand and One Nights, 1965. Via Wikimedia.
What I read this week:
Endorsing the so-called Asia Pivot, Peter Beinart argues that American foreign policy must discriminate between core interests and conflicts the US should avoid investing itself in.
Four decades after its democratic revolution, reflecting on a Portugal, and by extension, southern Europe, that to many feels less sovereign than before.
The risks of the long lag time required to host mega sport events — years after it was chosen to host the 2014 World Cup, today’s Brazil is a different place.
The choice to translate Frozen — Disney’s most translated film — into Modern Standard Arabic, rather than more accessible dialects (via Marc Lynch).
Why dismissing all criticism of Turkey’s prime minister as “anti-Erdoganism” is effective, and is Turkey regressing towards the mean of failed democracy?
Why have CIA drone strikes in Pakistan been on hold for the last half year?