Battle Readings is a regularly updated compilation of articles, essays, and opinion pieces relevant to the themes of the Battle of Ideas.
Choose a theme from the listing on the left to narrow your search, or view all readings.
Ben Chu, Wiedenfeld & Nicholson, 10 October 2013
When then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared two years ago "We are back to stay" as a power in Asia, the most dramatic symbol of the policy shift was the planned deployment of 2,500 U.S. Marines in northern Australia, primed to respond to any regional conflict.
Stuart Grudgings, Reuters, 6 October 2013
Everything we think we know is wrong: the various China whispers that have warped how we view the country and its people
Ben Chu, Independent, 5 October 2013
While there are obvious historical tensions and competitive power dynamics at work currently in the deteriorating relationship between Japan and China, it is over the islands that the circumstances are most fraught.
Kurt Campbell, Financial Times, 25 June 2013
Tired of seeing developed nations take the lion's share of profits from his countrymen's coffee crop, Ugandan businessman Andrew Rugasira decided back in 2003 that it was time for a new business arrangement.
Diane McCarthy and Ayesha Durgahee, CNN, 19 June 2013
Are today’s radicals tomorrow’s extremists? Most analyses of violence emanating from the Middle East or from Europe’s Muslim communities tend to assume that this is the case. This edited collection seeks to look beyond assumptions about violence in the Middle East.
Kenneth Martin, LSE, 6 March 2013
The recent activation of Chinese weapons radars aimed at Japanese military platforms around the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands is the latest in a series of incidents in which China has asserted its power and authority at the expense of its neighbours.
John Blaxland and Rikki Kersten, East Asia Forum, 13 February 2013
A topic guide from the Institute of Ideas' Debating Matters Competition
Ed Noel, Debating Matters, 31 January 2013
Far from creating dependency, strategic assistance from the west can help developing countries to help themselves
Larry Elliott, Guardian, 13 January 2013
Poverty, not food shortage, is the main reason for famine. Norwegian Church Aid and ten other organizations therefore advocate making it easier for poor farmers to earn money.
Norwegian Church Aid, 18 December 2012
In search of originality: navigating the artistic canon
"To contribute to Battle of Ideas is to add a few words to a giant, communal speech-bubble out of the gap-toothed mouth of British opinion. It is a strong reminder that the joys of free, uncalculated speech and the right to attack orthodoxies can in no way be assumed in 2012 – that we use them or lose them."
Piers Hellawell, composer; professor of composition, Queen’s University Belfast