Bazı insanları tanımlamak zordur. Uygun sıfat bulamazsınız. Ahmet Ertegün de bunlardan biri… Müzisyen deseniz, eksik; yapımcı deseniz, eksik; kanaat önderi deseniz, yine eksik… Çünkü o hem hepsi, hem de hepsinden ötesi… Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, Aretha Franklin ve Ray Charles gibi isimleri müzik dünyasına kazandıran bir efsane. Gökhan Aya yazdı.

Ahmet Ertegün – Bir tutkunun peşinde rüya inşa etmek

President Trump has threatened to put tariffs on Mexico and Canada and imposed them on China, fuelling fears of a looming global trade war. With the European Union likely next in his sights – what is the US president trying to achieve with these tactics? And what are the consequences?

Bronwen Maddox is joined by Creon Butler, the director of our Global Economy and Finance programme, economist Linda Yueh and ambassador Julian Ventura, both associate fellows with our US and Americas programme.

How dangerous are Trump’s trade threats?

In the past decade, many commentators have increasingly spoken of growing competition between the United States and China in areas like trade, industrial policy, but also on foreign policy and global influence more generally. 

To discuss these issues and how the social sciences can learn from evolutionary thinking, in January 2025 the Phelan US Centre spoke to Shiping Tang, of Fudan University. The conversation ranged over how Professor Tang’s early career as a biologist has informed his thinking about social science issues, whether we should talk about the US and China being in competition at all, and how democracies promote growth.

This episode was produced by Chris Gilson and Luke Digweed.  

Further reading and resources

•	The Institutional Foundation of Economic Development by Shiping Tang (Princeton University Press, 2022)
•	Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research, New Edition by Gary King, Robert O. Keohane, and Sidney Verba (Princeton University Press, 2021)
•	Why Nations Fail: the Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. Daron Acemoglu & James A Robinson. Crown Business. March 2012. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2012/08/21/book-review-why-nations-fail-the-origins-of-power-prosperity-and-poverty/ 
•	Olson, M. (1996). Distinguished Lecture on Economics in Government: Big Bills Left on the Sidewalk: Why Some Nations are Rich, and Others Poor. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 10(2), 3–24. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2138479


LSE: The Ballpark | The international order and US-China competition with Professor Shiping Tang

In this episode, Tim Eaton and Lubna Yousef discuss their latest research on how transnational human smuggling has fuelled conflict in Libya through a systems analysis of three key transit cities – Kufra, Sebha and Zawiya. Using this approach, their research examines the roles played by conflict and social dynamics in the expansion of human smuggling and trafficking – thus helping uncover critical gaps in policies aimed at addressing the rapid rise of migration. 
 
This episode was produced with support from the Cross-Border Conflict Evidence, Policy, and Trends (XCEPT) research programme, funded by UK International Development.

How transnational human smuggling fuels conflict in Libya

About the Book
***This lecture is sponsored by the IWP IAFIE Alpha Student Chapter***

Since its founding in 1995, the FSB, Russia’s Federal Security Service, has regained most the domestic security functions of the Soviet-era KGB. Under Vladimir Putin, who served as FSB director just before becoming president, the agency has grown to be one of the most powerful and favored organizations in Russia. The FSB not only conducts internal security but also has primacy in intelligence operations in former Soviet states. Their activities include anti-dissident operations at home and abroad, counterintelligence, counterterrorism, criminal investigations of crimes against the state, and guarding Russia’s borders. In The Russian FSB, Kevin P. Riehle provides a brief history of the FSB’s origins, placed within the context of Russian history, the government’s power structure, and Russia’s wider culture. He describes how the FSB’s mindset and priorities show continuities from the tsarist regimes and the Soviet era. The book’s chapters analyze origins, organizational structure, missions, leaders, international partners, and cultural representations such as the FSB in film and television.

Here is a link to an earlier book Dr. Riehle wrote for NIU available for free download: Russian Intelligence: A Case-based Study of Russian Services and Missions Past and Present

About the Author
Dr. Kevin Riehle retired in 2021 from a 30+ year career in the U.S. national security community, with tours in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Counterintelligence Center, U.S. European Command Joint Analysis Center, DoD Counterintelligence Field Activity, Defense Intelligence Agency, and the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence. He also retired in 2014 as a U.S. Navy Reserve intelligence officer with the rank of commander.

During his career, Riehle focused on analyzing foreign intelligence services and supporting counterintelligence activities to neutralize the threats they pose. He finished his career as an associate professor of strategic intelligence at the National Intelligence University, teaching courses and chairing over 40 master’s theses on intelligence, counterintelligence, and Eurasia-related topics. He also served as the department head for the Collection, Analysis and Counterintelligence Department.

Book Lecture: The Russian FSB

About the Lecture
The Svalbard Archipelago is a remote collection of Norwegian islands in the Arctic, un-militarized and seemingly unimportant. However, their geographic proximity to Russian military assets in the Arctic make them a potentially valuable strategic asset for NATO, and a source of concern for the Russians, who have engaged in gray zone activities there since the Cold War. In recognition of these facts, NATO should reevaluate its stance on Svalbard and consider turning them into a frontier fortress in an increasingly-important region of the world.

About the Speaker
Jacob Spencer is a first-year student of strategic intelligence studies at IWP. He studied history at the University of Arkansas at Monticello and spent 9 months teaching English as a foreign language in Uzbekistan. He is fluent in the Russian language and is pursuing a career as an expert on Russian and post-Soviet affairs

Svalbard_ A History and Analysis of NATO's Potential Arctic Frontier Fortress

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