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The Black Gold Spies

This is not an academic book, one of those random titles that gets mentioned and peaks curiosity. The author, Gilles Munier, has another book on Iraq and has multiple connections to the Middle East. He spent time in jail for being involved in violations on the sanctions on Iraq. An interesting character. This was published […]

Tags: #CIA #Espionage #Gilles Munier #Iran #Middle East #Spies

Thought Provokers

The Structure of Scientific Revolution

Cited 165,000 times (as of today), this 1962 book on the history and sociology of science has been immensely influential. Thomas Kuhn argues that we don’t progress on a step-by-step process (a slow accumulation model to understanding change) but rather paradigm shifts change entire ways of thinking, working and doing (in understanding change, similar to […]

Tags: #History #Paradigm #Philosophy #Science #Sociology #The Structure of Scientific Revolution #Thomas Kuhn

Thought Provokers

Building a Global Policy School in Asia

Last month I had the opportunity to visit the LKY Policy School, ranked #3 in the world for Policy Schools. In preparation for the visit, I picked up “Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy – Building a Global Policy School in Asia”. The book was published in 2012, meaning it reflected on the first […]

Tags: #LKY #LKY Policy School #LKY SPP #National University of Singapore #NUS #Policy Schools #Singapore

Thought Provokers

Silencing the Past

Written by Michel-Rolph Trouillot in 1995, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History is a widely cited (more than 11,000 citations as of this post) critique of representation in history. The book brings power to the fore of history, which is often assumed to be apolitical or unbiased. The author passed away in […]

Tags: #Anthropology #History #Narrative #Power #Representation #Silences

Thought Provokers

Acts Of Resistance

The history of anti-colonial resistance is not widely available in the global bookstore. However, when one travels to places where such resistance took place local publishers often make these histories visible. One example is a short book – Acts of Resistance: Dol Said and the Naning War – that documents the leadership and acts of […]

Tags: #Anticolonial struggle #Dol Said #History #Malaysia #Naning #Resistance

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Singapore: Public Subsidy / Private Accumulation

On a trip to Singapore in 2025 one question that arose as we moved around the country was what tools the government used to generate revenue, and in particular for a small, high income country without natural resources. One of the unexpected areas (beyond the location and development of a maritime trading hub, financial hub, […]

Tags: #Development #Housing #Land #Nationalization #Singapore

Thought Provokers