Adam Tooze argues in Foreign Policy that the economic growth infatuation with Asia is more buzz than substance as the world lurches towards 2030. Tooze illuminates the demographic, economic and geographical factors that, in his mind, set up Africa to have an unprecedented impact on the world stage over the coming century – whether we’re ready for it or not.

Toppling a Communist Empire for $2.7 Million
Though widely thought of as focused on waterboarding terrorists or poisoning foreign potentates, it was by smuggling paper that the CIA achieved its most monumental triumph. R.M. Gerecht in a book review for The Washington Free Beacon charts how the late Cold War-era operation to flood Poland with Western books, magazines, printing supplies and audio recordings fatally weakened the country’s Communist dictatorship, setting the stage for the downfall of the entire Soviet empire. Total cost: US$2.7 million.


