#Barbenheimer, Why Exiting Twitter Isn’t the Solution, Figuring Out What To Do About the Taliban, and More.
This week on Inkstick Media.
Hello everyone!
This month’s installment of Inkstick’s culture column, The Mixed-up Files of Inkstick Media, where we link pop culture with national security and foreign policy, reviews the biggest internet phenomena sweeping Hollywood: Barbenheimer. Lovely Umayam points out that the truth is “Oppenheimer” cannot exist without “Barbie.”
I realize many of you have left Twitter — or “X” as it’s trying to be known — but Clara Sherwood argued that exiting the platform may not be the best answer, especially for nuclear experts. After all, Sherwood asks, what happens if a verified “Twitter Blue” account tweets that the United States has armed Ukraine with low-yield nuclear weapons and reaches 20 million viewers? In the absence of nuclear experts analyzing, explaining, and informing the public, would Russia feel pressure to hastily respond?
This week also marked the second anniversary of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan (or the end of the US war in Afghanistan as some like to describe it). Arsalan Noori and Noah Coburn explained how international indecision regarding the Taliban increased Afghan suffering and strengthened the group.
There’s more, so check out the rest of the pieces below.
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This week on Inkstick Media:
“What Does the International Community Want from the Taliban?” by Arsalan Noori and Noah Coburn (August 14)
The current approach of neither condemning nor accepting the Taliban authorities is the worst-case scenario for Arsalan and other Afghans. What does the international community want when it comes to the Taliban?
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“What is US Policy on China?” by Joshua Rovner, Yun Sun, and Kevin Klyman (August 14)
The Biden administration is working hard to maintain the longstanding Asian order, but its efforts are under strain as China presses outward. And the burgeoning consensus in Washington that semiconductor export controls were a clear-cut victory for the United States should give us pause.
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“Facing the Fire of Threat Multipliers in Hawaii” by Jon Letman (August 15)
Climate change and nuclear weapons both threaten our survival. They are two sides of the same coin, and both urgently demand the attention of a planet already feeling the heat of both unexpected and long-overdue threats.
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“Discrimination Against Courtesans is a Colonial Holdover in India” by Asma Hafiz (August 15)
In the context of Indian art history, female artists have not only been excluded but also unfairly and negatively portrayed. For instance, the significant role of tawaifs was overlooked, leading to a lack of formal documentation. Their history primarily survives through oral traditions and narratives.
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“Exiting Musk’s Twitter Has Compromised Nuclear Communication Channels” by Clara Sherwood (August 16)
Pre-Musk Twitter provided a venue for users to receive credible information directly from nuclear experts, creating transparency in a historically inaccessible field. These open and reliable communication channels connecting experts, governments, and civil society are decaying, complicating future risk-reduction efforts.
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“Drilling Down: Part I” by Kelsey D. Atherton (August 17)
Modern-day China grew from empires, similar to how Russia came from the Soviet Union and Turkey came from the Ottoman Empire, and as a result, is one of the large states beset by fast-moving nomads and their cavalry armies. If Tsars and Sultans developed volley fire, it is understood as a response to infantry warfare against states on their European frontiers. China lacked the same condition to develop the tactic on its own.
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“The Shame of Fort Liberty” by Joe Bussino (August 17)
“Liberty” is a lifeless, bloodless platitude; any installation in America could fit the sobriquet. The Home of the Airborne and Special Operations, the installation established to form an American artillery force for our first global war and then restructured in the Cold War by Ridgley Gaither as an experimentation center for a rapid-deployment force, deserves better.
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“The Beauty and Mess of #Barbenheimer” by Lovely Umayam (August 18)
Watching “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie” as a set, no matter which order, is like staring at an optical illusion: pay too much attention to the contrasts, and you will miss how they are alike. Namely, both movies successfully shape grand, monolithic institutions — Barbieland and the Manhattan Project — into alluring and approachable worlds. Time will tell whether these achievements in cinematic world-building will also shape the real world in meaningful ways.
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“The One-Dimensional Depiction of Jean Tatlock in ‘Oppenheimer’” by Sophie Marchionne (August 18)
Nolan’s complete and unnecessary erasure of Tatlock’s struggle with her sexuality, which is central to the film’s storyline due to her profound role and influence in the life and work of Oppenheimer, is a loss for audiences — queer and otherwise, who would benefit from experiencing the representation of a queer character of her influence and standing.
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–From the desk of Sahar Khan, managing editor of Inkstick Media. (PS: I’m on vacation next week — hurray! — but the update will be back the week of August 28.)