Prisoner swap makes Biden seem stronger as power is about perception
Joe Biden’s administration has presided over the largest swap of prisoners with Russia since the Cold War. This valedictory turn in the final months of Biden’s presidency comes just a few weeks since Nato’s 75th anniversary summit in Washington, D.C., where the president was perceived as weak despite having the most powerful job in the world. Excerpts from This Week, Those Books on the extent to which power depends on perception rather than reality. Sign up at https://thisweekthosebooks.substack.com/ and get the post and podcast the day it drops
Welcome to This Week, Those Books, your rundown on books new and old that resonate with the week’s big news story.
In our second year, a big thank you to our community of more than 10,000 subscribers in 114 countries.
– Rashmee
The Big Story:
Some of the attendees — Biden, Britain’s Keir Starmer, France’s President Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Olaf Scholz — at the 75th anniversary summit in Washington, D.C. of the Nato military alliance are living, breathing examples of how much power depends on perception rather than reality.
- Biden’s perceived weakness…
This Week, Those Books:
- A political and business high-flyer on where to find the source of real power.
- A Nobel Prize-winner’s historical novel on how one man wielded power like a machete against his people.
The Backstory:
- Biden became a running news story after he did spectacularly badly in a TV election debate with political rival Donald Trump. [N.B.: Trump, incidentally, is older than Nato but is perceived to be in rude good health.]
- Starmer’s image of strength comes from…
This Week’s Books:
The Power of Giving Away Power: How the Best Leaders Learn to Let Go
By: Matthew Barzun
Publisher: Optimism Press
Year: 2021
My rating: Thought-provoking
This is the book Joe Biden needed to read before he decided to run for a second White House term. “We think we must hoard power before someone else takes it,” writes Matthew Barzun, an Obama ally and former US ambassador to Britain and Sweden, in what many might see as a fatal flaw in many leaders, not least Biden. Instead, there is great power in giving away power. Barzun argues that the pyramid, the classic organisational structure, does not allow…
Choice quotes:
…”Bottom-up is just the same Pyramid perspective, only upside down…”
The Feast of the Goat
By: Mario Vargas Llosa
Publisher: Picador
Year: 2000
My rating: Mesmerising
A gripping portrait by Peruvian Nobel Literature laureate Mario Vargas Llosa of the absolute power exerted by Rafael Trujillo over the Dominican Republic from 1930 to 1961. But this is more than a historical novel. It is an exploration of how human beings survive under oppression and tyranny. Behind his back, Trujillo’s enemies call him “the Goat”. Face to face with the dictator, they are…
Choice quotes:
…”Despotism is contagious; very contagious”…
I hope you find This Week, Those Books useful, thoughtful, and…a conversation starter. It’s a small operation here at TWTB, and support from readers like you helps keep this news literacy project going.
Email thisweekthosebooks@substack.com to say ‘hi’. Or connect with me on: Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook | Threads
Ready for another read? TV election debates: Just X Factor politics?
Originally published at This Week, Those Books
