2011 International Book List: David Malone

Questions for Author David Malone:

1. What is the best international affairs book you have read in 2011 (Canadian or otherwise?)

I loved Thant Myint-U’s insightful, beautifully written Where China Meets India, about Burma’s essential but turbulent relationship, past and present, with its two great neighbours. He had earlier written a marvellous semi-autobiographical work of literature on Burma, The River of Lost Footsteps. I also very much liked Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo’s Poor Economics, more for its superb insights into poverty in India than for its focus on randomized trials as a tool for measuring results in development assistance (a very expensive technique when practised on a large scale, as medical research attests).

2. What was the biggest international event of 2011?

The eurozone crisis, which is affecting the whole globe, including the fast-growing emerging power economies which have been knocked back at least somewhat.

(As a public servant, could not comment on questions three to six.)