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reviews Who Will Win the Self-Driving Future? China and the United States have drastically different visions for autonomous transportation. By Salvatore Babones FOR AMERICANS, CARS ARE A WAY OF LIFE. They not only take work in a centrally planned economy people from one place to another; they also serve as enter- like China’s, but you can’t herd cats (or tainment systems, storage lockers, and status symbols. But people) in the United States. thanks to ride-hailing services, personal cars are becoming less important, and the development of autonomous vehi- As a result, China may win the race cles may accelerate that trend. Cutting out the driver could to develop effectively integrated auton- make ride-hailing so cheap, convenient, and safe that many omous mass transit. But residents of Americans may go carless. America’s Sun Belt suburbs will already have a different option: catching robo- Will Americans really give up their cars? The transpor- taxis to the grocery store. More than a tation consultants Bern Grush and John Niles think they new urban transportation infrastruc- will. In The End of Driving: Transportation Systems and ture, then, autonomous vehicles’ big- Public Policy Planning for Autonomous Vehicles, they gest impact may be new ways of living reckon that, 50 years from now, only hobbyists will drive in the suburbs. cars. Between then and now, however, officials will have to do the complicated work of promoting a “transit leap” by THE LAST REAL LEAP FORWARD in automo- deploying “fully automated shuttle vehicles”—that is, buses tive transportation took place in the that don’t require any human input—along limited routes United States when Ford added auto- and nudging people toward giving up their own cars. The matic ignitions to its Model T range task is the same for former New York City Traffic Commis- of cars in 1919. That single change sioner Samuel I. Schwartz in No One at the Wheel: Driver- meant the beginning of the end of the less Cars and the Road of the Future, who sees a future in chauffeur. With no need to get dirty which autonomous vehicles drastically change the physical hand-cranking an engine, anyone look and feel of U.S. cities, widening sidewalks, narrowing could drive. It is true that cars have since roads, and eliminating parking. become safer, more powerful, and more sophisticated, but the basic experience Good luck. Americans like minibuses about as much as hasn’t changed: Understanding what it they do speed cameras and carpooling. Grush and Niles are means to drive today means understand- fundamentally correct that automation is coming and that the ing decisions made a hundred years ago. important thing is to get it right. But they seem to think that “getting it right” means successfully integrating autonomous That’s why Schwartz begins No One vehicles into urban mass transit systems. That approach may at the Wheel with a look back at the rise 62 SUMMER 2019
and fall of a precursor to the car: the The End of Driving: vision of the automotive future, but they also inadvertently humble bicycle. In the late 19th century, Transportation show why it may not be possible in the United States. Where the bicycle was the king of the road. It Systems and Schwartz’s writing is breathless and provocative, Grush and was bicyclists who in the 1880s lobbied Public Policy Niles write like the policy wonks they are; their vision of a state governments to improve intercity Planning for government-run “harmonization management system” routes. They were soon run off those Autonomous designed to get people to give up their cars sounds like some- roads (figuratively and literally) by cars, Vehicles thing dreamed up for a Chinese five-year plan. Grush and as were pedestrians. Schwartz is keen Niles are not wrong to focus on the policy tools that gov- to avoid such mistakes in designing the BERN GRUSH AND JOHN ernments can use to optimize the social impact of auton- transportation systems of the future. NILES, ELSEVIER, 332 omous vehicles, including the use of variable road pricing He fears that the owners of autono- PP., $125, JUNE 2018 to manage congestion, the gradual reduction of space for mous vehicles will demand dedicated parking, and restrictions on the amount of driving done high-speed lanes, or even entire levels No One at the by zero-occupancy “zombie” vehicles. But their approach of cities, that will further marginalize Wheel: Driverless doesn’t stand a chance of being implemented in a free and pedestrians and cyclists. Cars and the Road democratic society. One way to avoid that dystopia is to of the Future ALTHOUGH THE AUTHORS OF THESE BOOKS aim their transportation make sure that the future of transpor- proposals at the United States, it’s no accident that their wish tation is shared. Like Grush and Niles, SAMUEL I. SCHWARTZ lists most closely resemble China’s current program. With Schwartz is a big fan of the autono- WITH KAREN KELLY, centralized planning and heavy-handed regulation, China is mous minibus. A public transportation PUBLICAFFAIRS, 272 PP., almost certain to establish the world’s first major autonomous booster with a New York-centric world- $17.99, NOVEMBER 2018 vehicle-only city, in Shenzhen. Southern China’s technology view, Schwartz also wants cities to use capital already boasts the world’s first all-electric bus fleet, the transition to autonomous vehicles and it plans to finish converting all taxis to electric power this as an opportunity to implement con- year. It is already testing making those buses self-driving. gestion pricing and increase the rider- ship of mass transit. With no drivers to In many ways, it will be easier for Chinese cities like Shen- pay, bus routes that currently run at a zhen to roll out the new technologies. They have outlawed loss—or are not offered at all—could be motorcycles and aggressively prosecuted jaywalking to create made economical. a sanitized environment that is perfectly suited for autono- mous vehicles. In the United States, where most research and Grush and Niles share Schwartz’s Illustration by IRENA GAJIC FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 63
reviews development into autonomous vehicles that it’s already economical to keep mil- Freed from their dependence on car is driven by the private sector, the road lions of cars on hand, just waiting to be ownership, American suburbs could conditions are much more challenging. used. If a fleet operator could get away hold onto their young new graduates, with stationing one robotaxi in front help older people stay in their fam- As a result, U.S. companies may take of every house, instead of the one car ily homes, and attract a more diverse longer to succeed. But when they do, per driver most suburbanites currently population. The addition of millions their potential for technological disrup- have, the robotaxi model would already of mobile batteries to the electricity tion will be profound—and not just in be less wasteful. grid could give wind and solar energy dense cities like New York and San Fran- the backup reservoirs they need to cisco. In the United States, at least, the There are other ways to make the eco- become competitive with coal and nat- future of transportation will be settled nomics of suburban robotaxi services ural gas. While transportation planners in the sprawling suburbs, where more work, too. One is to link the taxis’ batter- are looking to autonomous vehicles to people own cars and public transporta- ies to a flexible electrical grid. Electricity solve the last-mile problem, they may tion just isn’t competitive—at any price. demand has always been intermittent, end up instead sparking a suburban but as societies shift toward renewable renaissance that bypasses the cities TRANSPORTATION PROFESSIONALS like energy sources like wind and solar, elec- altogether. Schwartz, Grush, and Niles are inordi- tricity supply is becoming intermit- nately concerned with the “last-mile tent, too. And when both supply and SCHWARTZ’S NO ONE AT THE WHEEL is an problem”—the challenge of getting peo- demand are intermittent, electricity entertaining and engaging introduc- ple to and from mass transit systems prices become very volatile. Home stor- tion to the world of autonomous vehi- like subways, trams, and bus lines. If age batteries that can connect to the cles, and if you only ever read one book we could only get Americans from their broader grid are the electricity indus- on the subject, this should be it. If you homes to the bus stop and from the bus try’s stopgap solution to the supply and really want to understand the detailed stop to their offices, the reasoning goes, demand challenge, and some electrical architecture of autonomous vehicle they would give up their cars. utilities are subsidizing consumers to policy planning, go with Grush and install them. Niles’s The End of Driving instead. Or, But a fixation on mass transit blinds for full effect, read both. Schwartz liber- Schwartz, and to a lesser extent Grush But keeping a mostly unused bat- ally quotes Grush throughout his book, and Niles, to a much more likely use tery in your garage is just as wasteful and there is a great deal of convergence for autonomous vehicles in the United as keeping a mostly unused car. Con- in their conclusions. States. All across suburban America, necting the battery of your personal parents grumble that they have become electric car to a smart grid that man- Both books provide plenty of prac- chauffeurs for their spoiled kids. What if ages local supply is less so, but what if tical insights into how autonomous they could afford (computerized) chauf- you need your car just after the electric vehicles will transform personal trans- feurs of their own? The vehicles could company has drained its battery? Put- portation, especially in the United deliver groceries or run to the drugstore ting personal transportation and power States’ largest cities. But transporta- drive-through to pick up medicine for management in the hands of the fleet tion is only one aspect of a much more a sick kid. With those needs taken care operators could solve this problem. complicated story. The transition from of, will suburban parents still want to the railroad to the automobile in the own and drive their own large SUVs? The potential for a smarter energy early 20th century completely recon- system is enormous, but it isn’t the figured American society. The transi- Grush and Niles are doubtful that only advantage of a fleet of robotaxis. tion from personal vehicles to robotaxis suburbanites will be willing to wait Grush and Niles called their book The will do something similar, although the for a ride; Schwartz puts the make-or- End of Driving, but Schwartz points out details remain to be determined. These break wait time for the routine use of that the spread of robotaxis could also two books don’t provide the answers, ride-hailing services at about five min- mean the end of parking, which he says but they do make it possible for their utes. That would require robotaxi opera- adds an average of 20 minutes to every readers to start framing the questions. Q tors to station so many cars in suburban urban trip. So-called phantom traffic areas that the service could never be jams caused by people unconsciously SALVATORE BABONES (@sbabones) is an profitable, because the cars would have slowing on hills could also become a adjunct scholar at the Centre for Inde- to sit idle most of the time. thing of the past. But the big win for pendent Studies in Sydney and an autonomous vehicles is system-level associate professor at the University But the fact that most people already change that gets us out of our cars and of Sydney. consider it economical to keep cars idle transforms everything from housing in their garages should give skeptics of patterns to the energy market. autonomous vehicles pause. It suggests 64 SUMMER 2019
Ever Closer Confusion A new novel portrays the European Union’s search for meaning as a historical reckoning— and a comedy of manners. By Peter Pomerantsev JOEL SAGET/AFP/GETTY IMAGES WHAT EXACTLY IS THE EUROPEAN UNION? A postnational superstate The Capital or a mechanism to augment the power of nations? A neolib- eral fantasia or a protectionist cartel? A Christian empire? A ROBERT MENASSE, socially liberal paradise? Or is it something defined not by TRANS. JAMIE BULLOCH, what it is but by what it is not—the lack of war in Europe, the taming of extremist ideologies, the avoidance of another LIVERIGHT, 416 PP., Auschwitz? And what if nobody in the EU, including the $27.95, JUNE 2019 people who work in its institutions, even knows the answer? Such questions have riven the EU since it first came into existence, but in recent years, the latent tensions have risen to a breaking point. Now the Austrian writer Robert Menasse has dramatized Europe’s existential agonies in his splendid novel The Capital, which won the 2017 German Book Prize, one of Germany’s most prestigious literary awards, and was recently FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 65
reviews translated into English. The book should in the Directorate-General of Culture, tory of the union, the impetus for the do more than any treatise or treaty to help comes up with the idea of parading Aus- EU’s creation was not just to create a readers understand the union’s crises. chwitz survivors at a mass commem- “United States of Europe,” in Winston orative event in the heart of Brussels. Churchill’s words, but to strengthen the Menasse spent four years living in After all, Susman argues, the commis- states themselves after the devastation Brussels to research his subject, and it sion needs to show that it is the insti- of World War II. More specifically, this shows. The novel abounds with deli- tution that safeguards the promise of meant helping Germany to rehabilitate cious observations about the Euro- “never again.” As he tells a colleague, its reputation and France to reclaim pean Commission, the bureaucratic “the Commission is a supranational international status. Today, countries behemoth that ensures the function- rather than international institution, such as Ukraine and Georgia seek EU ing of the EU. In a series of satirical which means it doesn’t mediate between membership partly to escape neoco- scenes, Menasse explains which of the nations but stands above them and rep- lonial domination by Moscow. commission’s directorates have status resents the common interests of the (trade) and which do not (culture); how Union and its citizens.” Invoking Jean At its best, the EU manages to embrace bureaucrats scheme, sleep with one Monnet, a founding father of the EU, this paradox: It is at once a supranational another, and undermine each other Susman argues passionately that the pur- structure that strengthens nations and to gain promotion for themselves; the pose of the commission is “to overcome a community of strengthened nations dynamics between the nationalities nationalism, and ultimately the nations.” that have learned to work together (playful, subtle Italians and Hungari- through a common structure. When both ans, for example, gang up on direct and Susman’s plans are eventually sub- parts work, the EU defies the binaries moralizing Swedes). If nothing else, verted by a slick senior official, the pushed by the likes of Steve Bannon in The Capital serves as a fun primer on private secretary to the commission’s the United States and some advocates how Brussels works. president, who asks the representa- for Brexit in the United Kingdom. It is tives of the EU’s collected nation-states simultaneously globalist and nationalist. But beneath the comedy of manners, how they feel about a jubilee celebra- Menasse has a serious point to make: On tion that, as he rewords Susman’s idea, This is something I experienced for top of its perpetual crisis, the EU must urges the overthrow of the nation-state. myself when, as a teenager, I attended confront the political demands of the Unsurprisingly, they are not thrilled. one of the dozen or so European moment—above all, a loss of histori- The smaller nations, many of which Schools, which were created by the cal purpose and a resurgence of politi- joined the EU to guarantee their inde- founders of the European Union to cal extremism. The way Europe meets pendence after centuries of invasions foster a sort of Homo Europaeus. The this challenge—through bureaucracy and occupations, are the first to push schools were meant originally for the and idealism, vanity and necessity— back against an idea that seems to ques- children of European bureaucrats but provides the core of Menasse’s story tion their identity and right to exist. also became popular among journal- and his critique. ist and expat parents such as my own. This storyline cuts to an unresolved Students were divided into language The book’s plot circles around the tension at the core of the EU—between sections, where we were taught most European Commission’s jubilee celebra- the postnationalism Susman espouses subjects in our mother tongue, but we tions. Shocked to discover that the Euro- and the EU’s other job, which is to safe- also studied history and geography in pean public dislikes the commission, guard nations’ more parochial inter- a foreign language and from that coun- which it often views (in real life as in ests. Both impulses have defined the try’s perspective (so French kids would the novel) as simultaneously aloof and union from the beginning. As the his- learn history and geography in Ger- bullying, bureaucrats set to work trying torian and sociologist Perry Anderson man and from a German point of view, to improve the commission’s image. has shown in his essays about the his- English from a French one, and so on). Martin Susman, a midranking nobody “Educated side by side,” went the schools’ mission statement (allegedly On top of its perpetual crisis, the EU written by Monnet), “untroubled must confront the political demands from infancy by divisive prejudices, of the moment—above all, a loss of acquainted with all that is great and historical purpose and a resurgence good in the different cultures, it will be of political extremism. borne in upon them as they mature that they belong together. Without ceasing to look to their own lands with love and 66 SUMMER 2019
pride, they will become in mind Euro- The Capital catches the moment when peans, schooled and ready to complete the bureaucracy forgets the reason for and consolidate the work of their fathers its creation and becomes something before them, to bring into being a united that exists simply to perpetuate itself and thriving Europe.” and thus can no longer justify its existence to the general public. “European,” however, was never imposed as an identity onto pupils. We Whereas people used to talk of gave it meaning, one can see the return didn’t sing the European hymn in the “solving a problem,” now they said: morning or salute the European flag. “bringing a solution to the prob- of the extremist mindsets the EU was “Being in mind European” meant the lem.” Whereas it used to be “mak- ability to see things from another coun- ing a decision,” now it was created to overcome. In one poignant try’s point of view, to wear one’s own “effecting a decision.” … Arrange- national identity more lightly. It was a ments that once were “made” were scene, a Czech bureaucrat goes home way of thinking, rather than a sealed now facilitated.” … [T]his develop- idea of the self, an initiation into the ment was a sign, had a significance to Prague to be told by his new brother- tradition that holds the EU together: its that was symptomatic of the state almost religious reverence for patient of the Commission, of its helpless- in-law, a gangster who has joined a ris- negotiation and the cult of compro- ness, its paralysis. mise. This deification of negotiation and ing neofascist party, that he is a national compromise is expressed in the union’s Menasse is unforgiving in his crit- famously bureaucratic procedures, its icism of EU-connected think tanks, traitor for working in the commission. love of norms and baroque protocol. which churn out circular homilies about how economic growth is neces- Terrorists and religious fundamentalists As long as this way of doing politics sary to maintain economic growth and was infused with the memory of the can be guaranteed through economic stalk the fringes of the novel: A terrorist devastation that preceded the found- growth—even as the austerity poli- ing of the union, it had a raison d’être. cies of the commission drive up sui- attack kills a Holocaust survivor whom Better the language of labyrinthine cide numbers across the continent. His bureaucracy than hate speech; better characters become ever more symbolic. Susman planned to include in his jubilee. to jaw-jaw than war-war. The bureaucrat career climber unable to have feelings in her private life In this world where “people forget The Capital catches the moment becomes emblematic of a system that when the bureaucracy forgets the rea- has lost its soul; when Susman nurses so much and yet talk so much,” those son for its creation and becomes some- his cynical businessman brother back thing that exists simply to perpetuate to health, his actions seem to repre- who want to return the EU to its con- itself and thus can no longer justify its sent how “culture” could help revital- existence to the general public. As the ize the empty political ideals of “trade.” science become increasingly hysteri- novel moves on, it slides skillfully and Meanwhile, the novel shows how the devastatingly from satire to tragedy. EU has become too divided to stand up cal. In a tragicomic moment, an aging One begins to notice that the charac- to emerging threats. In one storyline, ters are split generationally. There’s different departments disagree and academic uses a speech at a think tank the older, dying cohort that includes undercut each other on the issue of Holocaust survivors and those who nur- trading pork with China: Should the to raise the idea of moving the capital ture the memory of resistance fighters EU’s policy be based on defending the against fascism in the war, and there’s businesses of all European farmers or of the EU to Auschwitz, as a permanent the younger one, which is rapidly forget- just those looking to export to the East? ting the motivation for the union’s cre- reminder of the backdrop to its creation. ation and for whom the EU represents As the union loses the memories that little more than a career path. Even the The suggestion is meant as an intellec- language of the commission betrays the sense of drift, as captured in the book tual provocation, but by the end of the by a Brussels-based British bureaucrat lamenting his colleagues’ diction: book, it feels almost like the only act that could save the commission. The problem with trying to create a sense of purpose out of the negative of “never again” is that, however hard one tries, that negative will invariably lose its power over time. Menasse’s novel is mercilessly unsentimental. It offers little hope that past purpose can be recovered. If it is to flourish, the author suggests, the EU will have to find a new point for its existence. It must answer not just what it is but why. Q PETER POMERANTSEV (@peterpomeranzev) is a visiting senior fellow at the Institute of Global Affairs at the London School of Economics. FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 67
reviews Delhi Crime and Punishment Netflix’s hit show documents the changes rocking Indian society—and not all of them are good. By Ira Trivedi “THERE WAS NOTHING IN HIS EYES. It was like his soul was miss- In one scene, two police officers race ing,” Neeti Singh, a young police officer, tearfully tells her to a village in Rajasthan to hunt down boss. Deputy Police Commissioner Vartika Chaturvedi, one of the suspects. On their drive, one cool and calm, dismisses her discomfort. “If you’re trying of them explains to the other why such to ascribe meaning to this, forget it.” She is already on to the heinous crimes happen. India has seen next crime: another recent rape, this one involving a broken an explosion of uneducated youth, he beer bottle. The victim had died. says, who have no sex education and who are watching free porn online. They This scene comes toward the end of the hit Netflix show don’t know what to make of it, and they Delhi Crime, which fictionalizes the real-life story of Jyoti begin looking at all women like objects. Singh Pandey, a young physiotherapy intern who was raped They desire these objects, which are on a moving bus in New Delhi in 2012. The popular seven- now more visible than ever thanks to episode series was written and produced by the Canadian India’s loosening mores around women filmmaker Richie Mehta following six years of research in public. When the men can’t have during which he interviewed police officers, consulted them because they are poor, they want with the real-life police commissioner Neeraj Kumar, and to take them anyway. Oftentimes, they investigated the case files. The show is made from the point pay no heed to the consequences. After of view of the Delhi Police, with Chaturvedi spearheading all, when one’s prospects are so grim, the manhunt that, in real life, led to the arrest of the six what does one have to lose anyway? accused rapists in five days—a dauting task in a city with a population of 25 million. In many ways, the police officer was on point with his comments. India is The show may be a dramatization—and one that spurred home to one in every three illiterate peo- at least one of the people portrayed, the police inspector Anil ple in the world. Meanwhile, record- Sharma, to threaten legal action—but it taps into something high unemployment, particularly real. New Delhi is the rape capital of the world. In the first among uneducated youth, is deeply quarter of 2018, more than five rapes were reported every day disturbing. According to the sociologist in India’s national capital, according to Delhi Police statis- Gunnar Heinsohn, such a situation— tics. And on a recent trip down the same route traversed by when a nation’s demographics skew Nirbhaya—or “fearless,” as Panday has widely come to be young and a large number of young peo- called—the sidewalks were thronged with groups of young ple have low job prospects—can trigger men. There was not a woman in sight. widespread social conflict. The truths about New Delhi that the show picks up on make it difficult to watch, as do the scenes that recall the gruesome details of the real-life gang rape, in which one of the attackers used an iron rod to tear most of the victim’s intestines out through her vagina. But it is a useful reminder of why this particular case made the world sit up and take notice. The violence is a reflection of a deeply troubled society in the throes of dizzying changes—changes that Delhi Crime tries to document. 68 SUMMER 2019
sexual crimes. But it feels like nothing much has changed. Of the six real-life accused rapists, one, Ram Singh, died in jail in mysterious circumstances; another, who was a minor, was released after a three-year sentence. The other four remain on death row. Meanwhile, daily media reports make rape and sexual violence seem ram- pant. And, indeed, more rapes are being reported across the country (although that could just mean a greater propor- tion of victims are coming forward). At the same time, there has been virtually Shefali Shah, left, no progress on gender or sex education. plays Deputy Police And faster and cheaper internet connec- Commissioner Vartika Chaturvedi tions have made access to pornography in Delhi Crime. easier than ever before. According to Gail Daily media reports Dines, the author of Pornland, porn is a make rape and sexual violence public health crisis. She points to exten- seem rampant. sive scientific research that shows that ting together and flirting, they were The manhunt in the series brings flying in the face of India’s moral val- exposure to porn threatens the social, such statistics to life, as the viewer ues. We find out through the course of enters the suspects’ dwellings in the the series that the man’s wife had died emotional, and physical health of indi- slums and meets their families in two years ago under unclear circum- remote villages. We meet the moth- stances, after which he had regular fits viduals, families, and communities. ers and fathers—and, in one case, the of rage leading to extreme violence. wife—in bucolic villages in the heart- According to a Thomson Reuters Foun- A brutal and well-made series, Delhi land of India. The show reveals how dation 2018 survey, India is the most clueless the families are with regard to dangerous country for sexual violence Crime is a reminder that the inherent the new lives their sons are leading in against women. India’s National Crime the city. We come to see all six rapists for Records Bureau recorded 338,954 problems that led to the Nirbhaya gang who they are: young men and all recent crimes against women—including migrants, unmoored and unhinged, 38,947 rapes—in 2016, the most recent rape—including deep-set patriarchy, living in violent and filthy slums away government data available. That’s up from familiar social structures. from 309,546 reported incidents of vio- lack of sex education, and migration into lence against women in 2013. Their lashing out at a woman on a disorganized cities already bursting at bus, then, is what the journalist Anjani Given that the events depicted in the Trivedi has called “the dark side” of show took place nearly seven years ago the seams—are still very much a reality India’s sexual revolution. It “is a mani- now, one might reasonably hope that festation of what has gone wrong, what things have changed for the better. of Indian life. It is difficult to say what is going wrong and what will go wrong And, indeed, the crime did lead to wide- when people, who are not ready for it, spread public outrage and the creation will follow. Most recently, the #MeToo have new ideas, visions and, above all, of a fast-track court to better deal with freedoms thrust upon their existing movement has become a champion for patrilineal, patrilocal and patriarchal thought processes.” women’s rights in India. Its campaign No wonder that, during the show, led to the resignation of a high-rank- one of the accused tells the police that when he saw the woman he ing minister who had been accused of raped on the bus with her boyfriend, he could not control his anger. By sit- harassing subordinates (he disputes the charge) and the fall from grace of several well-known personalities in the film, writing, and business worlds. But real, lasting changes in policy and gover- nance are hard to find. Delhi Crime thus shows viewers that although changes may be coming to Indian society, not all of them are good, and the good ones aren’t happening fast enough. Q NETFLIX IRA TRIVEDI (@iratrivedi) is the author of nine books, including India in Love: Marriage and Sexuality in the 21st Century. FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 69
BOOKS IN BRIEF The Mosquito: The Mosquito: A mosquito net embedded with insecticide, issued by the A Human History of A Human National Malaria Center and the World Health Organization, Our Deadliest Predator History of protects villagers in Cambodia on July 18, 2010. THE MOSQUITO, far and away mankind’s deadliest Our Deadliest is yet to come: Climate change is expanding the enemy, has killed half of all the people who ever Predator reach and range of the mosquito, which also car- lived. In his fascinating book The Mosquito, Timothy ries other nasty diseases, such as dengue, chiku- C. Winegard, a historian at Colorado Mesa Univer- TIMOTHY C. WINEGARD, ngunya, and Zika. sity, reexamines human history through the sin- gular prism of this bloodsucking insect—or, more DUTTON, 496 PP., $28, Written as a big-picture, impersonal history— precisely, through the devastating diseases like think Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel— malaria and yellow fever that it carries. He shows AUGUST 2019 this book has a few flaws. It can be repetitive and that mosquitoes have had an outsized impact on at times overwrought and overwritten. Often it the course of nations, empires, and peoples. seems more a review of previous niche historical PAULA BRONSTEIN/GETTY IMAGES studies on the mosquito’s impact than a wholly Winegard finds no shortage of pivotal events original contribution. But taken as a whole, The to pin on the little critter. The mosquito ended Mosquito serves up an eye-opening, deeply alarm- Alexander the Great’s campaigns and saved Rome ing, and absolutely engrossing view of humanity’s from Hannibal. (The same malarial swamps near most tenacious foe. Rome—the Pontine Marshes—that gave Hannibal trouble were later weaponized by the Nazis during KEITH JOHNSON (@KFJ_FP) is a senior staff writer at the Anzio campaign in World War II.) In the New FOREIGN POLICY. World, colonizers cited the activity of mosquitoes as a justification for slavery: Unlike white and Native American people, many Africans had some degree of immunity to malaria. The mosquito, by relent- lessly attacking European soldiers unused to the bug, contributed to George Washington’s victory at Yorktown and thus to American independence. U.S. expansion through the Louisiana Purchase? Also due to the mosquito’s devastation of French armies in Haiti, which drove a bankrupt Napo- leon to fire-sale desperation. A few decades later, the North’s near-monopoly on antimalarial qui- nine gave it a decisive edge over the Confederacy. Alexander the Great, Washington, and so many others never learned the true cause of their fates. For nearly all of human history, the source of the bone-shaking fevers that killed so many millions was a mystery. Most blamed marshes and mias- mas; few came close to fingering the true suspect. It was only in the 20th century, and especially after World War II, that the human race truly recog- nized the mosquito as a deadly vector and briefly gained the upper hand. Today, however, cases of malaria are on the rise in much of the develop- ing world, and an average of 2 million people a year die from mosquito-related causes. Worse 70 SUMMER 2019
After the Caliphate: The After the The Great Successor: The Islamic State and the Future Caliphate: Divinely Perfect Destiny of of the Terrorist Diaspora The Islamic Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un State and THIS YEAR, U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP DECLARED that the Future of WHEN KIM JONG UN TOOK OVER AS LEADER OF NORTH KOREA the Islamic State was 100 percent defeated after U.S. the Terrorist and allied troops retook the last remaining sliver of Diaspora in 2011, his name was reportedly removed from the group’s once-sprawling caliphate in Iraq and Syria. circulation. No babies born in the country could COLIN P. CLARKE, be called Jong Un. Anyone who already shared the As Colin P. Clarke, a political scientist at Rand POLITY PRESS, 240 name had to find a new one immediately. Corp. and sometime FOREIGN POLICY contributor, PP., $64.95, JUNE makes clear in After the Caliphate, Trump couldn’t In her new book, The Great Successor, Anna have been more wrong. Breaking the Islamic State’s 2019 Fifield, the Washington Post’s Beijing bureau hold on physical territory, it turns out, was the easy chief, uses such anecdotes to show how Kim has part. That battlefield victory—important but insuffi- The Great employed personal mythology to take and then cient—has spread the smoldering embers of jihadism Successor: stay in power. For example, as Fifield shows, Kim’s far and wide. The Islamic State, he writes, “as an idea, The Divinely steady supply of Mao suits, ever expanding mid- as an ideology, and as a worldview is far from over.” section, and iconic haircut may make him look like Perfect a sinister pageboy to outsiders, but Fifield argues Clarke sets out to divine what comes next, and Destiny of that his look has a very specific goal. When the what he finds is not heartening. Although the Islamic Brilliant country’s 25 million residents see him, they see State’s caliphate is no more, in creating and sustain- Comrade Kim his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, who founded the ing a ministate, the group accomplished something dynasty and sparked its fixation on self-reliance. no other jihadi outfit has managed. It showed that the Jong Un caliphate is “more than just a jihadi talking point,” The mythmaking continues. School children Clarke writes, ensuring that the Islamic State’s mur- ANNA FIFIELD, learn that Kim Jong Un, by age 3, could “fire a derous ideology will far outlive its proto-polity. PUBLICAFFAIRS, gun and hit a light bulb a hundred yards away.” 336 PP., $16.99, By age 8, he was said to be driving cars at 80 miles But where and in what form? The group could well an hour. The point, Fifield explains, is to make his reform in Iraq and Syria, where it all began; Syria, a JUNE 2019 succession seem “natural and inevitable”—as if failed and fractured state, will be particularly fertile Kim were supernaturally qualified for the role—a ground for years to come. Or the Islamic State could particularly important goal because his rise was reconstitute itself in some other poorly governed anything but a foregone conclusion. region; Libya and the Sinai Peninsula top Clarke’s list. In fact, Kim’s ascension required taking his sib- The next iteration of the Islamic State could also take lings out of the running. One of the book’s most a more diffused form, with individuals or lone-wolf memorable figures is his half-brother, Kim Jong attacks taking precedence over the creation of a caliph- Nam, who was once caught sneaking into Japan ate. Thousands of Europeans went to Syria to fight for with a fake passport from the Dominican Republic the group, and many of them have now returned to that said his name was Pang Xiong, or “Fat Bear” their home countries. Meanwhile, thousands more in Chinese. Kim, convinced that his outspoken children were indoctrinated in terrorism, torture, brother—who had served as an informant to the and the group’s nihilistic ideology. “The physical ter- CIA and publicly questioned Kim’s leadership—was ritory of the caliphate is gone, but its core messages, still a threat to his rule, eventually had him assas- ideas, and narrative have already been implanted in sinated at Kuala Lumpur Airport in February 2017. countless numbers of young Muslims,” Clarke writes. Finding intimate sources who will speak about After the Caliphate is authoritative and comprehen- the Great Successor is no easy task. As a result, the sive, if not exactly groundbreaking. Readers already insights of a sushi chef who worked for Kim Jong well-versed in the history of Salafi jihadi terrorism Un’s father and a family of high-ranking defectors will get a better idea of what made the Islamic State sustain more of Fifield’s book than they would oth- different from its predecessors and why dismantling erwise. However, under Kim, North Korea is still the caliphate is a double-edged sword. Those simply “advertising totalitarianism to a population that trying to understand the past and future of radical [has] no choice but to buy it.” At least for now. Q Islamist violence will find a concise and readable guide in Clarke’s work. It may not make for a pleas- JEFCOATE O’DONNELL (@brjodonnell) is an editorial ant read, but it is a necessary one.—KJ fellow at FOREIGN POLICY. FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 71
artifact Pandora’s Vox Thousands of years ago, the ancient Greeks anticipated robots and artificial intelligence—and they didn’t trust them. By Adrienne Mayor As in our own era, the Greeks were ambivalent, even fear- parents, childhood, or memories; no ful, about the idea of imitating nature. But they had the story desires or emotions; no agency of her of Pandora as an example: According to Greek mythology, own, no past, and no future. Unaware the young woman depicted on the vase was a trick devised of her origins and purpose, Pandora’s by Zeus to punish mortals for accepting Prometheus’s stolen only function was to be accepted as a gift of fire. She was constructed by Hephaestus, the brilliant real woman among humans and then blacksmith god of invention and technology. According to unleash everlasting misery. ancient myths first written down around 700 B.C., Hephaestus forged marvelous weapons for the gods and heroes and built Many ancient vase paintings illus- self-moving devices and wonders, including automated bel- trated the myth; each of them empha- lows for his forge, a crew of feminine automatons, automatic sized Pandora’s artificiality. One gates for the heavens, the colossal robot Talos that guarded arresting scene on a vase of about 500 the island of Crete, and a host of other animated machines. B.C. shows Zeus holding up a small, man- ikinlike Pandora, admiring Hephaestus’s Zeus commanded Hephaestus to create a kalon kakon handiwork, as Athena brings a wreath (“beautiful evil”) in the form of an uncannily beautiful young to crown her. woman who would arouse men’s lust. This bewitching fem- bot called Pandora would be dispatched to earth with one But the most remarkable image of Pan- mission: to open a sealed jar filled with all the suffering and dora is on a magnificent krater, a vessel misfortunes that plagued humankind. Zeus instructed Hephaestus to give Pandora the power to move on her own and assembled the gods to contribute to her making. Athena dressed her in dazzling clothing; the Graces endowed her with charm and persuasion; Aphro- dite filled Pandora with irresistible sex appeal; and Hermes gave her the “shameless nature of a female dog,” according to Hesiod. Pandora was described by the poets as made, not born. Essentially, she was a lifelike replicant with no 72 SUMMER 2019
A wine vessel, attributed to the Niobid Painter of Athens circa 460 B.C., featuring a rare frontal depiction of Pandora. for mixing wine, more than a foot high, statues. Frontal views could also sug- Pandora, like Eve, was the first woman painted by the famous Niobid Painter gest a mesmerizing gaze. On the Niobid in an all-male world. The Greeks imag- of Athens in about 460 B.C. and now vase, both effects are in play: Pandora’s ined some artificial helpers constructed stored in the British Museum. Pandora forward-facing stance suggests a blank in the image of women—like today’s stands with her arms at her sides, looking mind and a compelling stare. Alexa or Siri—but Pandora was an infil- straight ahead. She resembles a windup trator and saboteur, similar to Maria of doll, an automaton waiting to be set in But there’s one more twist here. Metropolis or the seductive humanoid motion, as the gods bustle around her. Facial expressions showing emotion, Cylons of Battlestar Galactica. such as grimaces, frowns, or smiles, are Yet Pandora is facing us—a depiction also very rare on ancient Greek vases, Pandora’s unexpected facial expres- very rare in vase painting, where the where feelings are indicated by ges- sion is reminiscent of the korai, life-size faces of people and animals are almost tures or posture. But as Pandora stares marble statues of draped maidens that always shown in profile. This is not an at the beholder, she is smiling broadly. were created from about 600 to 480 B.C. intimate view but an ominous one. In What message does her smile send? The lips of a kore (and the male kouros) Greek paintings, a full-frontal face indi- A knowing smile would have seemed invariably curve up in a mirthless smile. cated a kind of mindlessness, a tech- inappropriate for a virginal maiden, Similarly incongruous smiles appear, nique used to depict dead or inanimate but Pandora is a seducer, a destroyer. for unknown reasons, on the implaca- figures, such as theatrical masks and In some interpretations of the legend, ble faces of archaic Greek statues, even those in scenes of violence. Art histo- rians call the preternaturally serene— some would say vacuous—expression on such statues “the archaic smile.” With Pandora’s artificial stance and uncanny grin, the Niobid Painter underscores her manufactured origin and the sense of menace that comes with it. Today, artificial intelligence’s box of wonders and horrors has been opened—a possibility already imag- ined more than 2,500 years ago. Q ADRIENNE MAYOR (@amayor) is a his- torian of ancient science at Stanford University and the author of Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology. FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 73
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