BEIRUT, Lebanon
June 13, 2014
Dear friends,
Some people have asked me why on
the website "Alessandro Bacci's Middle East" I have decided to insert a
section called "Books Worth Reading," which is related to books
that I have read — for some of them it could more appropriate to say "books
that I have studied"— and that I deem relevant for a good understanding of
the "geopolitics of energy," especially in the Middle East. Now, with
these long-overdue few paragraphs, I would like to provide you with some
clarifications.
Reading is one of my
favorite hobbies. I am not one of those extremists who affirm that wise men
read while less wise men watch TV, films, and videos. However, I believe that, in
order to have a deeper understanding of any topics, reading is more powerful a
tool than just a simple video. The latter, of course, has a lot of pros as
well — be it clear, I greatly love TV, theater, and YouTube — and in my case, many
times video contents have played the role of sparking my interest about a
specific topic, whose knowledge I have later deepened through reading. Before, I
used to carry with me a lot paper books, while now I'm an enthusiast purchaser of
Kindle e-books.
The books that I have
inserted in this section cover different topics that are linked to the
geopolitics of energy in the Middle East. Surely, they mirror my personality,
my taste, and my interests. If you browse through the books you will see that
a majority of the titles are related to international law, economics,
business, and politics — all subjects that are part of my educational and
professional background. In addition to these four big categories, there are
also books concerning other fields like for instance, style and usage
(writing). In fact, after several years' worth of experience in the field of international
affairs, I am deeply convinced that the modern manager (as well as the modern
analyst, the modern adviser, the modern policy maker, or the modern
politician) has necessarily to be versed in all the different fields that
affect his decision-making process. In today's world, it's not anymore
conceivable to have managers who are not able to read a balance sheet or a
contract. Talking just for the pleasure of talking may give positive returns on
a short-term basis — it's a sort of commercial marketing — but in the long term it
does not provide the real key to durable success.
Summing up, I have inserted
books from different disciplines because I deeply believe that a good
professional needs to be versatile and open to learning from different fields
especially in light of today's mercurial international affairs environment. A
good professional has to be flexible enough in order to adapt to ever-changing
working environments, otherwise he will be lost. Some experts (Fernández-Aráoz,
2014) affirm that today, more than just simple skills, the most talented
professionals need to have "potential," the potential to learn new
skills. And indeed, good books may help the motivated, curious, and determined
professional to move along with the times.
Moreover, I think that
reading, together with writing and mathematics, is one of the three fundamental skills that every person
has to master. In this regard, the standardized U.S. tests for the enrollment
in tertiary-level academic courses (tests like for instance, the G.R.E. and the G.M.A.T.) well
cover these three skills, which are the building blocks on which we always have to rely on in order to carry out smart decisions. And my list of books goes toward this direction. I
still remember when at the high-school I studied for five years Ancient Greek
and Latin — which I have now partially forgotten. The idea behind the study of
those two old languages was not to learn something useful in my everyday's
life, but to widen my logical thinking skills at the linguistic level, which are
universally transferable to the study of other languages. All this said, if I'm
in Greece or Cyprus, I am still able to read road signs, but this is only a small
portion of the benefit that high-school training brought to me.
Last but not least, one
anecdote. Some years ago, because I was interested in obtaining a
degree with a prestigious academic institution, I had a meeting with a
professor with that school. He pointed out to me that my enrollment was difficult
because, according to their internal policy, they tended to admit only students
who had previously studied at that specific institution at the graduate level.
And then — I was in his office where there were books on many shelves — he raised
his arm and told me: "You see all those books? Well, here at this
institution we have the idea that although our students may not have read all
of them, at least they know about their existence and if they have to do a
research they know where to look for information." Was he right, was he
wrong? I still do not know. There was certain logic behind his words: The
school wanted to be sure of admitting only people with the requested credentials.
The problem is that I knew or I had read a lot of those titles. The sense of
this anecdote is that "Books Worth Reading" is my window for
showing the world what I deem important when we talk about the geopolitics of
energy in the Middle East, as if this section were the certificate of a program
that I have developed during the last years.
Some final points before
letting you go. The list is an open list, which means that as soon as I have read
something that I deem relevant, I will add it to the section. The majority of
the inserted publications are in English. Sometimes I have also inserted some
reports because in my opinion they are very relevant in their field and I have considered them as books. One last marginal note: For technical reasons all
books have the fictitious date of February 22, 2006.
Have a good reading!
Best regards,
Alessandro
LIST OF THE BOOKS WORTH READING
LIST OF THE BOOKS WORTH READING
TORDO, S., JOHNSTON David., and
JOHNSTON, Daniel, Petroleum Exploration and Production Rights (2009)
