The Optimist
Charles Kenny is senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, Schwartz Fellow at the New America Foundation, and author, most recently, of Getting Better: Why Global Development is Succeeding and How We Can Improve the World Even More. "The Optimist," his column for ForeignPolicy.com, runs weekly. Doctors Without Borders
Letting medical professionals and other skilled workers from the developing world emigrate is a good deal for everyone.
BY CHARLES KENNY | OCTOBER 11, 2011
Wanted: Smarter Patients
The key to improving medical care in the developing world isn't better doctors -- it's educating everyone else.
BY CHARLES KENNY | OCTOBER 3, 2011
Pennies from Heaven
Is God to blame for the global market meltdown?
BY CHARLES KENNY | SEPTEMBER 26, 2011
The Myth of the Middle Class
The world's most pandered-to demographic is no more economically productive or civic-minded than anyone else.
BY CHARLES KENNY | SEPTEMBER 19, 2011
Got Cheap Milk?
Why ditching your fancy, organic, locavore lifestyle is good for the world's poor.
BY CHARLES KENNY | SEPTEMBER 12, 2011
Red Dawn
Why the United States should embrace, not fear, China's economic rise.
BY CHARLES KENNY | SEPTEMBER 6, 2011
Cloudy with a Chance of Insurgency
Does extreme weather cause war? Don't count on it.
BY CHARLES KENNY | AUGUST 29, 2011
Slim Pickings
Mexico is the most staggeringly unequal society on the planet -- but it doesn't have to stay that way.
BY CHARLES KENNY | AUGUST 22, 2011
Three Cheers for Decline
Look on the bright side, America: Downgrading your global ambitions could make you a healthier and happier nation.
BY CHARLES KENNY | AUGUST 9, 2011
The Cultural Evolution
The baggage we carry from our ethnic and national backgrounds can keep people poor -- but it can also change, and faster than you'd think.
BY CHARLES KENNY | AUGUST 8, 2011
Greening It Alone
The world is building a low-carbon global economy -- with or without the United States.
BY CHARLES KENNY | AUGUST 1, 2011
Famine Is a Crime
Civilization has defeated mass starvation. So why are so many Somalis dying of hunger?
BY CHARLES KENNY | JULY 25, 2011
The Price Is Right
How the world can buy its way out of poverty for just $100 billion.
BY CHARLES KENNY | JULY 18, 2011
A Thousand Points of Light
When it comes to bringing electricity to the developing world, small is beautiful.
BY CHARLES KENNY | JULY 11, 2011
Paperwork Tigers
The developing world can do fine without more regulation, thank you very much. In fact, it can do better.
BY CHARLES KENNY | JULY 1, 2011
Shot in the Dark
The biggest hurdle to eradicating disease isn't access to vaccines -- it's getting people to take them.
BY CHARLES KENNY | JUNE 27, 2011
Green Shoots in the Killing Fields
Citizens of the Democratic Republic of the Congo believe there's hope for their war-torn country even if no one else does -- and their optimism is starting to get results.
BY CHARLES KENNY | JUNE 20, 2011
Through Rose-Colored Corrective Lenses
Poor vision is a major hurdle to getting ahead in the developing world. Fortunately, remedies are cheaper and easier -- and more profitable -- than they've ever been before.
BY CHARLES KENNY | JUNE 13, 2011
Inpatients Abroad
How do you solve America's health-care woes? Outsource them.
BY CHARLES KENNY | MAY 30, 2011
More People, Please
Don't worry about the booming global population -- celebrate it.
BY CHARLES KENNY | MAY 23, 2011
No Need for Speed
Save your money, United Nations -- the developing world doesn't need broadband Internet to get ahead.
BY CHARLES KENNY | MAY 16, 2011
Some Horsemen
Apocalypse buffs and international development types have one thing in common: They're both wrong.
BY CHARLES KENNY | MAY 9, 2011
Show Me Everything But the Money
Why we should spend less time worrying about what people in developing countries think about government corruption, and more time looking at everything else.
BY CHARLES KENNY | MAY 2, 2011
Out of Eden
Pre-modern lifestyles were fraught with violence, disease, and uncertainty. We should be happy that indigenous societies are increasingly leaving them behind.
BY CHARLES KENNY | APRIL 26, 2011
All Talks, No Action
Forget about the stalled Doha round negotiations -- developing countries can do plenty to fix their trade restrictions without the World Trade Organization's help.
BY CHARLES KENNY | APRIL 18, 2011
Laughing All the Way to the Bank
Money may not buy happiness, but can happiness buy money?
BY CHARLES KENNY | APRIL 11, 2011
Don't Mess With Taxes
Sorry, Tea Partiers -- taxation isn't the source of America's ills, and your income has more to do with dumb luck than hard work.
BY CHARLES KENNY | APRIL 4, 2011
Democracy Inaction
Why representative government can't solve the world's other social problems.
BY CHARLES KENNY | MARCH 28, 2011
The Civil War That Killed Cholera
Why the best ideas for fighting some diseases may come from poor countries, not rich ones.
BY CHARLES KENNY | MARCH 21, 2011
Can Egypt's Islamist finance minister cut a deal with the IMF?
BY DAVID KENNER
3 questions Obama's new AfPak envoy must answer
BY GAYLE TZEMACH LEMMON
Odierno: Syrian rebels will prevail, but sequester makes U.S. intervention risky
BY KEVIN BARON
Time to bring the nukes back to South Korea
BY BENNETT RAMBERG
Meet Cody Wilson, the anarchist behind the world's first 3-D printed gun
BY ELIAS GROLL
Does this woman look like she'd be a good president of Bulgaria?
BY JOSHUA E. KEATING
U.N. investigator on Syria: Out over her skis yet again?
BY JOHN HUDSON
May/June 2013
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