The Optimist
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.

Seismic Inequality

Rich countries have gotten very good at keeping people alive in earthquakes. But that doesn't mean poor countries should try to emulate them.

BY CHARLES KENNY | MARCH 14, 2011

¡Viva la Recesión!

Are bad economies good for democracy?

BY CHARLES KENNY | MARCH 7, 2011

Iron Curtain Call

Mikhail Gorbachev helped end the Cold War. He also did more than anyone else to end the rest of them.

BY CHARLES KENNY | FEBRUARY 28, 2011

Corps Concerns

In an age of globe-trotting American college kids, ubiquitous Internet access, and cell phone networks that reach even sub-Saharan cattle herders, does the world still need the Peace Corps?

BY CHARLES KENNY | FEBRUARY 22, 2011

Invasion of the Alien Cattle

Why does the United States allow more foreign cattle to immigrate than it does people?

BY CHARLES KENNY | FEBRUARY 14, 2011

The Poor Are Getting … Richer

It really is getting better -- even for the bottom billion.

BY CHARLES KENNY | FEBRUARY 7, 2011

Fiber Cons

You don't need to be superfast to be super-competitive -- but try telling that to the governments sinking billions into fiber-optic networks.

BY CHARLES KENNY, ROBERT KENNY | JANUARY 31, 2011

After the Break Up

Sudan has 99 problems, but secession isn't one.

BY CHARLES KENNY | JANUARY 25, 2011

Big Is Beautiful

Financial access is key to helping the world's poor -- and tech-savvy big banks, not microcreditors, are our best hope for providing it.

BY CHARLES KENNY | JANUARY 18, 2011

Great Expectations

The biggest problem with post-disaster relief efforts like Haiti's is the unreasonable ambitions we have for them.

BY CHARLES KENNY | JANUARY 10, 2011

Forget the Aftershocks

Plenty of factors are holding back Haiti's development, but last year's earthquake isn't one of them.

BY CHARLES KENNY | JANUARY 3, 2011

Publish or Perish

Private contractors cost taxpayers worldwide untold billions in corruption, inefficiency, and mismanagement. But the solution isn't getting rid of them -- it's showing the rest of us their paperwork.

BY CHARLES KENNY | DECEMBER 20, 2010

Let There Be Light

How a new kind of bulb will transform the developing world.

BY CHARLES KENNY | DECEMBER 13, 2010

What Resource Curse?

Is it really true that underground riches lead to aboveground woes? No, not really.

BY CHARLES KENNY | DECEMBER 6, 2010