Anthropology of an Idea

Hacktivism: A Short History

How self-absorbed computer nerds became a powerful force for freedom. 

BY TY MCCORMICK | MAY/JUNE 2013

Frontier Markets

How second-generation emerging markets became today's hottest investment story.

BY TY MCCORMICK | MARCH 4, 2013

Fiscal Cliff: A Short History

How did the phrase become shorthand for Washington's embrace of budget brinkmanship?

BY URI FRIEDMAN | DECEMBER 18, 2012

Big Data: A Short History

How we arrived at a term to describe the potential and peril of today's data deluge.

BY URI FRIEDMAN | NOVEMBER 2012

Targeted Killings: A Short History

How America came to embrace assassination.

BY URI FRIEDMAN | SEPT/OCT 2012

'American Exceptionalism': A Short History

How did a phrase initially used dismissively by Joseph Stalin become shorthand for who loves America more?

BY URI FRIEDMAN | JULY/AUGUST 2012

Smart Sanctions: A Short History

How a blunt diplomatic tool morphed into the precision-guided measures we know today.

BY URI FRIEDMAN | MAY/JUNE 2012

The 'Peace Process': A Short History

Chronicling Israel and Palestine's path to becoming a catchphrase.

BY URI FRIEDMAN | MARCH/APRIL 2012

Energy Independence: A Short History

A century and a half of an idea whose time has never come.

BY CHARLES HOMANS | JAN/FEB 2012

Responsibility to Protect: A Short History

Just what is a just war?

BY CHARLES HOMANS | NOVEMBER 2011

War Games: A Short History

How ancient Greek amusements became an indispensable 21st-century military tool.

BY CHARLES HOMANS | SEPT/OCT 2011

Track II Diplomacy: A Short History

How the left-field idea of diplomacy without diplomats became an essential tool of statecraft.

BY CHARLES HOMANS | JULY/AUGUST 2011

BRICs: A Short History

How did a Wall Street buzzword coined by Goldman Sachs become a powerful new bloc in world affairs?

BY BLAKE HOUNSHELL | MARCH/APRIL 2011

GDP: a brief history

One stat to rule them all.

BY ELIZABETH DICKINSON | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2011

Womenomics

A brief history of women in the workplace.

BY ELIZABETH DICKINSON | NOVEMBER 2010

Strategic Dialogue

It's a long journey from U.S. enemy to ally, but for the last half-century, there has been one sure-fire sign that things are moving in the right direction: holding a "strategic dialogue" in Washington. Think of it as the foreign-policy equivalent of a meeting of mafia dons: There's no love lost, but there's mutual advantage to be won from breaking bread together. These days, though, everyone wants a strategic dialogue -- from close friends to wary adversaries -- and increasingly, they're looking to Beijing.

BY ELIZABETH DICKINSON | SEPT. / OCT. 2010

Dangerous Weakness

Somalia is the quintessential "failed state" -- and not just because it has topped Foreign Policy's Failed States Index since 2008.

BY ELIZABETH DICKINSON | JULY/AUGUST 2010

Brainier Brawn

"Smart power": a brief history

BY ELIZABETH DICKINSON | MAY/JUNE 2010

Capping It Off

How a concept became an environmental policy catchphrase.

BY ELIZABETH DICKINSON | MARCH/APRIL 2010

New Order

How "the multipolar world" came to be.

BY ELIZABETH DICKINSON | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2009

Anthropology of an Idea: 'Behavioral Economics'

Calculating the cost of human foibles.

BY ELIZABETH DICKINSON | MAY 1, 2009