Foreign Aid

Our Man in Sanaa

Why the big problem with Yemen is Yemen's president.

BY ELLEN KNICKMEYER | OCTOBER 1, 2010

No Easy Fix for U.S. Foreign Aid

Obama's got the right idea, but it will be harder than he thinks.

BY JOHN NORRIS | SEPTEMBER 23, 2010

Corrupt Democracy

Should the Barack Obama administration keep giving aid to the corrupt government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai? Kenyan whistle-blower John Githongo tells FP why pluralism and freedom will never thrive when everyone from officials to cab drivers are skimming off the top.

INTERVIEW BY ELIZABETH DICKINSON | SEPTEMBER 22, 2010

The Save-the-World Clock

Global leaders promised a decade ago to end poverty by 2015. With just five years left, the U.N. General Assembly -- including an estimated 140 heads of state -- will meet this week to assess progress. How much good has been done? Here's a hint: not enough.

BY ELIZABETH DICKINSON | SEPTEMBER 20, 2010

The Coming Food Crisis

Global food security is stretched to the breaking point, and Russia's fires and Pakistan's floods are only making a bad situation worse.

BY JOHN D. PODESTA, JAKE CALDWELL | AUGUST 26, 2010

Cozying Up to the Taliban

In recent months, humanitarian groups in Afghanistan have begun to cooperate much more closely with the Taliban to deliver their services. Is that a bad thing?

BY APRIL RABKIN | AUGUST 17, 2010

China's Billion-Dollar Aid Appetite

Why is Beijing winning health grants at the expense of African countries?

BY JACK C. CHOW | JULY 19, 2010

A Tremor for Haiti's Aid Industry

The earthquake was only the latest disaster to capsize the country's already fragile local aid economy. Now outside organizations are threatening to overwhelm it entirely.

BY POOJA BHATIA | JUNE 30, 2010

Congo’s New Mobutu

As the Democratic Republic of the Congo turns 50 this month, its leader is taking a page from Mobutu Sese Seko’s playbook on repression. And the West is helping him.

BY JOE BAVIER | JUNE 29, 2010

The Long Emergency

Barack Obama's administration is taking an expansive, ambitious approach to global health. Does that mean giving up on combating HIV/AIDS?

BY ELIZABETH DICKINSON | JUNE 25, 2010

The Oliver Stone Show

South of the Border is no portrait of Hugo Chávez or the Latin American left; it's about how one U.S. director views the world.

BY ELIZABETH DICKINSON | JUNE 24, 2010

The Karzai Factor

The Afghan president just lost his best friend in the U.S. government. And he's not happy about it.

BY NICK B. MILLS | JUNE 24, 2010

Saving Failed States

How the United Nations let countries fall apart -- and how it needs to adapt if it wants to put them back together. (Originally published in the Winter 1992-1993 issue of Foreign Policy.)

BY GERALD B. HELMAN, STEVEN R. RATNER | JUNE 21, 2010

Countries Without Doctors?

How Obamacare could spark the brain drain of physicians from the developing world.

BY KATE TULENKO | JUNE 11, 2010

Tarnishing the Iron Lady of Africa

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf may be the best president Liberia has ever had. But now even she faces criticism for failing to crack down on corruption.

BY DINO MAHTANI | MAY 28, 2010

Beijing's Billions

China's foreign-policy ambitions could change the way it spends its money abroad.

BY EVAN A. FEIGENBAUM | MAY 20, 2010

Africa Needs a New Map

It’s time to start seeing the redrawing of the continent’s colonial borders as an opportunity, not a threat.

BY G. PASCAL ZACHARY | APRIL 28, 2010

Epiphanies: Jacqueline Novogratz

When Jacqueline Novogratz first traveled to Africa in 1986, she meant business -- the serious business of sharing her entrepreneurial know-how with the poor. Now, the founder of the Acumen Fund, a nonprofit venture capital firm that works in developing countries, tells FP why she first went abroad and why it's time to end the culture of handouts.  

INTERVIEW BY ELIZABETH DICKINSON | MAY/JUNE 2010

The Ultimate Bug Zapper

Could a new weapon deal the definitive blow in the long battle of man vs. mosquito? Forget bed nets; think lasers. Nathan Myhrvold, Bill Gates's ideas guy, tells FP about his plans to defeat malaria.

INTERVIEW BY ELIZABETH DICKINSON | APRIL 23, 2010

Dancing for Their Lives

Making an undercover visit to an Iraqi expat nightclub in Syria, where the refugee crisis's illicit economy is on full display.

BY DEBORAH AMOS | MARCH 9, 2010

Life Inside Somalia’s Bunker Government

An interview with Information Minister Dahir Gelle, as told to FP's Elizabeth Dickinson.

MARCH 5, 2010

Japan's Hunt For Whaling Rights

Is Tokyo buying support for its right to catch whales?

BY CHRISTIAN DIPPEL | MARCH 4, 2010

Iraq's Elected Criminals

Some of the very people involved in kidnapping my father from his home three years ago might be elected to office on Sunday. Iraq can do better.

BY ALI AL-SAFFAR | MARCH 4, 2010

Uribe Checks Out

Washington's most reliable ally in Latin America, the Colombian president, is on his way out. That's a good thing.

BY ADAM ISACSON | MARCH 4, 2010

Burma's Oscar Moment

Forget Avatar, The Hurt Locker, and all the rest for a minute. Here's the story of the film that deserves to win big.

BY CHRISTIAN CARYL | MARCH 3, 2010

Bipartisan Spring

Washington may be deeply polarized on domestic matters, but when it comes to foreign affairs, a remarkable consensus is taking shape.

BY ROBERT KAGAN | MARCH 3, 2010

Down the AfPak Rabbit Hole

The village of Marjah is a meaningless strategic backwater. So why are the Pentagon and the press telling us the battle there was a huge victory?

BY THOMAS H. JOHNSON, M. CHRIS MASON | MARCH 1, 2010

How Genocide Became a National Security Threat

And what Barack Obama should do about it.

BY MICHAEL ABRAMOWITZ, LAWRENCE WOOCHER | FEBRUARY 26, 2010

A Light at the End of the Tunnel in Congo

Yes, it may look like the worst hell on Earth. But there are signs that the decades-long resource war in Central Africa could be shifting for the better -- if only the West stops bankrolling it.

BY JOHN PRENDERGAST | FEBRUARY 26, 2010

Does Obama Have His Own Freedom Agenda Or Not?

Democracy promotion after Bush.

BY JAMES TRAUB | FEBRUARY 24, 2010