Health

Immunizing the Body Politic

Want to promote democracy in Burma? Start by making sure people are well enough to vote.

BY JACK C. CHOW | FEBRUARY 7, 2012

Why Putinomics Isn't Worth Emulating

Don't let the Russian economy fool you: It's still all about oil.

BY PETER PASSELL | JANUARY 27, 2012

Girl Power and the Fragility Trap

Academic economists usually air their new ideas first in working papers. Here, before the work gets dusty, a quick look at transition policy research in progress.

BY PETER PASSELL | JANUARY 20, 2012

The Eradication Calculation

Does it really make sense to spend billions of dollars to wipe out the few remaining cases of polio?

BY CHARLES KENNY | JANUARY 17, 2012

Doing More with Less

Dwindling funding for the global fight against AIDS doesn't mean the battle is lost -- but it does mean we have to think about what we're getting for our money.

BY CHARLES KENNY | NOVEMBER 28, 2011

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

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

Red, Delicious, and Rotten

How Apple conquered China and learned to think like the Communist Party.

BY CHRISTINA LARSON | AUGUST 1, 2011

Interview: Rajiv Shah

The USAID administrator on the epic food crisis in the Horn of Africa, dealing with al Shabab, and why Somalia's famine is going to get worse before it gets better.

INTERVIEW BY ROBERT ZELIGER | JULY 28, 2011

The Abortion Trap

How America's obsession with abortion hurts families everywhere.

BY MARA HVISTENDAHL | JULY 26, 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

Swaziland's Silent HIV Epidemic

In one of the most beautiful parts of the world, and also one of the deadliest.

BY SHAUN RAVIV | JULY 12, 2011

Postcards from Hell, 2011

Images from the world's most failed states.

BY ELIZABETH DICKINSON | JUNE 20, 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

Talking the Talk

South Africans aren't the only ones keeping quiet about AIDS.

JULY/AUGUST 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

Trauma Center

How do you bring peace to a country where everyone has PTSD and the only therapy is prayer?

BY ANNA BADKHEN | MAY 13, 2011

The Myth of 9 Billion

Why ignoring family planning overseas was the worst foreign-policy mistake of the century.

BY MALCOLM POTTS, MARTHA CAMPBELL | MAY 9, 2011

Can the World Feed 10 Billion People?

With an exploding global population -- and Africa's numbers set to triple -- the world's experts are falling over themselves arguing how to feed the masses. Why do they have it so wrong?

BY RAJ PATEL | MAY 4, 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

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

Meltdowns and Misinformation

What do we actually know about Japan's nuclear crisis?

BY JOSEPH CIRINCIONE | MARCH 18, 2011

Atomic Dogs

Fukushima wasn't the only nuclear accident waiting to happen. From Bulgaria to New York, here are five other nuclear power plants to keep an eye on.

BY CHARLES HOMANS | MARCH 17, 2011

Identification, Please

In the developed world, high-tech personal IDs are the stuff of Orwellian dystopia. But for everyone else, they could be a path to a happier, healthier, less precarious life.

BY JAMIE HOLMES | MARCH 8, 2011

FP Book Club: Charles Kenny's Getting Better

An FP discussion on contributing editor Charles Kenny's new book: Are we winning the global war on human suffering?

MARCH 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

The Madness of China's Mental Health System

One of the country's leading activists and health advocates explains the tragic irony of mental health in China today: Many who need treatment won't get it, while many who don't are forced into treatment to silence political dissent.

BY WAN YANHAI | JANUARY 26, 2011

Smoke and Mirrors

It's time for Washington to stop giving cigarette makers an open door to developing markets.

BY THOMAS J. BOLLYKY | JANUARY 19, 2011