Don't believe the hype about the decline of America and the dawn of a new Asian age. It will be many decades before China, India, and the rest of the region take over the world, if they ever do.

By Minxin Pei

What do Ayatollah Khomeini, Margaret Thatcher, Pope John Paul II, and Deng Xiaoping all have in common?

By Christian Caryl

The Death of Macho

Manly men have been running the world forever. But the Great Recession is changing all that, and it will alter the course of history.

By Reihan Salam

The Baltic Bust

The fall and rise—and fall again—of Europe's new basket cases: a recessionary tale.

By Edward Lucas

Portraits of Instability

It is a sobering time for the world's most fragile countries—virulent economic crisis, countless natural disasters, and government collapse. This year, we delve deeper than ever into just what went wrong—and who is to blame.

By FOREIGN POLICY and THE FUND FOR PEACE

By Homi Kharas

By Djavad Salehi-Isfahani

By Elizabeth Dickinson

By Robert I. Rotberg

By Stephan Faris

Minilateralism

The magic number to get real international action.

By Moisés Naím

Sex Matters

Low birthrates aren't the result of economic growth and political stability; they're a prerequisite.

By Malcolm Potts and Martha Campbell

The Berlin Fall

Germany's great skeptic looks back in scorn on years of reunification

By Cameron Abadi

Samizdat in the 21st Century

Russia's new literature of crisis.

By Leon Aron

Where is Ban Ki-moon?

By Jacob Heilbrunn

World Wall Streets

Epiphanies from Benoit Mandelbrot

In Praise of Rejects

By David Lehrer

By Gustavo de las Casas

The Return of Yeomanry

By Phillip Longman

Plus, FP tests your knowledge of the world.

Green for All President Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins defends Obama's green jobs plan from Matthew E. Kahn’s critique, while University of Illinois law professor Andrew Morriss says Kahn doesn't go far enough.

Geographer Brian Blouet and political scientists Geoffrey Kemp and Robert Harkavy dig deeper into Robert Kaplan's "Revenge of Geography". Yemeni Ambassador Abdullah Alsaidi says Kaplan misunderstands his country.

Carl Gershman of the National Endowment for Democracy says the methods described in Paul Collier’s "The Dictator’s Handbook" can be beaten.

Chanda Chisala sees contradictions in Dambisa Moyo's attack on aid to Africa.