Tabla de contenidos para November - December 2016 en Foreign Policy

Japanese Notebook Turns the Page for Infant Health Every day, refugees fleeing strife-torn countries have to make painful decisions about what to bring with them on harrowing journeys. Aboessa, a 20-year-old Syrian refugee and mother—in a story recounted by the International Rescue Committee—knew that besides medications, clothes, and baby food she absolutely had to have one thing for her and her 10-month-old infant inside her small bag: a colorful notebook. Aboessa is one of the millions of mothers around the world who have received a copy of “Boshi Kenko Techo” or Maternal and Child Health Handbook. This deceptively simple notebook started as the Maternal Handbook, which was first designed and distributed in Japan by the government in 1942, consisting only of records for pregnancy to birth on topics like maternal…

To Catch a Hacker WHEN CYBER_HACKERS overtook parts of Ukraine’s electricity grid last December, plunging more than 200,000 people into darkness, the unprecedented attack sent utility companies everywhere scrambling to address long-standing vulnerabilities in their own power systems. While utilities carefully monitor technological conditions in the big transmission lines that connect power plants to substations, the surveillance of their distribution grids that light up homes is much shakier. The industry typically relies on antiquated technology that checks power flow at station switches and meters every three to five seconds—more than enough time for malcontents to create a fiery catastrophe. California-based Power Standards Lab has invented gear that canvasses sprawling networks and detects cyberintruders immediately. The small and affordable devices, known as Micro Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs), constantly sample a distribution…

The average person, looking around the world today, might say things are very grim. It’s understandable. Headlines from Syria reveal devastation and human tragedy on an unimaginable scale. Billions suffer with too little, lacking basic necessities such as access to food, water, sanitation, or electricity. Terrorists wage their asymmetric wars not just against states but within our psyches. In the United States and Europe, right-wing leaders sell a tale of decline and civilizations at risk—and plenty of voters are buying it. Look no further than Donald Trump’s ascent to the White House on a wave of hateful sentiment. ¶ It is the worst of times. And yet, reflecting on the 2016 campaign in his newest book—and in many ways his most personal and provocative yet—New York Times columnist and 2013…

This year was in many ways one of greatpower politics. The resurgence of Russia on the global stage, from Ukraine to Syria to China. The Saudi-Iranian power struggle in the Middle East. China’s assertion of its status as the Middle Kingdom once again, expecting deference from its neighbors in East and Southeast Asia. North Korea’s determined pursuit of nuclear weapons. Even Great Britain’s rejection of the European Union, fueled in part by Tory dreams of Britannia sovereign once again. It is a world of deals and shifting alliances, particularly as Pax Americana seems to wane—a trend that Donald Trump’s stunning election as president threatens to accelerate—and U.S. foreign policy takes a decidedly realist turn. ¶ It is a world of 21 million refugees and 41 million internally displaced people, driven…

This April, my Yemeni-American friend, Mokhtar, and I rented a car in Djibouti City and drove four hours to Obock, a tiny whitewashed village on the Gulf of Aden. When the Saudis began dropping bombs on Yemen, ostensibly to slow or to punish the Houthi takeover of the country, thousands of Yemenis had crossed the sea and found their way to Obock, a godforsaken town on the coast. We got there, and it was 124 degrees Fahrenheit. ¶ When the war began, UNHCR had set up a refugee camp on a bluff outside Obock. By the time my friend and I arrived—a year and change after the bombing had started—the tents remained, but for the most part the only people left were poor Djiboutians who had taken up residence Twice…

DOING LAUNDRY: THAT IS HOW ONE THINKER RESPONDED TO THE REFUGEE CRISIS IN GREECE AND THE WASTE IT CREATES. THE RESULT WAS A PROGRAM THAT PROVIDES NEW ARRIVALS WITH CLOTHING AND LOCAL WORKERS WITH EMPLOYMENT. OTHER STEWARDS PLANTED THEMSELVES BETWEEN PRECIOUS RESOURCES AND SEEMINGLY UNSTOPPABLE INDUSTRIAL FORCES-FROM A NORTH DAKOTA PIPELINE TO A HONDURAN DAM TO A CHINESE RIVER. OTHERS TURNED POLLUTION INTO ART. IN SOME CASES, THESE THINKERS PAID A HIGH PRICE FOR THEIR ACTIONS. COLLECTIVELY, THEY WERE THE SORT OF PRESERVATIONISTS THE WORLD DESPERATELY NEEDS. David Archambault II CHAIRMAN, STANDING ROCK SIOUX TRIBE STANDING ROCK SIOUX RESERVATION, NORTH DAKOTA For protecting a homeland. At the center of the largest gathering of Native American representatives in a century is David Archambault II. The Standing Rock Sioux chairman has been…

Back in 1968, three Apollo 8 astronauts circled the moon on Christmas Eve and returned home, where they were greeted with a ticker-tape parade and honored on the cover of Time. Far out of sight from these public celebrations, however, another group of astronauts was training to reach space. Unlike the Apollo program, these spacemen were part of a clandestine military operation that had less to do with peaceful exploration of the heavens and much more to do with wreaking havoc in them. ¶ One of those secret astronauts was retired Vice Adm. Richard Truly, who later headed NASA. “You just couldn’t tell anybody about it,” he recalled to me in 2007. “Nobody.” The details of the program—called the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) and run by the Air Force and…

After her mother died, poet and writer MEGHAN O’ROURKE found that grief was an isolating force. The lack of public discussion and ritual surrounding death is recounted in her memoir, The Long Goodbye. 2015 Global Thinker HANYA YANAGIHARA also explores the messiness of sorrow in her acclaimed novel, A Little Life. Her protagonist is a man haunted relentlessly by childhood abuse but supported by a nontraditional family. O’Rourke and Yanagihara met recently to discuss the limitations Western cultures place on suffering and intimacy, including the sympathy offered to strangers afflicted by trauma. MEGHAN O’ROURKE: I think many people feel a version of what I’ve felt, which is that they don’t know how to grieve in American culture. But I do think the conversation has changed, and I think the internet has…

FINDING BEAUTY IN THE JARRING, THE WEIRD, AND THE RADICAL IS WHAT DEFINES THESE THINKERS. AN ARCHITECT’S BODY OF WORK PROMOTED ECONOMIC EQUALITY ALONGSIDE AWARD_WINNING AES_ THETICS. A MURALIST HONORED TRASH COLLECTORS BY SCRIBBLING ON THE WALLS OF THEIR SLUM. A CHOREOGRAPHER SPOKE TO QUEER AFRICAN EXPERIENCES THROUGH RUSSIAN BALLET. A NEW_MEDIA MAVEN USED __D PRINTING TO HEAL CULTURAL SCARS INFLICTED BY THE ISLAMIC STATE, WHILE A SAMBA STAR CAST A SPOTLIGHT ON BRAZIL’S SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC STRUGGLES. HATRED, VIOLENCE, AND POVERTY MAY BE ENDURING ILLS, BUT ARTISTIC PUSHBACK IS ETERNAL. Rizwan Ahmed and Himanshu Suri RAPPERS UNITED KINGDOM AND NEW YORK CITY For protesting xenophobia with verse. Rizwan Ahmed is a British citizen of Pakistani descent; Himanshu Suri is a Punjabi Indian born in Queens, New York. This rap…

THESE THINKERS’ NARRATIVES GRIPPED EMOTIONS AND MOVED IDEOLOGICAL MOUNTAINS, DOCU_ MENTING THE DAILY TRIBULATIONS OF IMMIGRANTS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, THE QUEER SUBCUL_ TURES OF THE ARAB WORLD, AND ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION IN THE NIGER DELTA. WHILE ONE DEPLOYED OUTLANDISH VERSE TO CHALLENGE AN UNJUST GER_ MAN STATUTE, OTHERS UNSETTLED AUDIENCES WITH CHILLING NUCLE_ AR_AGE FILMS. WHETHER WITH AN ORWELLIAN TAKE ON AUTHOR_ ITARIANISM IN EGYPT OR POETIC REINVENTIONS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE THROUGH THE LENS OF ALIENATION, THEY ALL BROKE CONVENTIONS. YET THEY PRO_ DUCED WORK THAT FELT RELEVANT, ACCESSIBLE, AND URGENT. LYNETTE WALLWORTH SMRITI KESHARI AND ERIC SCHLOSSER Smriti Keshari and Eric Schlosser; Lynette Wallworth FILMMAKERS NEW YORK CITY AND MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA; AUSTRALIA For immersing audiences in the destructive power of the nuke. Experimental interfaces in visual storytelling broke…

IN MANY WAYS, THE HEALTH GAP IS ONLY WIDENING AS MEDICINE ADVANCES. NEW DRUGS, TREATMENTS, AND FACILITIES ARE OFTEN AVAILABLE ONLY FOR THE FEW WITH MONEY AND ACCESS, NOT THE MANY IN NEED. THE INDIVIDUALS IN THIS CATEGORY WANT TO CLOSE THE CHASM. A WHITE-HELMETED ARMY OF VOLUNTEERS PROTECT CIVILIANS IN SYRIA. WESTERN DOCTORS CONNECT INSTANTLY WITH PEERS AND UNDERSERVED PATIENTS IN DISTANT NATIONS. A YOUNG RESEARCHER DEMONSTRATING A GROUNDBREAKING METHOD OF DEFEATING ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE MAY BE LESS SEXY THAN GRINDR PROVIDING HEALTH INFORMATION TO AT-RISK QUEER POPULATIONS FROM LEBANON TO CALIFORNIA-BOTH, THOUGH, ARE POWERFUL EXPRESSIONS OF LOVE. Raed Al Saleh LEADER, SYRIAN CIVIL DEFENSE SYRIA For risking life and limb for his countrymen. A constellation of actors—the government, opposition fighters, jihadi forces—is laying waste to Syria. Which actor a…

AAsk business leaders what President-elect Donald Trump’s top economic priority should be, and you’ll get an array of predictable answers: Cut business taxes. Reduce the debt. Reform trade deals. Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric Co., has a different response. “We have to find ways to raise productivity,” Immelt told an audience at a September conference in New York. Otherwise, he warned, America could face years of below-trend growth with all the associated problems: rising debt, falling living standards, and so on. Conversely, GE economists estimate that if the world boosted industrial productivity by just 1 percent, it could add $15 trillion— yes, trillion—to the global gross domestic product over the next 15 years. ¶ At first glance, Immelt’s answer seems peculiar. It’s easy to feel that hyper-efficiency is ubiquitous.…

When tackling our most complex policy challenges, traditional approaches simply aren’t enough. That’s why the U.S. government has been integrating people with high TQ—like IQ, but for technology— into expert teams, including at the National Security Council and the U.S. Agency for International Development. The result? Better outcomes. For example, after the United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, techies from the Obama administration helped the organization deploy a simple online tool to crowdsource innovations. In two weeks, more than 800 people from 100 countries responded, sharing their solutions in progress for eradicating poverty, achieving gender equality, ensuring clean-water access, and more. The ability to rapidly surface what’s working and accelerate progress against society’s most entrenched problems: That’s the power of integrating TQ. MEGAN SMITH U.S. CHIEF TECHNOLOGY…

PLOWING THROUGH POLITI_ CAL ROADBLOCKS, THESE LEAD_ ERS REJECTED HAND_WRINGING OVER THE PAST YEAR. THE GER_ MAN CHANCELLOR AND CANA_ DIAN PRIME MINISTER WELCOMED REFUGEES WITH SWIFT DECI_ SIVENESS. JUST AS SURE_FOOTED, AMERICA’S TOP LAWYER DELIV_ ERED A PLEDGE TO BELEAGUERED TRANSGENDER CITIZENS THAT THE GOVERNMENT IS ON THEIR SIDE. TAIWAN’S PRESIDENT WOULD NOT KOWTOW TO CHINA, WHILE A U.N. SECRETARY_GENERAL, FEARING A TRUMPIAN DYSTOPIA, SET A SPEED RECORD IN INTERNATIONAL LAW_ MAKING. IN THE UNITED STATES, A WOMEN WAS FINALLY NOMINATED AS A MAJOR_PARTY CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT, CARRYING HER_ SELF WITH GRACE AMID THE ELECTORAL MUCK. Hillary Clinton DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE FOR U.S. PRESIDENT CHAPPAQUA, NEW YORK For going high when others go low. Two decades ago, during an international summit in Beijing, Hillary Clinton famously declared, “Women’s rights are…

WHAT IF SPECIALLY ENGINEERED SHOES COULD FEND OFF MOS_ QUITOES OR A TRACTOR_SHARING APP COULD PUT MONEY IN NIGE_ RIAN FARMERS’ POCKETS? THESE ARE JUST TWO OF THE QUESTIONS INNOVATORS WERE BOLD ENOUGH TO ASK_AND ANSWER_THIS YEAR. THEY TAUGHT A NEW GEN_ ERATION OF ROBOTS TO PERFORM MILLIONS OF TASKS. THEY MIXED CARBON DIOXIDE AND SUNSHINE TO MAKE CHEAP, CLEAN FUEL. AND IN JUST __ HOURS, THEY FASH_ IONED A DEVICE THAT CAN CON_ VERT PRINTED WORDS TO BRAILLE. COLLECTIVELY, THESE THINKERS ASKED ONE FUNDAMENTAL QUES_ TION: WHAT DOES THE WORLD NEED NEXT? Chandani Doshi, Grace Li, Jialin Shi, Bonnie Wang, Charlene Xia, and Tania Yu STUDENTS CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS For lifting words off the page. Earlier this year, these six students presented MakeMIT’s hackathon judges with a prototype that wasn’t…

BEYOND PROTECTING AND DEFENDING, THESE INDIVIDUALS EMPOWERED. THEY GAVE UNDER-REPRESENTED MINORITIES A FOOT-HOLD IN SILICON VALLEY AND REFUGEES ONE IN THE OLYMPICS. THEY SHOWCASED DIVERSE IMMI-GRANT FARE ON FRANCE’S CULINARY SCENE. THEY IDENTIFIED UNLIKELY CHANNELS-IN GUINEAN BEAUTY SALONS AND ON SESAME STREET-FOR BUILDING HEALTH- IER, MORE TOLERANT SOCIETIES. IN CASES WHEN THEY COULD NOT EMPOWER, THESE PEOPLE FOUGHT WITH WORDS, DEMANDING JUSTICE FOR VICTIMS OF THE ISLAMIC STATE’S SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND FOR AMERICANS WHO SIMPLY WANT A GLASS OF CLEAN DRINK- ING WATER. Nadia Murad ACTIVIST GERMANY For transforming trauma into a quest for justice. Nadia Murad won’t let the world forget that she was raped. In August 2014, she was among thousands of Yazidis, a minority religious and ethnic group, captured by the Islamic State in northern Iraq. Most…

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