January/February issue on sale now!

Thu, 01/08/2009 - 12:43pm

You didn't think that just because of our fancy new Web site, we'd slack off on the print edition did you? The latest issue of Foreign Policy is on newsstands now and it's packed full of exciting content.

As you can tell from the cover, the big theme of this issue is the monumental challenges facing President-elect Barack Obama. First up is Afghanistan: Nathaniel C. Fick and John A. Nagl, co-authors of the Army's influential counterinsurgency manual, write an updated edition tailored to the Afghan front. For the same package, FP Executive Editor Susan Glasser interviewed Gen. David Petraeus shortly after he took command of CENTCOM about the challenges of Afghanistan.

Then there's the economy. Five economists who predicted the financial crisis -- including Nouriel Roubini who called it in FP last March -- explain what we're in for next. Their take: "The Worst is Yet to Come." William Easterly also explains the implications of the crisis for the world's poor in "The Poor Man's Burden" and journalist Carla Power explains how the new field of Islamic finance is coping with the crash.

Why can't Israel and the Palestinians make peace? According to Gershom Gorenberg, it's the settlements, stupid. And if you thought that there was anything the new administration could do to stop climate change, Bill McKibben explains why you should think again.

How's Obama going to confront all these problems? According to FP editor Chris Brose, he's going to preserve more of the Bush administration's approach than you might think. New ideas are certainly needed though, and the new Think Tank Index ranks the institutions that will provide them.

Of course, check out old favorites, Prime Numbers, Inbox, and Net Effect, as well as the new books feature, Early Read.

And if you're a fan of Foreign Policy, you should definitely consider subscribing. A full year of the print edition plus full access to digital archives is only $19.95.

Elizabeth Dickinson | Permalink | | Comments? Login or register
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Faith in the Market by Carla Power

by AbuZayn on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 4:28pm

Who dropped the ball on image quality assurance (QA) on the Jan/Feb issue of FP? Carla Power's piece titled "Faith in the Market" was interesting, but even more interesting was the cover picture.

The image depicted individuals prostrating (praying) on an image of a line graph, which in and of itself is the artist's interpretation of the article, fine....but the placement of the shoes/sandals at the head of the individual prostrating is a completely insensitive and ignorant depiction. Given the most recent shoe incident with President G.W. Bush, you would think by now that everyone, and needless to mention a FOREIGN POLICY MAGAZINE, would at least understand that in Middle Eastern/ Muslim culture a shoe is a dirty/insulting thing. How one would even overlook the fact that you blatantly depicted Muslims praying on shoes, in some cases prostrating on the sandals themselves, is beyond me (I really hope your international editions caught that before they went out). Given all your new changes and what not, it may be evident in itself that FP needs to either hire a "token" Muslim that can at least help in QA, or someone who has full knowledge of Muslim culture and etiquette that can assure that you don't shoot yourself in the foot before you even get to make your point. I know your previous owner had offices in Beirut, did you just stop talking to them?

I understand you can’t please everyone and I’m sure you may end up getting negative comments about the other pictures. Some people just may be too sensitive, and there is not much you can do there. But there is a difference between something that is totally unacceptable (to the point that it is a direct insult) and something that is an “artistic interpretation.” FP always comes up with good pieces that challenge the readers to view different perspectives. The article was good in that sense, but FP failed to demonstrate its knowledge of Muslim culture. I’m not saying you have to go cater to everyone, just make sure that you research your delivery enough to allow your message its full potential. If you end up insulting the reader, you’d have wasted your time on deaf ears.

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Note:I wrote this under a different post with the additional request of directing me to the proper place to post it (if the one I put it in is not the best venue), but to no avail. So I'm re-posting it here because of its relevance to the subject of this post.