The 100 Leading Global Thinkers of 2016 If lastyear saw some old wounds heal—from diplo- matic breakthroughs in Iran and Cuba to marriage equality in the United States—this year marked the painful openings of others. The names on the follow- ing pages represent the promise of human creativity and compassion, even when the world feels broken.
PLOWING THROUGH POLITI Hillary Clinton CAL ROADBLOCKS, THESE LEAD ERS REJECTED HAND WRINGING DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE FOR U.S. PRESIDENT OVER THE PAST YEAR. THE GER CHAPPAQUA, NEW YORK MAN CHANCELLOR AND CANA DIAN PRIME MINISTER WELCOMED For going high when REFUGEES WITH SWIFT DECI others go low. SIVENESS. JUST AS SURE FOOTED, AMERICA’S TOP LAWYER DELIV Two decades ago, during an international summit in Bei- ERED A PLEDGE TO BELEAGUERED jing, Hillary Clinton famously declared, “Women’s rights TRANSGENDER CITIZENS THAT THE are human rights.” In 2016, she exercised those rights by run- GOVERNMENT IS ON THEIR SIDE. ning for office as the first female major-party candidate in a TAIWAN’S PRESIDENT WOULD NOT U.S. presidential race. Even though she ultimately fell short KOWTOW TO CHINA, WHILE A U.N. of the White House, Clinton did more to shatter the ultimate SECRETARY GENERAL, FEARING A glass ceiling than any before her—and she did so as a lifelong TRUMPIAN DYSTOPIA, SET A SPEED public servant and former cabinet member facing an oppo- RECORD IN INTERNATIONAL LAW nent whose campaign embraced fear and prejudice. Clinton MAKING. IN THE UNITED STATES, A took the high ground against hate. She focused on policy, and WOMEN WAS FINALLY NOMINATED her message—that the election was about preparing America AS A MAJOR PARTY CANDIDATE for a just, prosperous future, not clinging to its inequitable FOR PRESIDENT, CARRYING HER past—is undoubtedly one she and her followers will continue SELF WITH GRACE AMID THE ELEC to work toward. TORAL MUCK. NOTABLE FACT Clinton has said that, as a child, she wanted to be an astronaut. Illustration by LEONARDO GONZALEZ
Angela Merkel CHANCELLOR GERMANY For keeping the doors ajar. Ban Ki-moon Since she opened Europe to waves of ref- Loretta Lynch the decision-makers ugees last year, Angela Merkel’s party has U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL paid dearly in regional elections. Across U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL GLOBAL THINKERS NEW YORK CITY the continent, her name has become a four- WASHINGTON, D.C. letter word to nationalist and xenophobic For outrunning politicians on the left and right. Against For lambasting the Donald Trump to this rising tide of nativism, the German new Jim Crow. save the planet. chancellor has remained firm on the humanitarian imperative of welcoming for- No opponent of North Carolina’s “bath- It took eight years to make the eigners and the need for Europe to address room bill” has been as forceful or elo- Kyoto Protocol legally bind- the crisis collectively. She’s refused to pan- quent as U.S. Attorney General Loretta ing. Ban Ki-moon pressed for der to populist scapegoating—instead dou- Lynch. In May, she sued the state for vio- the Paris Agreement to become bling down with a new law to integrate lating civil rights by requiring transgen- law in less than one. He lobbied refugees into Germany. Although the deal der people to use facilities according to for 55 states responsible for at she helped broker with Turkey to stem the the sex assigned at birth. Lynch, a North least 55 percent of emissions— flow of migrants is far from perfect—and Carolina native, delivered an impassioned the threshhold necessary for the could unravel—it demonstrated pragma- speech, vowing that the federal govern- agreement to enter into force—to tism. Meanwhile, politicians in the United ment “will do everything we can to pro- ratify with haste. Time was of the Kingdom, France, and Italy held their fin- tect” trans people and likened the bill to essence, given rising global tem- gers in the wind. Jim Crow laws. “None of us can stand by peratures. There was also the when a state enters the business of legis- specter of Donald Trump, a cli- NOTABLE FACT Merkel is terrified of dogs due lating identity…or invents a problem that mate change skeptic, winning the to a bite she suffered in the 1990s. During doesn’t exist as a pretext for discrimina- U.S. presidency and blocking the her first meeting as chancellor with Vlad- tion and harassment,” Lynch said. Speak- world’s second-largest polluter imir Putin, the Russian president gifted ing directly to trans Americans, she said, from ratifying the pact. Ban’s her a plush toy dog. “We see you; we stand with you.” campaign worked: China and the United States ratified in Septem- NOTABLE FACT In elementary school, Lynch ber. Brazil, India, and the Euro- did so well on a standardized test com- pean Union followed. The treaty pared with her mostly white classmates came into force four days before that she was asked to take the test again. the U.S. election. NOTABLE FACT Ban has described his lobbying style as old-school diplomacy. “I am about quietly working the phone, being blunt behind closed doors, to force us out of the status quo,” he told the Washington Post. FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 51
Joko Widodo PRESIDENT INDONESIA Sushma Swaraj For forging a Justin Trudeau shaky path EXTERNAL AFFAIRS MINISTER toward historical PRIME MINISTER INDIA reckoning. CANADA For fashioning In April, the Indonesian gov- For designing a novel brand of ernment—with the blessing of a humane Twitter diplomacy. President Joko Widodo, pop- refugee policy. ularly known as Jokowi—par- Because of cheap oil, Saudi Arabia has the larg- ticipated in a symposium During his campaign for Canadian prime est budget shortfall of the world’s 20 biggest alongside academics, an inde- minister, Justin Trudeau vowed to boost economies. When local contractors cut jobs or pendent national commission the number of Syrian refugees the country withhold salaries, migrant workers suffer. In July, on human rights, and survivors would resettle. Now in office, Trudeau has Sushma Swaraj, India’s external affairs minis- to discuss a topic previously delivered on that promise: As of October, ter, tweeted to roughly 6 million followers that unthinkable for Jakarta: the Canada had taken in more than 30,000 ref- 10,000 Indian workers employed inside the 1965 military-backed massa- ugees. That’s nearly three times as many as kingdom faced a “food crisis.” What followed cres of hundreds of thousands the United States has accepted over a simi- was a weeks-long social media operation in of suspected Communist sym- lar period. Resettlement remains fraught— which Swaraj posted information for migrants pathizers. Shortly thereafter, advocates and politicians have warned that about rations provided by the Indian Embassy, Jokowi instructed a top offi- some new residents might depend on pub- claims for unpaid wages, and government- cial to begin gathering infor- lic welfare indefinitely—but the Canadian organized transportation home. It wasn’t the mation about reported mass leader has set an example for a humane first time Swaraj had helped those abroad via graves. Although some fear the North American response to Syria’s mass computer: From evacuating Indians from Yemen announcement was a shallow displacement. The policy, Trudeau said to helping replace lost passports, Swaraj has attempt to appease human in March, “does right by both the safety of earned the nickname “the common tweeple’s rights groups that have criti- Canadians and by the values that define us leader” for her aggressive use of Twitter. cized the administration for as a nation.” failing to stand up to military NOTABLE FACT Followers shouldn’t expect right-wingers, the investigation NOTABLE FACT Trudeau used to teach French Swaraj to solve just any problem. When one could prove to be Jokowi’s first and drama to high school students. user tweeted a request for help repairing his step toward a fuller reckoning refrigerator, she tweeted back: “Brother I cannot with Indonesia’s past atrocities. help you in matters of a Refrigerator. I am very busy with human beings in distress.” NOTABLE FACT Jokowi is Indo- nesia’s first president not to come from the political elite or upper ranks of the military. Before entering politics, he sold furniture. 52 NOV | DEC 2016 Illustration by LEONARDO GONZALEZ
Tsai Ing-wen the decision-makers PRESIDENT TAIWAN For poking the bear. Nicola Sturgeon Since assuming office in May, Tai- Nayib Bukele Yuriko Koike GLOBAL THINKERS wan’s first female president, Tsai LEADER, Ing-wen, has made the island’s MAYOR, SAN SALVADOR GOVERNOR, TOKYO SCOTTISH NATIONAL PARTY sovereignty a top, albeit controver- EL SALVADOR JAPAN UNITED KINGDOM sial, priority. Distancing her admin- istration from the pro-China stance For plotting an For taking For weathering of her predecessor, she has cozied urban face-lift. on a political Brexit. up to Japan by brokering a mech- boys’ club. anism to deal with maritime dis- In 2015, more than 6,500 peo- As U.K. politicians pushed for putes, dropped charges against ple were murdered in El Sal- In July, Yuriko Koike became the a Brexit vote, Nicola Sturgeon, locals who protested against a Tai- vador. Much of the killing first woman elected governor leader of the Scottish National pei-Beijing trade pact, and reversed occurred in the capital, San of Tokyo—and the nasty cam- Party, advocated for Scots to school syllabus changes that Salvador, where rival gangs paign that preceded her ascen- remain in the European Union. emphasize links to the mainland. wage bloody conflict against sion showed why. Not only did Her nation heeded her call: 62 Tsai’s National Day address on Oct. each other. To quell the vio- the former defense and environ- percent voted against leaving. 10 called on Beijing to restart nego- lence, Mayor Nayib Bukele has ment minister have to break with Soon after the referendum, Stur- tiations on the island nation’s sta- an innovative set of urban- the Liberal Democratic Party, geon re-energized her chief polit- tus. It must “face up to the reality policy prescriptions in mind. which endorsed a lesser-known ical issue, independence for her that the Republic of China [Taiwan’s Since being elected last year, male candidate, but Koike had to home country. In early Septem- official name] exists,” she said, Bukele has introduced plans laugh off much harsh criticism— ber, she began a three-month lis- “and that the people of Taiwan have to revitalize the city’s decrepit most of it overtly sexist. Former tening tour to glean whether her an unshakable faith in the demo- downtown, install streetlights Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, for exam- constituents had changed their cratic system.” on every block, and reverse a ple, argued, “[W]e cannot leave minds on independence since last long-standing ban on skating Tokyo to a woman with too much voting against it in 2014. Thou- NOTABLE FACT Think Think, one of in public plazas, a measure makeup.” Nevertheless, Koike sands of party members sur- Tsai’s cats, starred in some cam- aimed at empowering youth won by a landslide. Now she’s veyed their communities and paign videos. According to an aide, who are vulnerable to gang making women’s empowerment local politicians conducted town posts about felines on the presi- recruitment. These ventures a key part of her governance hall meetings. She also set up dent’s Facebook page were signifi- promise practical antidotes strategy. “The potential of Japan a commission to study the eco- cantly more popular than those on to urban blight and eco- is so enormous,” she told CNN in nomic issues associated with political issues. nomic stagnation, which fuel August. “But half of the popula- seccession. While Brexit brought endemic crime. For Bukele, tion—women—is not well used.” the U.K. to its knees, Sturgeon though, they are also intended insisted that her nation stand to inspire beleaguered San Sal- NOTABLE FACT Koike previously stronger than ever. vador residents to remember worked as a TV news anchor. what their city can be. NOTABLE FACT Sturgeon lost the first seven elections she partici- NOTABLE FACT El Salvador’s pated in: two bids for U.K. Parlia- homicide rate, almost 116 per ment, two for Scottish Parliament, 100,000 people, is more than and three for local council seats. 17 times the global average. FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 53
Sadiq Khan Rasmus Hansson MAYOR, LONDON PARLIAMENTARIAN UNITED KINGDOM NORWAY For safeguarding London’s For cultivating moral compass. Oslo’s green bona fides. the decision-makers Sadiq Khan’s election in May as the first Muslim leader Not long ago, Norway’s Green Carolyn Bennett and of a major European city was historic. Then Brexit hap- Party was proposing state-run Marion Buller GLOBAL THINKERS pened, and the London mayor’s role took on new signif- cannabis farms. Now with Ras- JIN: VIA WIKIPEDIA/CREATIVE COMMONS; KHAN: VIA WIKIPEDIA/CREATIVE COMMONS; HANSSON: VIA WIKIPEDIA/CREATIVE COMMONS. icance. As some politicians pledged border restrictions, mus Hansson, its influence has MINISTER OF INDIGENOUS Khan penned pro-immigration editorials, urged busi- blossomed. He is the only Green AND NORTHERN nesses to embrace foreign workers, and floated a plan to serve in Parliament, and AFFAIRS AND JUDGE for London to have its own visas. His commitment to Bloomberg heralded his 2013 CANADA fairness went even further: He has proposed securing election as “spur[ring] a shift equal pay regardless of gender for City Hall employ- amid lawmakers to question For probing ees and has also advocated a policy to require 50 per- how the energy industry works.” a history cent of new municipal housing developments to be Hansson was the first legislator of violence. affordable. “I’m not going to apologize for wanting to to propose that Norway’s wealth live in a city where people respect each other,” he told fund—the world’s largest— Indigenous activists have long the U.K.’s Red magazine in September. divest from coal companies, a criticized the Canadian govern- policy implemented this year. ment for neglecting an emer- NOTABLE FACT One of Khan’s first acts as mayor was to ban This summer, the government gency: More than 1,000 aboriginal “body shaming” ads—those promoting unrealistic also announced two pledges: women have been killed or have expectations of physical appearance—on the Tube. to end domestic deforestation gone missing since 1980. Many of and to achieve carbon neutrality their cases remain unsolved. In Jin Liqun by 2030. Hansson’s next bat- 2016, Carolyn Bennett and Mar- tle? Norway’s petroleum indus- ion Buller finally confronted this PRESIDENT, ASIAN INFRASTRUCTURE try, which accounts for about painful trend. Bennett, minister INVESTMENT BANK 20 percent of the gross domes- of indigenous and northern affairs, CHINA tic product. Climate neutrality is structured a pioneering national meaningless, he told the Guard- inquiry into the violence, start- For orchestrating a ian, if the push continues for oil ing with a listening tour through new power grab. and gas. native communities. Buller, for- mer head of Canada’s Indigenous Once China announced the launch of the NOTABLE FACT Hansson has Bar Association, was then tapped to Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) argued that Norway should lead the five-member inquiry com- in 2014—Beijing’s challenge to the U.S.-dom- end its petroleum production, mission, which will study the crisis inated World Bank—Washington expressed an idea that is the premise of through 2018. Based on hearings reservations to its allies about the new lend- Occupied, a popular 2015 Nor- and other research, Bennett told ing institution. But to no avail: The United wegian TV show. FOREIGN POLICY, the commission Kingdom signed up, followed by a dozen of will issue policy recommendations its neighbors, in what was a testament to the that answer the question: “What do wiles of AIIB’s head, Jin Liqun. Nicknamed we need to do to actually put an end China’s “barbarian handler” for his facility to this tragedy?” with foreigners, Jin’s coup de grâce took place in August, when he cracked the North Amer- NOTABLE FACT Indigenous women ican market and enlisted Canada. It’s not yet make up 4.3 percent of the Cana- clear whether AIIB can fill an $8 trillion short- dian population. Yet between 1980 fall in Asian infrastructure spending, but and 2012, they accounted for 16 per- Jin’s maneuvering has confirmed that Bei- cent of murdered women. jing will push the limits on how much it can reshape the international financial system. NOTABLE FACT A huge Shakespeare fan, Jin fell in love with the Bard after being sent to the Chinese countryside during the Cultural Revolution. 54 NOV | DEC 2016
The Case for Times columnist and 2013 Global Thinker GLOBAL THINKERS Optimism Thomas Friedman begins with a quote from Marie Curie: “Nothing in life is to be The arc of history bends feared, it is only to be understood. Now is toward progress— the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” and 2016 was no different. by David Rothkopf Friedman, who is a friend, goes further. His book is titled Thank You for Being Late: T he average person, looking around An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age the world today, might say things are of Accelerations. So here is a guy who has very grim. It’s understandable. Head- covered the Middle East and the tribula- lines from Syria reveal devastation and tions of the world for 30 years, and three human tragedy on an unimaginable Pulitzer Prizes later, he is embracing opti- scale. Billions suffer with too little, mism. Why? lacking basic necessities such as access to food, water, sanitation, or electric- The title of the book gives a clue. “Thank ity. Terrorists wage their asymmetric wars not just you for being late” refers to the degree to against states but within our psyches. In the United which Friedman found himself grateful States and Europe, right-wing leaders sell a tale of for the quiet moments each day that he decline and civilizations at risk—and plenty of voters was granted when people with whom he are buying it. Look no further than Donald Trump’s was to meet were delayed by the press of ascent to the White House on a wave of hateful senti- daily life, giving him time to reflect. The ment. ¶ It is the worst of times. And yet, reflecting on book represents an effort to look at what the 2016 campaign in his newest book—and in many has happened in the world and, in par- ways his most personal and provocative yet—New York ticular, on the “accelerations” that have transformed it and left so many people run ragged, bewildered, and unable to process the meaning of recent changes. Those accelerations—in technological advancement, climate change, and global- ization—have reordered the planet from top to bottom, and Friedman spent three and a half years exploring how and looking for meaning. The search brings him back to his hometown in Minnesota to contem- plate how the shifting tectonics of mod- ern civilization have altered that which seemed most familiar to him as a child. The book is written with Friedman’s typ- ically probing search for greater meaning, for big ideas, and for organizing princi- ples. And, in the end, it leaves one with the feeling that while the changes that are remaking the planet pose great chal- lenges—notably in the area of climate change—they really do offer even greater opportunities for the lives of everyone in virtually every corner of the world. This begs a couple of questions. First, do the facts bear out the idea that things are really improving broadly and not just in terms of the gadgets or technologies we have at our disposal? Second, does FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 55
history offer any clues about the nature tors, ranging from the rise of institutions cent of people had access to improved and sustainability of step changes of and the rule of law to our current respite water sources in 1990; that number is now the type Friedman’s book so engagingly from global conflicts, to help explain why. around 91 percent. Only 1 percent of U.S. focuses on? homes had indoor plumbing and electric- Other data support this. Between ity in 1920. Today, almost all do. World- To answer those questions, consider that 500,000 and 900,000 people died in bat- wide, while no one had access to electricity Friedman is not the first to embrace opti- tle in 1950. By 2008, according to PolitiFact, before the late 19th century, around 83 per- mism. Indeed, while declinists of every this number was down to 30,000. Inde- cent of the population does today. stripe sometimes seem to have greater pendent researchers associated with the access to the media, there has been a bit Human Security Project at Simon Fraser In 1850, almost everyone in the world of a groundswell recently of people mak- University have concluded, “Today there is lived in an autocracy or a colony. Even ing the case that the present has a lot to broad agreement within the research com- the few democracies around were very recommend it and that the future looks munity that the number and deadliness of unrepresentative. Today, the majority of even better. Furthermore, the current crop interstate wars has declined dramatically the world’s people live in countries ruled of optimists has not based views on the since the end of World War II, and the inci- by democratic regimes—more than 4.1 age-old triumph of hope over experience. dence of civil wars has declined substan- billion people—and only 1.7 billion live Rather, to the contrary, their views are tially since the end of the Cold War.” They in autocracies. arrived at the old-fashioned way—through conclude that the average number of inter- research, based on data. In fact, I count state wars falling from six per year in the Real gross domestic product per capita myself among them because, in my view, 1950s to just one per year now is significant held steady at around $400 to $600 a year optimism is the most logical, sound, and because such conflicts usually are deadlier for most people in most places for most of defensible position to arrive at after a rig- than civil wars. It also does not take a very the last millennium. It started to change orous study of history. sophisticated analysis to conclude that the in the developed world as the Industrial threats we face today from the likes of the Revolution hit. But the real breakthrough We do not live in a perfect world. But Islamic State, while real, are much, much came about as globalization gained trac- we live in a perfectible one. History shows smaller than the risk of global thermonu- tion about 50 years ago. According to the that, over the long run, we collectively have clear war or of world wars. World Bank, it rose from a global adjusted made progress work. average of $449.63 in 1960 to over $10,000 Other positive changes are equally in 2015. The result is that the share of the Steven Pinker of Harvard University clear. Nothing is more basic to quality of world’s population living in poverty has blindsided a world weary of war stories life than its duration. In the pre-modern fallen from 94 percent in 1820 to under 10 and the fear of terrorism in 2011 with the world, life expectancy was about 30 years. percent today. publication of his book, The Better Angels Since the start of the Industrial Revolu- of Our Nature. In it, he argued and demon- tion, with its huge leaps forward in public In 1800, almost nine out of 10 people strated through an analysis of available health and scientific progress, life expec- were illiterate. Today, almost the same pro- data that violence in human societies has tancy has increased substantially, aided portion can read. In 1970, only 6 percent of dropped markedly throughout history and the world’s people had a landline phone. We do not live in a perfect world. that we live in one of the most peaceful and most notably by declines in child mor- In 2014, we passed the point where there safe times ever. tality rates. Average expectancy world- were more cellular devices than people on wide has more than doubled since 1900, the planet. According to the World Bank, by Pinker writes, “Believe it or not … vio- and no country in the world today has a the following year, the average rate of cellu- lence has declined over long stretches of lower life expectancy than the countries lar subscriptions per 100 people was 98.6. time, and today we may be living in the in the world with the highest life expec- most peaceable era of our species’ exis- tancies in 1800. History, then, offers an encouraging tence.” If you lived in what he described as story. It is one of the reasons that those the “pre-state” era, you had a 1-in-6 chance The Industrial Revolution produced who study it and analyze current change of dying in conflict. In the last century, for other massive changes in quality of life. anticipate that, while huge tests confront all its horrific violence, that number fell to Modern indoor plumbing was introduced us now, great progress will continue. Dis- just a 3 percent chance. And the current to the rich in the United States only in the locations of workers by new technologies period is the most violence-free in his- mid-19th century. Today, virtually every pose a real challenge, note Andrew McAfee tory. Pinker offers six major civilizing fac- U.S. home has it. Worldwide, only 76 per- and Erik Brynjolfsson in their important 56 NOV | DEC 2016 Illustration by JASON HOLLEY
Brawley, chief medical officer of the Amer- ican Cancer Society, has acknowledged, it’s possible that more people “are going to live [for a] prolonged high-quality time in peaceful coexistence with their disease.” Progress like this has made benchmarks such as the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, which were adopted in 2015, seem not only achievable, but achievable in the near term. These include ending poverty, eradicating hunger, ensuring that, within a decade and a half, all girls and boys can complete primary and secondary edu- cation for free, ensuring clean water for all, and guaranteeing that everyone has access to affordable, sustainable, and reli- able energy. Perhaps this is why a recent study among 26,000 millennials by the World Economic Forum reveals something quite different from the snark and cynicism of political debates, which is often erro- neously associated with young people. When they look at the world around them, 70 percent see it as full of opportunities, versus only 30 percent who see it as full of struggles; 86 percent see technology creating jobs, while only 14 percent see GLOBAL THINKERS it destroying them. Millennials are hopeful. They are hope- ful for the same reason that Friedman and Pinker and the technolophiliacs of Sili- con Valley are hopeful. They are hopeful because the story of human history is one of continuous progress, and we don’t just live in a moment in which this is ongoing—we But we live in a perfectible one. live in a moment when progress is inexo- rably accelerating. Indeed, when you con- sider that living in one global community works, Race Against the Machine and The thanks to information technologies that and in one single cultural ecosystem prom- Second Machine Age. But they also point enable them to remain relevant, active, to the prospect of less backbreaking labor, and engaged in creating value. (AARP, it ises better understanding of one another, shorter workweeks, and longer work lives. should be noted, is among several sponsors AARP has analyzed this in the United Sates of FOREIGN POLICY’s 2016 Global Thinkers ubiquitous sensing, unlimited data storage, and sees a change few could have expected issue and event.) or gleaned from the tenor of public debate big-data analytics, and the ever-increasing just a few years ago: The older members of Estimates today are that, effectively, the society, rather than being a burden, are entire world will have internet access—be capacity to connect the world’s best and likely to become a boon. Retirement is a linked together in a man-made system for concept that will have to be rethought as the very first time in history—sometime most creative minds, the prospect of seeing companies are able to tap into their most between 2020 and 2030. We are beating experienced workers for much longer, cancer, with deaths down 23 percent in a the world in detail as it is and as it might generation. A cure may be far off, but as Otis be seems possible for the very first time. Optimism is not outlandish—it is required. Realism equals optimism. Q DAVID ROTHKOPF (@djrothkopf) is CEO and editor of the FP Group. FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 57
Alexander Betts and DE LIMA: TED ALJIBE/GETTY IMAGES; BETTS: COURTESY PHOTO; COLLIER: VIA WIKIPEDIA/CREATIVE COMMONS; LAW: COURTESY PHOTO; AL HABABI: COURTESY PHOTO. Paul Collier PROFESSORS UNITED KINGDOM For zoning Syrian dignity. LIKE A COAT OF MANY COLORS, Leila de Lima Oxford professors Alexander Betts and Paul THESE INDIVIDUALS SHOWED Collier have a radical idea: Rather than shifting THAT AGITATION TAKES MYRIAD SENATOR refugees to camps and onto welfare programs, FORMS. A RUNNER BROKE OLYMPIC PHILIPPINES Jordan, which hosts 655,000 Syrians, could PROTOCOL TO STAGE A SOLO PRO provide them with jobs and education in spe- TEST. A BUREAUCRAT SEARCHED For standing up to an cial economic zones (SEZs). This would reduce FOR SOLUTIONS TO RELIGIOUS extremist leader. the state’s financial burden, give Syrians more RADICALIZATION IN FRANCE’S autonomy, and encourage investment in SEZs, PRISONS. IN SAUDI ARABIA, Since taking office in June, Philippine Presi- which might generate jobs for Jordanians, A WOMAN REGISTERED TO RUN dent Rodrigo Duterte has waged a brutal war too. The duo’s proposal, published in Foreign FOR OFFICE; IN THE PHILIPPINES, on drugs. Thousands of alleged traffickers, Affairs, gained traction in March, when the A TRANSGENDER WOMAN WON dealers, and users have been executed by World Bank announced a $100 million pilot AN ELECTION. IF STARTING A POLIT state forces or pro-government vigilantes. program allowing 150,000 refugees the right ICAL PARTY PREMISED ON SELF In response, Sen. Leila de Lima has been a to work in Jordan. In July, the European Union DETERMINATION IN HONG KONG steadfast advocate for the rule of law. As the finalized a 10-year trade deal stipulating con- IS DARING, AND FACING DOWN chair of the Senate Committee on Justice and cessions on products manufactured in Jor- A HOMOPHOBIC CATHOLIC CARDI Human Rights, she spearheaded an investi- dan’s SEZs. In exchange, within three years, NAL IS BRAVE, THEN KINDLING A gation into the extrajudicial killings—work employers must create workforces that are 25 NATIONWIDE MOVEMENT AGAINST that landed her firmly in Duterte’s crosshairs. percent Syrian. ZIMBABWE’S ROBERT MUGABE The president’s loyalists accused de Lima of WITH A FACEBOOK VIDEO IS being involved in the drug trade and ousted NOTABLE FACT As of February, Jordan was DOWNRIGHT REVOLUTIONARY. her as head of the investigation in September. hosting more than 635,000 Syrian refugees, That didn’t silence her, though. She called on amounting to around 10 percent of the king- the United Nations to examine the violence, dom’s population. arguing that Manila isn’t equipped “to serve complete justice to the victims.” NOTABLE FACT After the criminal accusations, de Lima said, “I am willing to resign; I am willing to be shot in front of the president…. I am confident to prove him wrong. I will stand by my innocence, any time now and forever.”
Geraldine Roman Nathan Law Géraldine Blin Haifa al-Hababi the challengers CONGRESSWOMAN LEGISLATIVE COUNCILMEMBER PROJECT DIRECTOR, ARCHITECT GLOBAL THINKERS PHILIPPINES HONG KONG FRENCH PENITENTIARY SAUDI ARABIA ADMINISTRATION For redefining For holding FRANCE For seizing fitness umbrellas aloft. suffrage. to govern. For seeking This spring, Nathan Law, a peace When Saudi Arabia cracked The Philippines has banned leader of Hong Kong’s pro- in prisons. open the door to greater people from changing their democracy Umbrella Move- female participation in pol- sex since 2001. There were 40 ment, translated his protest into In the past four years, French pris- itics, Haifa al-Hababi didn’t known homicides of transgen- governance and helped cre- ons have produced two Charlie hesitate. The architecture der Filipinos between 2008 ate a political party, Demosisto. Hebdo attackers, the perpetra- professor was the first Saudi and 2015. Yet this year, Geral- Supporting electoral self-de- tor of the Toulouse shootings, and woman to register to run in dine Roman was elected as the termination and civic engage- the shooter from the massacre at last December’s municipal country’s first openly trans- ment—echoing the values of the Jewish Museum of Belgium. elections, the first in which gender politician. Hailing from the 2014 demonstrations—Law Now it’s up to Géraldine Blin to women could vote and seek a political family—her parents won a seat on the Legislative buck this trend. Her de-radicaliza- office. More than 900 stood previously held the congressio- Council in September, making tion program, which was rolled out as candidates; 20 won seats. nal seat she won—Roman isn’t him not just the youngest law- this year in a number of detention Hababi lost her bid to join shy about her identity. “Gender maker in Hong Kong’s history, facilities throughout France, pin- Riyadh’s municipal council, only becomes an issue when but also the first elected official points potential extremists and but her boldness set a new you try to keep it a secret,” she to represent the nascent party. offers them counseling and spe- tone for local women. She told the BBC. Roman has advo- For Law, the election is the start cialized education. To Blin, radical- continues to call for a new cated improvements in health of a new chapter. “People have ization occurs when young people public attitude toward gov- care, infrastructure, and other put their trust in me, and now I feel alienated from the state—an ernment. “In Saudi Arabia… public services and urged law- have to perform,” he told Time impulse that is magnified by incar- we are selfish,” she told the makers to pass an anti-dis- this fall. “We hope that we can ceration. “If we can show these Guardian in January. “It’s crimination bill that has bring the issue of Hong Kong’s people that society is interested in all about what people get been rejected for more than a future to the parliamentary them,” she told the Guardian, “it’s from the government. We decade. She wants to fight prej- table. That’s completely differ- possible the tear can be repaired.” treat it as a father who must udice that extends “beyond ent to protesting.” look after us.” gender,” she told Agence NOTABLE FACT French authorities France-Presse, including “on NOTABLE FACT Law has lim- are tracking some 15,000 people NOTABLE FACT Hababi has the basis of…age, educational ited familiarity with legislative who, according to Prime Minister a collection of shot glasses attainment, creed.” politics, but he does have expe- Manuel Valls, “are in the process of from places she’s visited rience in student governance. radicalization.” around the world, including NOTABLE FACT BuzzFeed After the 2014 protests, he Las Vegas. reported earlier this year that was elected secretary-general call centers, of which the Phil- of the Hong Kong Federation ippines has the largest con- of Students. centration worldwide, attract transgender workers because they can inhabit their true identities with international callers and face no backlash. FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 59
Collette Devlin, Diana King, and Kitty O’Kane ACTIVISTS UNITED KINGDOM For committing a righteous crime. Feyisa Lilesa James Brewster; Northern Ireland prohibits Jesse Morton LILESA: BUDA MENDES/GETTY IMAGES; MORTON: COURTESY PHOTO; DZIEMIANOWICZ BAK: COURTESY PHOTO; NOWACKA: VIA WIKIPEDIA/CREATIVE COMMONS. Deivis Ventura abortion unless the moth- OLYMPIC RUNNER er’s life or health is in dan- RESEARCHER ETHIOPIA U.S. AMBASSADOR; ACTIVIST ger. A woman with money WASHINGTON, D.C. DOMINICAN REPUBLIC to travel can undergo For breaking a legal procedure else- For doing good by the rules of the For mainstreaming where in the United King- knowing evil. games. LGBT culture. dom, where statutes are more liberal. Poor women, As an al Qaeda recruiter known as Given the fact that the Olympic Deivis Ventura was fired from his though, often break the Younus Abdullah Muhammad, Jesse Charter bans political propa- teaching job in 2009 after com- law. When authorities Morton used YouTube and blog posts ganda, demonstrations are a ing out as gay. This year, he ran prosecuted a 21-year-old to inspire fellow extremists to try to fly rarity at the games. Neverthe- as the Dominican Republic’s first Belfast woman for pur- explosives into the Pentagon and to less, Ethiopian runner Feyisa openly gay congressional candi- chasing abortion pills kill a Swedish cartoonist, among other Lilesa snubbed the rulebook date, promoting LGBT rights. He online this spring, retirees nefarious acts. It wasn’t until he was in order to call attention to lost in May, but his participation Collette Devlin, Diana King, sent to prison in 2012 that he turned the brutal actions of his coun- put queer issues on the Domin- and Kitty O’Kane were furi- away from extremism—and into an try’s security forces. As the ican political map. As inspira- ous. They marched into a FBI informant. Morton took a job this marathoner approached the tion, Ventura cited James “Wally” police station, confessed year at George Washington University, finish line in second place, Brewster, the first openly gay U.S. to importing abortion pills, where he researches the terrorism he he crossed his arms over his ambassador in Latin America. and demanded prosecu- once propagated and explores count- head—an attention-grabbing “Dominicans see that an import- tion. “People have…a moral er-radicalization techniques. “As many gesture to show solidarity with ant North American public offi- responsibility to oppose people as may have traveled, or may his Oromo tribe. In the weeks cial who is openly gay is a normal bad law,” Devlin told the have committed criminal acts, because before the race, the Ethiopian human being who eats, sleeps, press. The demonstration of my words,” Morton told the New York government had cracked down gets up, has a life,” Ventura told came just before North- Times, “I hope that I can deter just as on protests by the embattled PRI. Despite enduring prejudice, ern Ireland began appeal- many.” indigenous group and killed including from Santo Domingo’s ing a 2015 court judgment, dozens. “If I would’ve taken my Catholic cardinal, Brewster has which ruled that current NOTABLE FACT As a child, Morton says, medal and went back to Ethio- attended state functions with his abortion policy violates his mother abused him. However, when pia, that would’ve been the big- husband and launched an LGBT women’s human rights. he sought help at school, a guidance gest regret of my life,” Lilesa, Chamber of Commerce in the Devlin, King, and O’Kane counselor failed to come through for who hasn’t yet returned home, capital. highlighted how it exacer- him. “That’s where the whole us- told the Associated Press. bates inequality, too. versus-them personality comes in,” “I wanted to be a voice for a NOTABLE FACT Gay sexual activity he told the New York Times, “with the story that wasn’t getting any is not explicitly criminalized in the NOTABLE FACT Before perception that society—American coverage.” Dominican Republic, but the coun- turning themselves in, the society—is not protecting me.” try doesn’t allow same-sex marriage three had been mail- NOTABLE FACT Since wide- and lacks comprehensive non- ordering abortion pills for spread protests began in Ethi- discrimination and hate crime laws. five years as a favor to opia last year, hundreds of women who didn’t want people have been killed, thou- the capsules sent directly sands injured, tens of thou- to their homes. sands arrested, and hundreds disappeared, according to Human Rights Watch. 60 NOV | DEC 2016
Agnieszka the challengers Dziemianowicz-Bak and Barbara Nowacka POLITICIANS POLAND For humbling Warsaw. On Oct. 3, tens of thousands Evan Mawarire Edit Schlaffer GLOBAL THINKERS of Poles, many wearing all black, took to the streets to PASTOR FOUNDER, WOMEN WITHOUT BORDERS protest a proposed law that ZIMBABWE AUSTRIA would ban abortion without exception. Barbara Nowacka For initiating For betting on and Agnieszka Dziemiano- a democratic maternal instincts. wicz-Bak helped lead what movement. collectively became known as There is fighting terrorism with the help of govern- “Black Monday.” Speaking to a With a Zimbabwean flag draped ment pressure and policies, argues Edit Schlaffer, crowd amassed before Poland’s around his neck, Pastor Evan and then there is eradicating terrorism with the eyes Parliament days before the Mawarire recorded a video in April and ears of mothers everywhere. Four years ago in Monday demonstrations, criticizing his country’s govern- Tajikistan, Schlaffer established Mother Schools, a Dziemianowicz-Bak, of the ment. He posted it on Facebook program that trains women to spot signs of child- left-wing Together Party, said with the hashtag #ThisFlag, where hood radicalization. Last fall, she took the program the draconian policy threat- it quickly amassed tens of thou- to Austria and Belgium, which has the most citizens ened to turn “doctors into sands of hits. Other activists began per capita fighting with the Islamic State of any Euro- prison guards.” Nowacka, a posting similar videos and pho- pean Union nation. Schlaffer’s next moves include liberal activist and former can- tos. By the summer, #ThisFlag expanding to France, England, and Sweden. “[Moth- didate for prime minister, told had become an umbrella move- ers] are the ones who register all the changes in their the media that the law would ment for various pro-democracy children,” Schlaffer told FOREIGN POLICY in March, “move Poland back to medi- demonstrations and strikes. In July, “but usually they aren’t trained and equipped with eval times.” Days after Black Mawarire called on citizens to stay skills and confidence to react so that it has an impact.” Monday, lawmakers voted home from work for a day, essen- overwhelmingly against the tially causing a national shutdown; NOTABLE FACT Out of all countries, Tunisia has the high- proposal. Minister of Science it was the largest protest Zimba- est percentage of citizens fighting with the Islamic and Higher Education Jaro- bwe had seen in a decade. He was State, at 546 fighters per capita. The Maldives is a slaw Gowin said the protests arrested but freed on a technical- close second at 500. Belgium is at 42. “caused us to think and taught ity. Before fleeing the country, he us humility.” pledged to continue the democratic struggle against President Robert NOTABLE FACT Officially, about Mugabe. “Let’s remain resolute,” 1,000 women in Poland get Mawarire told supporters as he abortions each year. Women’s emerged from jail. rights organizations, however, estimate that the actual num- NOTABLE FACT Mawarire was trained ber may be as high as 150,000, as an auto electrician at the Harare accounting for illegal proce- Institute of Technology. dures and women who travel abroad. Illustration by LEONARDO GONZALEZ FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 61
Fredros Okumu TROPICAL DISEASE SPECIALIST TANZANIA WHAT IF SPECIALLY ENGINEERED Chandani Doshi, Grace For putting the Sarah Parcak TEAM TACTILE: COURTESY PHOTO; OKUMU: COURTESY PHOTO; PARCAK: COURTESY PHOTO; SALEHI KHOJIN: ROBERT DUPUIS DEVLIN; GARCIA AND JONES: COURTESY PHOTO. SHOES COULD FEND OFF MOS Li, Jialin Shi, Bonnie best foot forward QUITOES OR A TRACTOR SHARING Wang, Charlene Xia, and to fight Zika. ARCHAEOLOGIST APP COULD PUT MONEY IN NIGE Tania Yu BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA RIAN FARMERS’ POCKETS? THESE In 2016, Zika went from an ARE JUST TWO OF THE QUESTIONS STUDENTS obscure infectious disease in Bra- For flying high to INNOVATORS WERE BOLD ENOUGH CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS zil to a full-blown health crisis preserve antiquity. TO ASK AND ANSWER THIS across the Western Hemisphere. YEAR. THEY TAUGHT A NEW GEN For lifting words The U.S. Agency for International Like never before, global ERATION OF ROBOTS TO PERFORM off the page. Development invested over $15 development and war are MILLIONS OF TASKS. THEY MIXED million in innovations to fight the pushing archaeologists CARBON DIOXIDE AND SUNSHINE Earlier this year, these six stu- virus; among those awarded funds into a race against time— TO MAKE CHEAP, CLEAN FUEL. AND dents presented MakeMIT’s were Fredros Okumu and his team so much so that Sarah Par- IN JUST 15 HOURS, THEY FASH hackathon judges with a pro- at the Ifakara Health Institute in cak is revolutionizing the IONED A DEVICE THAT CAN CON totype that wasn’t pretty— Tanzania. For this crew, footwear already-modern field of VERT PRINTED WORDS TO BRAILLE. picture a tangled mess of is the answer to hindering trans- space archaeology. That dis- COLLECTIVELY, THESE THINKERS colored wires and cardboard mission. That’s because the Aedes cipline uses satellite imag- ASKED ONE FUNDAMENTAL QUES fragments—but it was game aegypti mosquito, which is largely ery to uncover the planet’s TION: WHAT DOES THE WORLD changing. The device, which responsible for the spread of Zika, historical artifacts and can NEED NEXT? resembles a hand-held, rect- is known for biting ankles, accord- track looting and destruc- angular, pin-studded wireless ing to the World Health Organi- tion patterns. However, speaker, translates printed zation. Okumu’s team created an there aren’t enough archae- words into Braille instantly. affordable sandal that continually ologists to study the world’s This is how it works: As a releases a repellent for up to six surface before parts of it mechanism inside the contrap- months. In places where open-toed disappear. Now Parcak is tion captures images of printed shoes are the norm, this interven- recruiting her own citi- text, the pins directly respond tion could be a lifesaver. zen army for the research. by moving up and down, form- GlobalXplorer, which she ing Braille characters. Chan- NOTABLE FACT In 2014, 14 coun- developed this year, func- dani Doshi, Grace Li, Jialin Shi, tries reported Zika transmission. tions like “a super-high-tech Bonnie Wang, Charlene Xia, That number jumped to 61 this version of Google Earth,” she and Tania Yu hope to bring it year. says, and allows anyone with to market, with a price cap of an internet connection to $100. They aren’t wasting time: scrutinize satellite imagery In September, the inventors, of ancient locales. Parcak known as Team Tactile, filed a hopes GlobalXplorer will be patent for their creation as part the way to “find and protect of Microsoft’s Patent Program. the world’s hidden heritage.” NOTABLE FACT A 2013 study NOTABLE FACT Parcak won the found that less than 40 per- 2016 TED Prize. She used the cent of legally blind or visu- $1 million award to finance ally impaired people were GlobalXplorer. employed. 62 NOV | DEC 2016
Jehiel Oliver Amin Jeannette Garcia and John Oberlin and the innovators Salehi-Khojin Gavin Jones Stefanie Tellex ENTREPRENEUR GLOBAL THINKERS NIGERIA ENGINEER CHEMISTS COMPUTER SCIENTISTS CHICAGO SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA PROVIDENCE, For plowing RHODE ISLAND an agricultural For For detoxifying revolution. exploiting iPhones. For getting a flower grip on robots. Nigeria has enough arable land to power. Every year, industry produces more than fill the U.S. state of Texas. What the 2.7 million tons of hard polycarbonate plas- If a robot is ever going to country doesn’t have are the tools For renewable tic, used in smartphones, eyeglass lenses, clear the kitchen table, to cultivate it. That’s why Jehiel resources to phase and many other products. Difficult to recy- it first must learn to pick Oliver developed a minitractor that out fossil fuels, they’ll cle, it winds up in landfills, where it leaches up dishes. Harness- farmers can rent by the day. Oli- have to compete on the industrial chemical BPA. So Jeannette ing the power of oppos- ver’s contraption, which looks like the energy market. Garcia and Gavin Jones, chemists at IBM’s able thumbs might be an elongated rototiller and sells Amin Salehi-Khojin is Almaden Lab, have developed a process tricky for computers, but for $4,000, uses GPS and mobile pushing solar power that introduces new elements to polycar- Brown University profes- phone technology to match trac- toward that goal by bonates that prevent BPA from leaking. sor Stefanie Tellex and tor owners with customers and to ditching cumber- The recycled, reconstituted plastic isn’t graduate student John monitor the need for maintenance. some storage batter- just durable. Garcia described it to CNN Oberlin aren’t giving up The service rental helps farmers ies. In July, he and his Money as “an environmental win on many just yet. They are teach- perform up to 40 times more daily team at the Univer- fronts.” Because it doesn’t decompose like ing one popular type of labor than they otherwise could. sity of Illinois at Chi- other polycarbonates, the material might industrial robot the art of The idea won South by Southwest’s cago (UIC) announced be safe to use in water purification, fiber gripping. Baxter, as it’s Global Innovation Challenge this the development of a optics, and other systems. Trash, in short, known, uses cameras year. So far, Oliver’s business, Hello solar cell that mim- could take on new value. and infrared sensors to Tractor, has sold more than 1,000 ics photosynthesis. examine various objects units and raised more than $3 mil- The “leaf” absorbs NOTABLE FACT Exposure to BPA has been and find, through trial lion in seed money. carbon dioxide from linked with cardiovascular disease and dia- and error, the best and the atmosphere and, betes in humans, as well as complications strongest clutches on NOTABLE FACT Oliver grew up on food using solar energy, with reproductive development in animals. them. Once learned, an stamps but eventually became a converts the green- experience is recorded corporate banker on Wall Street. house gas into a syn- in a database, which thetic fuel—at a cost already contains infor- roughly equivalent mation on some 200 to that of produc- objects. The endgame ing gasoline. Imag- is to share that archive ine: Thousands of among robots so that a “leaves” clustered on teachable moment for solar farms, recycling one is a lesson for all. emissions into clean energy. In that future, NOTABLE FACT If all 300 fossil fuels would be Baxter robots dedicated so passé. to research participated in Tellex and Oberlin’s NOTABLE FACT project, they would learn Salehi-Khojin leads to grasp 1 million objects research at UIC’s in 11 days. Nanomaterials and Energy System Labo- ratory, which focuses on novel ways to reduce carbon dioxide production. Illustration by LEONARDO GONZALEZ FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 63
The Only Way Forward Can the new world order be saved by humanism? By Anne-Marie Slaughter T hisyearwasinmanywaysoneofgreat- 41 million internally displaced people, power politics. The resurgence of Rus- driven from their homes by war, famine, sia on the global stage, from Ukraine and tyranny; a world in which a half-mil- to Syria to China. The Saudi-Iranian lion Syrians have been slaughtered in front power struggle in the Middle East. Chi- of our eyes; a world with a conscience that na’s assertion of its status as the Mid- can no longer be shocked by human suffer- dle Kingdom once again, expecting ing, whether from poison gas, barrel bombs, deference from its neighbors in East deliberate and systematic rape, or looming and Southeast Asia. North Korea’s determined pur- genocide. How, then, can one argue that this suit of nuclear weapons. Even Great Britain’s rejec- was a year of humanism? tion of the European Union, fueled in part by Tory dreams of Britannia sovereign once again. It is a Part of the answer lies in numbers. Our world of deals and shifting alliances, particularly as world comprises 195 states. A state is defined Pax Americana seems to wane—a trend that Donald under international law as an entity with a Trump’s stunning election as president threatens to permanent population, a defined territory, accelerate—and U.S. foreign policy takes a decidedly a government, and the capacity to enter realist turn. ¶ It is a world of 21 million refugees and into relations with other states. Human beings have not figured out a better way to 64 NOV | DEC 2016 Illustration by JASON HOLLEY
providers and social advocates. They “seek GLOBAL THINKERS to shift a stable but suboptimal equilibrium organize themselves globally, other than may never win Nobels—are empowered as in a way that is neither entirely mandated emerging regional actors such as the EU, never before. On mobile devices in some 2 nor entirely market-driven. They create new which is having an identity crisis. Despite billion pockets, men and women can create approaches to old and pernicious problems. exaggerated claims about the rise of cities companies, start social movements, make And they work directly to tip society to a and the new medievalism, states are here to art, guide refugees, and find like-minded cit- new and better state.” stay. Within them, however, are 7.4 billion izens. Technological capabilities obviously people who are making their presence and enable criminals as well as creators, but indi- Taken in the aggregate, such organiza- power increasingly felt on the global stage. vidual capacity to turn dreams into reality is tions have as much global impact as many greater than at any point in human history. countries have with their foreign aid bud- Individual activists have a long history, gets. Whereas countries must depend on of course. A review of Nobel Peace Prize The rise of human agency also comes their tax coffers, the reservoirs of social winners shows an alternation between from the creation of new professions. Social entrepreneurship are the infinitely renew- politicians and notable individuals deter- entrepreneurship and social-impact invest- able energy and innovation of individuals. mined to shape their world in a big way: ing open wide, new vistas for individuals It is what New York Times columnist Nich- Jimmy Carter, Shirin Ebadi, Nelson Man- committed to solving global problems. As olas Kristof has called “DIY foreign aid.” dela, Muhammad Yunus, Shimon Peres. Roger Martin and Sally Osberg argue in their Today, however, ordinary people—whose book, Getting Beyond Better, social entrepre- Social-impact investing has exploded names may never be widely famous, who neurs are distinct from direct social-service from a few pioneers into a diverse ecosystem of boutique funds, philanthropic organiza- tions, family offices, and large commercial banks. In Capital and the Common Good, author Georgia Levenson Keohane notes that nearly every mainstream financial institution, from Barclays to Bain Capi- tal, now has a social or sustainable finance unit. The landscape is highly specialized by geography and issue area, ranging from small-business development to environ- mental and economic sustainability Governments, too, have taken account of this increased human capacity, gradually transforming the very nature and practice of foreign policy. Statecraft is a strategic chess game between national governments. Web- craft is the work of corporations, civic orga- nizations, universities, foundations, mayors, and governors—all creating and partici- pating in global networks that combat cli- mate change, terrorism, infectious disease, human rights violations, and more. Astute foreign policy practitioners utilize both. Consider the United Nations climate change negotiations in Paris. As Oxford professor and activist Thomas Hale has explained, the Paris Agreement of last December represents a paradigm shift in international agreements, from a “regula- tory” model of enforceable legal obligations to a “catalytic and facilitative” model that both spurs and helps a wide range of actors meet a rolling schedule of steadily increas- ing commitments. That model, in turn, FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 65
can work only if state parties to an agree- draw eyes on a page or serve as instant click ment will spread like disease, from person ment formally include nonstate and substate bait. Alternatively, think about “humanitar- to person, family to family, and country to actors—or, as they insisted on being called ian interests,” the moral side of foreign pol- country. Plenty of atrocities in plenty of in Paris, “non-Party stakeholders.” These icy that proper Machiavellians must learn to countries will remain unaddressed, but as are not simply NGO lobbyists. According ignore. The death of innocent individuals, the doctrine of the Responsibility to Pro- to a study released during the Paris nego- the destruction of cities, the desecration of tect attempted to delineate, governments tiations, more than 7,000 cities from more heritage—becoming a statesperson means must act when another government com- than 99 countries and some 5,000 compa- not letting your heart bleed, or at least learn- mits genocide, crimes against humanity, nies from 88 countries made climate com- ing to hide it beneath layers of properly cool ethnic cleansing, or systematic and serious mitments. The cities represent 11 percent calculation. To be fair, the prince whom war crimes. States must embrace the values of the world’s population and about 32 per- Machiavelli counsels is bound to eschew of humanism in the service of self-interest. cent of the global gross domestic product, global morality in favor of advancing the That may be a heavy lift for president-elect and the companies represent over $38 tril- interests of his people, a moral and political Trump, who has given no sign of concern for lion in revenue. obligation of its own. As realists never tire the plight of any humans other than Amer- of pointing out, sometimes rightly, “legal- icans. Yet governments of every stripe will These actors are not new, nor is their pres- ism-moralism,” as George Kennan called it, ultimately come to understand that preven- ence at multilateral negotiations. Jody Wil- can lead to more bloodshed than the prob- tion is in their self-interest, even if takes a liams and the International Campaign to lem it sought to solve. Every action has con- cataclysm or two to drive home the point. Ban Landmines won the Nobel Peace Prize sequences, many of them unintended. in 1997 for catalyzing the negotiation of the Perhaps, however, we embrace human- Mine Ban Treaty. Paris was different, though, In a world of increased human agency, ism just as we are losing our humanness. because it included such actors not as alter- however, for bad as well as good, conflicts Technologists and futurists predict that natives or as useful additions to the intergov- cannot be snuffed out by government decree. genetically engineered superhumans and ernmental regime, but as central elements of If the combatants do not answer to a gov- cyborgs are the future, possibly as soon as that regime: An action agenda for non-Party ernment, they will not stop fighting when a later this century. Historian Yuval Noah stakeholders was the “fourth pillar” of the government says so. U.S. Secretary of State Harari, author of Sapiens: A Brief History of negotiations, on par with national pledges, John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Ser- Humankind, anticipates the disappearance the financing package, and an agreement. gei Lavrov can agree to a cease-fire in Syria, of Homo sapiens as a species. Moving toward GLOBAL THINKERS In this world, what happens to people matters. This approach is being used to address but neither they nor any other government a world in which the digital and the phys- the refugee crisis as well. Alongside a U.N. controls the actual fighters. Even when gov- ical realms merge—and biology no longer General Assembly Summit on refugees in ernments obliterate a battlefield, destroying just means the study of natural but of engi- September, U.S. President Barack Obama enemy strongholds and recapturing cities, neered beings as well—it seems reasonable hosted a smaller Leaders Summit of 50 the tension simmers like an underground to cling ever more tightly to the conscious- nations to collect pledges to help refugees fire, ready to flare with enough oxygen. ness and connections that make us human. and a Call to Action meeting of private-sec- tor CEOs. In his remarks, he announced that In this world, what happens to people mat- Harari describes the “cognitive revolu- more than 50 companies had committed ters. Torture a family’s children; kill parents, tion” occurring roughly 70,000 years ago, more than $650 million in cash and in-kind spouses, and siblings with a barrel bomb or which gave Homosapiens not simply the abil- assistance. George Soros also personally a gas attack; pulverize a neighborhood—the ity to communicate but to communicate in committed to invest $500 million in pro- people will not forget. Think how many “fro- “fictive language,” the capacity to imagine grams and companies benefiting refugees. zen conflicts” erupted after the Cold War, things that do not exist—from love to art to enmities that governments had repressed law—and then to bring them to life. In a dig- A reason to celebrate, or at least elevate, with censorship, soldiers, and secret police. ital, automated, data-designed future, cele- humanism is that human interests and stra- Revenge can be delayed but not denied, brating and advancing humanist values and, tegic interests are slowly but inexorably unless injustice is ultimately answered with indeed, increasing our respect for all living merging. Think about what “human inter- at least some measure of justice. beings may be the only way forward. Q est” generally means: the lighthearted or sometimes tragic story about the adventures Humanitarianism is not enough. It is a ANNE MARIE SLAUGHTER (@SlaughterAM) is or travails of another person, one that will palliative after the fact, but it also misses president and CEO of New America. the deeper point. Violence and displace- 66 NOV | DEC 2016
Rizwan Ahmed and the artists Himanshu Suri AHMED AND SURI: EREZ AVISSAR/COURTESY OF THE ARTIST; ALLAHYARI: VIA YOUTUBE/CREATIVE COMMONS. Morehshin Allahyari GLOBAL THINKERS RAPPERS FINDING BEAUTY IN THE JARRING, UNITED KINGDOM AND ARTIST THE WEIRD, AND THE RADICAL IS NEW YORK CITY OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA WHAT DEFINES THESE THINKERS. AN ARCHITECT’S BODY OF WORK For protesting For saving heritage PROMOTED ECONOMIC EQUALITY xenophobia on a Zip drive. ALONGSIDE AWARD WINNING AES with verse. THETICS. A MURALIST HONORED Last year, the Islamic State released a video of mili- TRASH COLLECTORS BY SCRIBBLING Rizwan Ahmed is a British tants bludgeoning a statue of King Uthal of Hatra—one ON THE WALLS OF THEIR SLUM. A citizen of Pakistani descent; example among the scores of ancient artifacts the group CHOREOGRAPHER SPOKE TO QUEER Himanshu Suri is a Punjabi has destroyed in Iraq and Syria. Trying to reverse this AFRICAN EXPERIENCES THROUGH Indian born in Queens, New ruin is Iranian-born artist Morehshin Allahyari, who RUSSIAN BALLET. A NEW MEDIA York. This rap duo known leads Material Speculation: ISIS, a 3-D modeling and MAVEN USED 3 D PRINTING TO as Swet Shop Boys produces printing project that has reconstructed 12 artifacts, HEAL CULTURAL SCARS INFLICTED sharp rhymes denouncing including the statue of King Uthal. Contained on a BY THE ISLAMIC STATE, WHILE A the prejudice that “brown” 570 MB Zip file are printable versions of the artworks, SAMBA STAR CAST A SPOTLIGHT men and women endure in along with scholarly research, videos, and high-reso- ON BRAZIL’S SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC the West. Their 2016 debut lution images pertaining to the originals. This year, STRUGGLES. HATRED, VIOLENCE, album, Cashmere, represents Allahyari exhibited the printed sculptures at Toron- AND POVERTY MAY BE ENDURING a rare perspective in the sto- to’s Trinity Square Video; in addition, she made the ILLS, BUT ARTISTIC PUSHBACK ried tradition of political King Uthal file available to the public—ensuring that IS ETERNAL. hip-hop: “Rap is inherently the artifact, in some tangible form, isn’t lost forever. protest music. It just doesn’t usually come from South NOTABLE FACT The U.S. congressional Task Force to Asians or Pakistanis or Indi- Investigate Terrorism Financing has heard testimony ans,” Suri told Newsweek. Yet that the Islamic State could be making up to $100 mil- in a year of rising Islamopho- lion annually from the illicit trade of artifacts. bia, the artists’ contributions to the genre were vital. Their first single, “T5,” for instance, takes aim at Europe’s treat- ment of refugees and Don- ald Trump’s fear-mongering. “What could be a better foil to micro-aggressive profiling,” Pitchfork wrote, “than quippy, multi-ethnic hip-hop?” NOTABLE FACT Also an actor, Ahmed garnered acclaim in 2016 as the lead in HBO’s lim- ited series The Night Of. FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 67
Alejandro Aravena Anohni ARCHITECT SINGER CHILE NEW YORK CITY For drafting the blueprints For injecting of social change. new rhythms into politics. Alejandro Aravena “epitomizes the revival of a more socially engaged architect”—that’s how the announcement that he’d won the 2016 Synth-fueled dance music doesn’t Pritzker Prize, architecture’s top honor, described the Chilean seem like an obvious medium for designer. At his firm, Elemental, Aravena devised “incremental protesting climate change, gov- housing,” a model that uses government subsidies to build partial ernment spying, and extrajudicial homes—concrete frame, roof, kitchen, bathroom—that low-income killings. Anohni, however, reveals residents finish themselves, gaining property value in the process. electronica and politics to be a per- This year, as curator of the Venice Architecture Biennale, he high- fect match. Dubbed “extraordinary” lighted projects that improve quality of life for those with scarce by the Guardian, the transgen- resources. If done right, Aravena told the U.N. in a recent interview, der artist’s album, Hopelessness, urban architecture can be a “shortcut towards equality.” laments a litany of man-made cri- ses. Anohni signals that these NOTABLE FACT In the 1990s, Aravena quit designing buildings for a few tragedies are both personal and years and opened a bar. universal: Everyone is affected as well as complicit. On some tracks, 68 NOV | DEC 2016 she inhabits the voice of a victim— for instance, the target of a drone strike—while on others she sings as a perpetrator of environmen- tal destruction or Western impe- rialism. As Spin put it, the album issues “a kind of protracted scream that begs the listener to stop, look, and really listen.” NOTABLE FACT This year, Anohni was the first transgender per- former nominated for an Oscar, for her song “Manta Ray.” Not invited to perform at the ceremony because, she believes, she wasn’t deemed “commercially viable,” she boycotted the event.
eL Seed MURALIST UNITED ARAB EMIRATES For tearing down walls by painting them. Up close, the white, orange, and blue paint Ivo van Hove Vanessa Lucas-Smith the artists coating some 50 buildings in the Cairo suburb of Manshiyat Naser looks hap- THEATER DIRECTOR CELLIST GLOBAL THINKERS hazard. But from a hill on the neighbor- NETHERLANDS UNITED KINGDOM hood’s fringe, an enormous design comes into focus. Carefully pieced together over For unmasking fear For composing songs dozens of walls is a street mural of Ara- from the stage. of displacement. bic script quoting a third-century Coptic Christian bishop: “Anyone who wants to see This year, a Belgian director revived classic Until recently, thousands of ref- the sunlight clearly needs to wipe his eyes American theater and sharpened its edges, ugees lived in the “Jungle,” a first.” French-Tunisian artist eL Seed exe- cutting to the very heart of the neo-McCa- sprawling camp in Calais, France, cuted the project, called “Perception,” this rthyism currently poisoning swaths of U.S. where they had been the sub- spring to honor the garbage collectors who politics. In critically praised productions of ject of xenophobic headlines and populate Manshiyat Naser but clean all of A View From the Bridge and The Crucible, targeted in police crackdowns. Cairo. As eL Seed wrote on his website, “I Ivo van Hove pared down Arthur Miller’s Vanessa Lucas-Smith, a cel- am questioning the level of judgment and signature overt moralism, as well as indi- list in London’s Allegri Quartet, misconception society can unconsciously cations of the plays’ historic periods, with wanted to show a different side have upon a community based on their minimalist sets, bland costumes, and tense of the place. So she took a group differences.” pacing. This avant-garde approach exposed of volunteers and a jumble of the scripts’ darkest themes—xenophobia, instruments familiar to Calais’s NOTABLE FACT el Seed earned an MBA to homophobia, suspicion, social hysteria— refugees—a Kurdish daf (drum), please his parents but decided to create as universal, timeless, and unnervingly for example—to jam with Suda- art instead. familiar. Van Hove’s vision of theater as a nese, Iraqis, Syrians, and oth- means of holding up a mirror to audiences’ ers. The result was The Calais lived reality won him two Tonys, for Best Sessions, an album of love bal- Revival and Best Director of a Play. lads, rap songs, and other tunes released in July. It’s available on NOTABLE FACT Van Hove makes actors in his iTunes and Bandcamp, with pro- plays operate “off book,” memorizing all ceeds going to the refugee per- their lines before they begin rehearsals. formers and an NGO that was working in the camp. Thanks to Lucas-Smith, the world can now hear the Jungle’s true voices. NOTABLE FACT Lucas-Smith plays a late 18th-century English cello. On the album, an Afghan refugee plays an instrument resembling a cello that he made from scraps around the camp. FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 69
Walid Raad CONCEPTUAL ARTIST NEW YORK CITY For blurring the line between fact and fiction. Dada Masilo Walid Raad grew up during Lebanon’s civil war, waged by a constellation of ethnic CHOREOGRAPHER and religious actors. It’s perhaps unsur- SOUTH AFRICA prising, then, that he is concerned about how societies remember contested polit- For spotlighting diversity in dance. ical histories. Raad’s photos, videos, and sculptures—presented in New York and Boston this year in a lauded 25-year ret- rospective—blend real Lebanese history with the imagined, producing sensational, sometimes bewildering, results. In one video, a fictional character named Souheil Bachar recounts sharing a cell with Ameri- cans who actually were held hostage. Other works are attributed to people who don’t exist. In challenging viewers to discern truth in what he’s created, Raad announces narratives of war as subjective, and their authorship as a source of struggle. NOTABLE FACT As a teenager, Raad wanted to be a war correspondent. Swan Lake is arguably the world’s most famous bal- let, but choreographer Dada Masilo made it her own. The setting of Masilo’s production was her native South Africa, and she depicted characters as black and queer (male dancers wore tutus, and one performed en pointe). She reimagined the story line to grapple with prejudice, abuse, and forced marriage, and imbued the traditional choreography, dating back to 1895, with African dance movements. “I don’t just want to be a body in space,” she told the New York Times. “I want to open up con- versations about issues like homophobia and domes- tic violence, because those are realities at home.” Her production, which had its U.S. debut this year, earned a Bessie Award nomination. NOTABLE FACT Because ballet was practiced mostly by white people while South Africa was under apartheid, Masilo did not begin dancing until she was 10. 70 NOV | DEC 2016
SWAN LAKE: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/GETTY IMAGES; MASILO: PHILIPPE DESMAZES/GETTY IMAGES; RAAD: VIA WIKIPEDIA/CREATIVE COMMONS; SHIRE: AMAAL SAID Warsan Shire the artists POET GLOBAL THINKERS UNITED KINGDOM For flavoring Lemonade with fervor. Elza Soares While Lemonade solidified Beyoncé’s reign as the queen of pop, the blockbuster album SAMBA SINGER featured another star: British-Somali poet BRAZIL Warsan Shire. Celebrated by Twitter and Tumblr followers and honored in the United For defying social odds. Kingdom, where she was London’s 2014 Young Poet Laureate, Shire achieved global At 79, samba star Elza Soares remains on the cutting edge of her craft. fame after Bey quoted her vivid, intimate Her 34th studio album “takes us behind the postcard images into Bra- poems. The subjects include infidelity (“You zil’s messy realities and modern sounds,” heralded NPR’s review of The go to the bathroom to apply your mother’s Woman at the End of the World. “The result is a fresh album of social lipstick. / … You must wear it like she wears commentary from an elder stateswoman of samba gone punk.” Soares, disappointment on her face.”) and the pres- whose raspy voice wowed viewers of the opening ceremonies at the sure women feel to please men (“I tried to 2016 Rio Olympics, mixes classic Brazilian sounds with rock and jazz change. / Closed my mouth more, tried to to create genre-bending music about racism, classism, drug abuse, and be softer, prettier, less awake.”). Shire’s lyr- sexual violence. Her personal story—she grew up black and poor in a ics focus on groups whose stories often go favela—informs the album’s politics. Soares’s journey and innovative untold, including black women, refugees, and sound are testaments to music’s capacity for restoration and revolution. immigrants. Her first full collection, Extreme Girlhood, is forthcoming. NOTABLE FACT Soares was forced to marry a local teenager, who her father believed was raping her, when she was 12. She had her first child a year later. NOTABLE FACT Shire’s participation in Lem- onade was kept secret until the album’s debut. Within hours of Lemonade’s release, Amazon sold out of Shire’s two chapbooks. Illustration by LEORNARDO GONZALEZ FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 71
Marc Edwards ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER BLACKSBURG, VIRGINIA For blowing the whistle on Flint’s water crisis. BEYOND PROTECTING AND Nadia Murad In January, after Gov. Rick DEFENDING, THESE INDIVIDUALS Snyder declared a state of EMPOWERED. THEY GAVE UNDER ACTIVIST emergency to address Flint’s REPRESENTED MINORITIES A FOOT GERMANY water crisis, Michigan resi- HOLD IN SILICON VALLEY AND dents demanded that Marc REFUGEES ONE IN THE OLYMPICS. For transforming trauma Edwards—a Virginia Tech pro- THEY SHOWCASED DIVERSE IMMI into a quest for justice. fessor of civil and environmen- GRANT FARE ON FRANCE’S CULI tal engineering—take charge. NARY SCENE. THEY IDENTIFIED Nadia Murad won’t let the world forget that she was After all, Edwards had been a UNLIKELY CHANNELS IN GUINEAN raped. In August 2014, she was among thousands of key player last year in expos- BEAUTY SALONS AND ON SESAME Yazidis, a minority religious and ethnic group, cap- ing the dangerous lead levels STREET FOR BUILDING HEALTH tured by the Islamic State in northern Iraq. Most of in the city’s tap (in at least one IER, MORE TOLERANT SOCIETIES. the men, including six of Murad’s brothers, were case, 70 times the Environ- IN CASES WHEN THEY COULD NOT killed. Murad and many other women became sex mental Protection Agency’s EMPOWER, THESE PEOPLE FOUGHT slaves. She escaped after three months, eventually limit), while a constellation of WITH WORDS, DEMANDING JUS making her way to Germany. Today, she tells her local, state, and federal agen- TICE FOR VICTIMS OF THE ISLAMIC story—to the U.N. Security Council, U.S. Congress, cies largely ignored or discred- STATE’S SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND leaders in the Middle East, and other power brokers— ited his evidence. Appointed FOR AMERICANS WHO SIMPLY because she views it as a potent weapon against her to Michigan’s task force man- WANT A GLASS OF CLEAN DRINK former captors. She’s called for international protec- dated with identifying long- ING WATER. tion of minorities in the Islamic State’s crosshairs, term solutions to the disaster, for expanded refugee resettlement, and for defin- the scientist is monitoring the ing what’s happened to the Yazidis as “the G-word”: lead levels in Flint, which has genocide. rejoined Detroit’s water supply. He has continued to criticize the government officials who mishandled the crisis at every turn. NOTABLE FACT Edwards was awarded a MacArthur “Genius Grant” in 2007 for ensuring the safety of drinking water in American cities. NOTABLE FACT More than 3,000 Yazidi women and girls are still believed to be held captive by the terrorist group. 72 NOV | DEC 2016 Illustration by LEONARDO GONZALEZ
Debora Diniz Gou Hongguo; the advocates Zhou Shifeng; ANTHROPOLOGIST Tegla Loroupe Hu Shigen; GLOBAL THINKERS AND DOCUMENTARIAN Zhai Yanmin EDWARDS: COURTESY PHOTO; DINIZ: COURTESY PHOTO; LOROUPE: VIA WIKIPEDIA/CREATIVE COMMONS. BRAZIL HEAD OF MISSION, REFUGEE OLYMPIC TEAM ACTIVISTS For leveraging an KENYA CHINA epidemic to protect women’s For coaching a new For giving health. kind of team. Chinese repression a Many countries battling the Zika virus This year’s Olympics included the first-ever ath- human face. have draconian abortion laws and lim- letes united not under a national flag but in the ited access to reproductive health care, absence of one. Leading the refugee team was In a stunning crackdown on leaving pregnant women little choice Tegla Loroupe, a U.N. ambassador for sport. Lor- civil society, Chinese authori- but to risk delivering babies with birth oupe, a former marathoner from Kenya and a ties have arrested or detained defects. Health advocates have gone on three-time Olympian herself, coached half of more than 200 human rights the warpath against such restrictive the 10-member team at a training facility she lawyers and activists since July policies. Among them is Debora Diniz, founded near Nairobi, all of them South Suda- 2015. In August, Gou Hongguo, a law professor in Brazil, where women nese who were recruited during trials held at Zhou Shifeng, Hu Shigen, and who get an illegal abortion face up to two camps in Kenya. In Rio de Janeiro, Loroupe Zhai Yanmin became the faces three years in jail. In 2016, Diniz made served as the team’s public face—and as its of that repression. The longtime a documentary about poor women in core support. “Tegla is our mother, not only our advocates for democracy and northeastern Brazil, where the out- leader,” one of the South Sudanese athletes told free speech were the focus of a break originated, whose children the New York Times. “Madam Tegla gives us a series of televised trials in which have birth defects likely due to Zika chance for other people to know the history of they gave forced guilty pleas, infection. Anis, a bioethics institute our lives.” renounced their activities, and Diniz founded, also petitioned Brazil’s received prison sentences. Trans- Supreme Court to expand access to NOTABLE FACT Loroupe’s father didn’t want her forming the dissidents into pawns abortion for women with Zika. Writing to run—or even go to school—because she was a of the country’s propaganda for the New York Times, Diniz called girl. Later, when she was training with male run- machine, of course, did more than Zika “a unique opportunity…to change ners, they asked her to cook their food and do punish the activists: It promoted how the country treats women.” other chores. the power of the Chinese state and made human rights activists NOTABLE FACT Brazil has nearly 5,000 sus- national foes. pected cases of Zika-induced micro- cephaly, a condition in which babies NOTABLE FACT The only Nobel are born with abnormally small heads Peace Prize recipient currently and stunted brain development. imprisoned is in China. Writer, literary critic, and human rights activist Liu Xiaobo was arrested in 2008 for “inciting subversion of state power.” FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 73
Yolande Hyjazi COUNTRY DIRECTOR, JHPIEGO GUINEA For elevating salon gossip. Laura Weidman Powers Wafaa Bilal According to the U.N., Louis Jacquot and just 7.5 percent of mar- Sébastien Prunier CEO, CODE240 ARTIST ried or cohabiting Guin- SAN FRANCISCO NEW YORK CITY ean women use some FOUNDERS, THE MIGRATORY form of contracep- COOKS For coloring For ensuring tion. The result is an FRANCE outside the lines that the sword extremely high fertil- in Silicon Valley. isn’t mightier ity rate—five births per For diversifying than the pen. woman—which places haute cuisine The technology world’s track an immense burden on kitchens. record on diversity is abys- More than a decade after fleeing the roughly 50 percent mal. Google’s U.S. workforce, Iraq with his family and making a of people living below France’s response to refugees for instance, is just 2 percent home in the United States, Wafaa the poverty line. The often parrots its approach to black and 3 percent Hispanic— Bilal followed accounts of Amer- issue is one of culture cuisine: suspicious of outside and that’s progress, the com- ican troops invading his home- and basic knowledge, so influences. Two entrepreneurs pany admits. Since 2012, Laura land. Havoc had been unleashed Yolande Hyjazi, country are working to change minds Weidman Powers has worked there. One story in particular— director of the reproduc- by appealing to palates. Louis to change the face of the indus- looters had set ablaze 70,000 tive health organization Jacquot and Sébastien Prunier try as CEO of Code2040, which books inside Baghdad’s College Jhpiego, is educating founded Les Cuistots Migra- places young students of color of Fine Arts—stuck with him. It women at an unusual teurs (the Migratory Cooks), in tech internships. In March, was yet another example of what source: hair salons. a catering company that, as following a successful pilot the artist describes as the “cycli- Jhpiego has trained the name suggests, recruits year, Code2040 announced a cal history of violence against employees as commu- migrant chefs to prepare their Google-funded residency pro- cultural institutions, and librar- nity health workers, traditional cuisines. The group gram that awards minority ies in particular, during times of who deftly mix salon has already catered more than entrepreneurs stipends and war and conflict.” In January at gossip with informa- 20 events. In June, it partic- office space to help them cul- Ontario’s Art Gallery of Windsor, tion about condoms and ipated in Paris’s first Refu- tivate their businesses in U.S. Bilal debuted a 72-foot book- birth control. The pro- gee Food Festival, during which tech hubs across the coun- shelf stocked with 1,000 blank, gram has been running popular French restaurants fea- try. Weidman Powers has also white books. The exhibit was a in five salons in Cona- tured the dishes of chefs from carried her mission to Wash- living one. With the help of Kick- kry, the capital, since Syria and Iran, among other ington. She’s serving a six- starter donors, he replaced the 2012 and is expanding countries. “Immigrants here are month term as senior policy fake books with real ones, which to Guinea’s seven major seen in a negative light,” Pru- advisor to the U.S. chief tech- he eventually shipped back to cities this year. nier told the New York Times, nology officer, focusing on Baghdad. “but in fact they offer a chance diversity in tech policy and NOTABLE FACT At 37 births to exchange cultures.” entrepreneurship. NOTABLE FACT Bilal spent two per 1,000 people, Guinea years in a prison camp after refus- has among the top birth- NOTABLE FACT In 2015, France NOTABLE FACT Powers comes ing to serve in the Iraqi Army when rates in the world; Niger, pledged to bring in 30,000 ref- from a family of artists. Her the country invaded Kuwait. with 49, leads. ugees over a two-year period. father is a librettist who has collaborated with Stephen Sondheim and Susan Stro- man and has been nominated for several Tony Awards. Her paternal grandfather was a librettist and novelist who won the Pulitzer Prize for drama. 74 NOV | DEC 2016
POWERS: COURTESY PHOTO; SMITH: COURTESY PHOTO; WESTIN: COURTESY PHOTO; BIRD: COURTESY PHOTO; LAWRENCE: COURTESY PHOTO; NAUGHTON: COURTESY PHOTO; O’PORTER: COURTESY PHOTO. Amanda Nguyen Sarah Smith and Lliana Bird, Dani Lawrence, the advocates Sherrie Westin Josie Naughton, FOUNDER, RISE and Dawn O’Porter GLOBAL THINKERS WASHINGTON, D.C. SENIOR DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE AND FOUNDERS, HELP REFUGEES For getting EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, UNITED KINGDOM personal to inform SESAME WORKSHOP national policy. LOS ANGELES AND BRONXVILLE, For trucking NEW YORK to Calais. Tens of thousands of rape kits sit untested in U.S. police depart- For promoting equality Last year, when Lliana Bird, Dani ments. Many are discarded after with puppets. Lawrence, Josie Naughton, and Dawn only a few months. The sta- O’Porter heard about children liv- tus quo, says Amanda Nguyen, The Muppets are embarking on human- ing among vermin at the refugee places the burden on victims to itarian missions. This spring, Sherrie camp in Calais, France, they rallied ensure that police handle evi- Westin, executive vice president of global on social media—using #HelpCal- dence properly. A rape survivor impact and philanthropy for the Sesame ais—to raise at least $1,500 for the and State Department staffer, Workshop, and Sarah Smith, a director displaced. Within weeks, however, Nguyen founded the advocacy at the International Rescue Committee, people ponied up more than $70,000. group Rise, which lobbies law- announced a collaboration to develop edu- The women then founded Help Ref- makers to adopt baseline regula- cational programs for refugee children. ugees and capitalized on their celeb- tions for investigating assaults. Sesame Street content will be adapted rity contacts—some of the women She helped draft the Sexual and distributed through mobile devices, TV, work in radio, television, or music—to Assault Survivors’ Rights Act, radio, and other means to children in dis- raise awareness of their efforts. Oona which President Barack Obama placed and resettled communities. The Chaplin and Alexa Chung, among signed into law in October. It workshop also introduced the first Afghan others, have donned the organiza- entitles survivors to free medi- Muppet, Zari, a 6-year-old girl who wants tion’s “Choose Love” T-shirt. In 2016, cal exams, mandates that foren- to be a doctor in a country where most Help Refugees became the largest sic evidence be kept for at least women and girls don’t have access to distributor of aid among grassroots the statute of limitations on rape, formal education. “Debuting a confident, groups in Europe. The organization and provides victims, who can inquisitive, and sweet Afghan girl character now funds 65 projects at 22 refu- request notification before a kit is a perfect opportunity….[W]e aim to help gee camps in Greece, Lebanon, Syria, is destroyed, with the option to all children in Afghanistan grow smarter, France, and Turkey. extend that timeline. stronger, and kinder,” Westin told PBS. NOTABLE FACT In February, the orga- NOTABLE FACT Nguyen previously NOTABLE FACT Zari dons different out- nization did the first complete census interned at NASA and has trav- fits inspired by Afghanistan’s many ethnic of Calais and found that of the 5,497 eled to Florida to witness rocket groups, wears a hijab with her school refugees in the camp, 423 were unac- launches; she’s seen six so far. uniform, and speaks Dari and Pashto. companied minors. FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 75
The Man Going Back Tens of millions of people are displaced around the world. I met one in Djibouti faced with an impossible choice. by Dave Eggers T his April, my Yemeni-American friend, Twice a day, red sandstorms took over the Mokhtar, and I rented a car in Djibouti camp, rendering everything opaque and City and drove four hours to Obock, a sending its inhabitants into the darkness tiny whitewashed village on the Gulf of their canvas dwellings. of Aden. When the Saudis began drop- ping bombs on Yemen, ostensibly to Mokhtar and I wandered around Obock slow or to punish the Houthi takeover and met a young man who had nowhere of the country, thousands of Yemenis to go. He emerged from one of the build- had crossed the sea and found their way to Obock, a ings wearing a Hollister T-shirt. He was godforsaken town on the coast. We got there, and it Yemeni and had fled the war. Like many was 124 degrees Fahrenheit. ¶ When the war began, men of fighting age, he was recruited by UNHCR had set up a refugee camp on a bluff outside the Houthis to fight the Saudis, but as a Obock. By the time my friend and I arrived—a year dental student, he wanted no part of the and change after the bombing had started—the tents conflict. They gave him a gun; he sold it. remained, but for the most part the only people left They threatened his life, and he figured were poor Djiboutians who had taken up residence. it was time to get going. He jumped onto a freighter headed to Djibouti and got off 76 NOV | DEC 2016 Illustration by JASON HOLLEY
at Obock. H e was one of the few Yemenis local Djiboutians hired by the U.N., and go back to town and send a flurry of emails left in the p ort town. When he’d arrived, there was a white woman in local clothing, until we got an appointment later in the the Djib outian government had taken his pink and sweating in the heat. Together, day. When we did, we presented the case passpor t, and he couldn’t leave the UNHCR and with great commitment, they opened of the young Yemeni dental student. What camp without it. boxes and assessed what they had. White are his options? we asked. The UNHCR rep- trucks came and went. resentative, a hardworking man sent to S o one day Mokhtar and I went to do an impossible task, had no construc- UNHCR’s o ffices to ask about the passport. We were not granted an audience with tive answers. Together, we parsed out the The s cene at the gate of the compound was the head of the local UNHCR operation. He future of this human who had fled a war. chaotic. W orkers seemed to be opening eyed us warily from behind the gate and He couldn’t go back to Yemen, because and sor ting a shipment of food. They were disappeared into the building. We had to he would be targeted as an enemy of the Houthis; if he went back to Sanaa, he expected to be killed. He couldn’t live and GLOBAL THINKERS work in Djibouti, because he was not legally allowed to exist outside the refugee camp. But the camp was nearly empty. It was a wretched place located in a wretched cli- mate. And it would not be there forever. What about asylum? we asked. He could apply for asylum in Djibouti, the man said. He referenced the Euro- pean Union’s Dublin Regulation, which states that the first country a refugee enters should be his or her de facto place of asylum. But this is Djibouti, one of the poorest countries on Earth. Why would he want asylum here? we asked. The man had no answer. We all knew the dentist would not want to seek asylum here. And besides, were there any asylum services in the camp? Lawyers or counselors? The answer was no. It’s a difficult situation, the UNHCR man said. We agreed. Can we at least get his passport back for him? we asked. The passport, the man said, is likely in Djibouti City, hours away by car. But he wasn’t sure. There are moments when humanity so twists itself into a pretzel of illogic that there seems to be nothing redeemable about it. Mokhtar and I sat in the office of the UNHCR man, and we all stared at each other for a long moment, thinking of the dentist. He’d fled a war. He was jus- tified in not fighting a war in which he had no say and no side. He had done the right thing in fleeing and in coming to a camp sanctioned by the U.N. Without his passport, though, he could not leave FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 77
Djibouti—could not even go to neighbor- instead of bringing his family away from no plan for these refugees. No one wants ing Ethiopia, for example, a country in the war zone, he was returning to it. He Yemenis, because a number of terrorists which he had some possibility of a ratio- smiled as he spoke, almost bashful when have come from Yemen. So this man whom nal life. As a refugee fleeing his country, he told us he had hired a boat, a small skiff we met on the road has been betrayed by he was diminished already. But without with an outboard motor, to take him back his own people, ill served by the interna- a passport he had no agency. He’d been to Yemen. tional community, and forgotten by the rendered no longer a person. world at large. He has nowhere else to go. What is the plan for someone like him? Somehow this man had managed to At the moment, there are about 21 mil- we asked the UNHCR rep. get—or keep—his passport. This day, when lion refugees in the world. Most of them we encountered him, he’d come to UNHCR have few if any good options. The man with The UNHCR rep said there was no plan. to get whatever supplies the office could the makeshift satchel is emblematic of the Very difficult for a case like his, he said. We spare. The staff had given some food and a choices available. He can stay in a godfor- left the office. We stepped out into the heat few bottles of water. Now he was on his way saken part of a desperately poor country of the road near the compound. Mokhtar to the Red Sea. He had one duffel bag and like Djibouti, or he can go back to an active and I hatched a plan by which we would a satchel he’d fashioned from a blanket. war zone. spring the Yemeni dentist from the camp Because our car was parked right there, and drive him to Djibouti City. There, we’d and our own suitcases were inside, Mokhtar After saying goodbye to this man walk- make calls and knock on doors until the and I wondered aloud what we could give to ing to the sea, Mokhtar and I found the den- young man at least had his goddamned this man. We opened the trunk and opened tist in the Hollister T-shirt. We drove him passport back. our suitcases and found four pairs of pants, the four hours to Djibouti City, and after a four shirts, and a pair of shoes. Maybe he few days were able to get his passport back. We were getting into our car—we had a could sell them? We stuffed them into his At least he was a person again. We could car, we could rent a car, because we have satchel. Mokhtar gave him about $100, and have done more for him, but we didn’t. credit cards, because we live in the United the man packed it all up again and hoisted States, because we have a functioning gov- the satchel over his shoulder. He was grin- This is a somewhat discouraging story, ernment, because we have a constitution, ning in a way that said, Shit. Shit. This is but I tell it to illustrate how dire the prob- because we have the rule of law, because all shit, but this is all I can do. I’m paying lem is for tens of millions of humans cast we have ludicrous prosperity, thus we can to the wind by forces beyond their con- travel anywhere, anytime, with our magi- trol. And how much work it takes to pro- GLOBAL THINKERS As a refugee fleeing his country, he was diminished already. cal blue passports, and we had nothing to a man in a boat to take me back to a war. vide meaningful help to even one person. do with any of this except for the accident Then the man walked down the road of our birthplace—when we saw a man Usually we do a bit, we give someone a ride standing outside the UNHCR gate. Not the toward the port of Obock to get on the skiff. dentist. Another man, another Yemeni. This is the image I have when I think of from one tough place to another, and we the year’s events, of humanity in 2016. A Mokhtar recognized him as a Yemeni, man is born into Yemen, a land of impossi- go back home. and they began talking in Arabic. It was bly rich history but unstable government. 125 degrees now. The sun was directly Yemen becomes home to terrorists who The 2016 Global Thinkers do more; the overhead. plague the Western world. The Western world responds by bombing the country. women and men featured in these pages He’s going back to Yemen, Mokhtar said. The country does not appreciate this, and I didn’t understand. during the Arab Spring, the president is have made a lasting commitment to alle- Nothing here for him. He’s been here for pushed out. The power vacuum allows for months. much confusion and jockeying, and the viate the problems humans have created The Yemeni man was handsome and Houthis, a rebel group, sweep down from hearty, about 40 years old. He’d fled the the north to take control of Sanaa. The Sau- for humans. It takes time to do this work war, leaving his family, hoping he could dis and Iranians take sides, engaging in a send for them. But now, with nothing in brutal proxy war. The Saudis bomb the and to do it well. It takes imagination Djibouti, with no possibility of work or country from above. Hundreds of thou- asylum, and noting the fact that many sands of Yemenis flee, but the world has and the willingness to throw away bro- had died in the refugee camp in Obock— ken rules and inhumane systems. And it takes great patience over time—the willingness to endure 1,000 setbacks on the way to something like triumph. We do well to remember all this and to cele- brate their progress. Q DAVE EGGERS is the author of The Circle and A Hologram for the King. 78 NOV | DEC 2016
SMRITI KESHARI AND ERIC SCHLOSSER LYNETTE WALLWORTH Smriti Keshari and Eric Schlosser; THESE THINKERS’ NARRATIVES Lynette Wallworth GRIPPED EMOTIONS AND MOVED IDEOLOGICAL MOUNTAINS, DOCU FILMMAKERS MENTING THE DAILY TRIBULATIONS NEW YORK CITY AND OF IMMIGRANTS IN THE UNITED MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA; KINGDOM, THE QUEER SUBCUL AUSTRALIA TURES OF THE ARAB WORLD, AND ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION For immersing Mohamed Ben Attia the chroniclers IN THE NIGER DELTA. WHILE ONE audiences in the DEPLOYED OUTLANDISH VERSE destructive FILMMAKER GLOBAL THINKERS TO CHALLENGE AN UNJUST GER power of the nuke. TUNISIA WALLWORTH: COURTESY PHOTO; KESHARI AND SCHLOSSER: COURTESY PHOTO. MAN STATUTE, OTHERS UNSETTLED AUDIENCES WITH CHILLING NUCLE Experimental interfaces in visual For whispering a AR AGE FILMS. WHETHER WITH storytelling broke new ground this story of liberation. AN ORWELLIAN TAKE ON AUTHOR year—and they did so by using ITARIANISM IN EGYPT OR POETIC immersive viewing experiences to Mohamed Ben Attia’s Hedi isn’t overtly REINVENTIONS OF THE ENGLISH explore one of the most threaten- political. Set in present-day Tunisia, the LANGUAGE THROUGH THE LENS ing technologies created by human filmmaker’s debut feature doesn’t depict OF ALIENATION, THEY ALL BROKE beings: nuclear weapons. Smriti demonstrations or government abuses. CONVENTIONS. YET THEY PRO Keshari and Eric Schlosser’s Tri- Rather, Attia locates the drama of the Arab DUCED WORK THAT FELT RELEVANT, beca Film Festival installation, the Spring’s aftermath in how ordinary people ACCESSIBLE, AND URGENT. bomb, surrounded audience mem- cope with a new, freer world. The film’s titu- bers with nightmarish explosion lar character struggles to break from familial footage projected on 360-degree, expectations after falling for another woman 30-foot screens. Accompanied just days before he is supposed to settle into by live music, the work is akin to a loveless marriage. Hedi’s predicament is “shock treatment,” Keshari says; in a metaphor for Tunisia’s upheavals—for fact, at least three people fainted at the conflict between tradition and eman- its premiere. Months earlier, Sun- cipation—but the film is also a portrayal of dance debuted Lynette Wallworth’s intimate self-discovery as revolutionary short film Collisions, in which view- in its own right. Attia’s feature, which was ers experience the true story of an awarded Best Debut at the Berlin Film Festi- Australian indigenous elder named val, was the first Tunisian movie shown at an Nyarri Nyarri Morgan. In the 1950s, international competition in two decades. he witnessed atomic tests in a western Australian desert—his first NOTABLE FACT Before becoming a director, Attia non-Aboriginal encounter—and has was a door-to-door salesman like his main since lived with the aftermath of a character. poisoned community and environ- ment. As Wallworth says, his is “a story about the unintended conse- quences of technology.” NOTABLE FACT The first detona- tion of a nuclear weapon occurred on July 16, 1945 in New Mexico. The location of the explosion is nor- mally off limits but is open to the public twice every year, in April and October. Illustration by LEONARDO GONZALEZ FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 79
Nikesh Shukla NOVELIST UNITED KINGDOM For tackling the unbearable whiteness of publishing. Jan Böhmermann DETAIL FROM According to a 2015 report by Spread the GANZEER’S Word, a writer development agency, 97 COMEDIAN SOLAR GRID percent of British literary agents view their GERMANY industry as only “a little diverse” or “not Ganzeer diverse at all.” Novelist Nikesh Shukla For stretching wants to shake up that inequitable scene. the limits ARTIST He co-founded the Jhalak Prize, which of free speech. LOS ANGELES honors the year’s best British book by a writer of color, and edited The Good Immi- When comedian Jan Böhmermann For sketching a dire grant, an essay collection exploring what mocked Turkish President Recep environmental warning. it means to live as a minority in the United Tayyip Erdogan on German tele- Kingdom. To demonstrate a public appe- vision in March, the broadside Ganzeer was a leading light of the Egyptian revolution, tite for more diverse literary voices, Shukla was not just directed at the thin- known for provocative street murals that challenged state crowd-funded the project—and more than skinned autocrat, but at Berlin’s propaganda. Now effectively in exile, he’s turned his sights 600 people ordered the collection before feeble free-speech protections. on a different threat. His serialized graphic novel, The Solar it was written. The Guardian praised it Böhmermann and his lewd poem, Grid, portrays the world after a biblical flood. Ganzeer tar- for “open[ing] up a much-needed space which references bestiality and gets the powerful writ large for complicity in environmen- of open and unflinching dialogue about child pornography, deliberately tal destruction, including businesspeople who profit from race and racism.” tested the limits of a German law it. Notably, he depicts a heroic whistleblower who exposes dating back to the 19th century the corrupt interests that control the world’s diminishing NOTABLE FACT Shukla used to rap under the that prohibits insulting foreign resources. Downloadable for $1.99 per chapter—there will moniker Yam Boy. leaders. The legislation is archaic, be nine in all—Ganzeer’s project epitomizes his hyper-dem- but the incident has become indic- ocratic ethos. He told the Guardian that it captures his ative of a fresh trend in Europe far-reaching ambitions, both creative and political. “The whereby states, even the conti- minute you define yourself as an artist,” he said, “you nent’s most vibrant democracies, limit your practice.” regulate certain speech deemed offensive or dangerous. To some, NOTABLE FACT Ganzeer fled to the United States after a TV the comedian’s words were puer- announcer accused him of sympathizing with terrorists. ile. To others, they were the cat- alyst for a much-needed debate about freedom of expression. NOTABLE FACT At 17, Böhmer- mann’s first job was writing newspaper reviews of weekend cabaret acts. He earned 40 pfennigs (equivalent to a few U.S. cents) a line. 80 NOV | DEC 2016
Sonia Kennebeck DOCUMENTARIAN WASHINGTON, D.C. For dropping truth by drone. BÖHMERMANN: COURTESY PHOTO; GANZEER: COURTESY PHOTO; SHUKLA: COURTESY PHOTO; HADDAD: COURTESY PHOTO; KENNEBECK: NICOLAS GUERIN/GETTY IMAGES; LIGO: COURTESY PHOTO. Saleem Haddad Between 2009 and 2015, the The LIGO the chroniclers U.S. government carried out (Laser Interferometer NOVELIST nearly 500 drone strikes out- Gravitational-Wave Observatory) GLOBAL THINKERS UNITED KINGDOM side war zones. Although the Scientific Collaboration Obama administration has For reclaiming queer acknowledged killing up to 116 SCIENTISTS Arab identity. civilians during that period, WORLDWIDE independent publications have “The morning begins with shame.” So consistently cited higher fig- For opening a window opens Saleem Haddad’s novel, Guapa, ures. Still, Sonia Kennebeck to the dark side. which traces 24 hours in the life of a argues, the American public gay Arab man after his grandmother does not thoroughly understand In February, this team of scientists announced catches him with his lover. Set in an the power and consequences of they heard and recorded the collision of two unnamed Middle Eastern city, Guapa this program. In National Bird, black holes—finally confirming Albert Ein- grapples with traditional mores that Kennebeck—using interviews stein’s famous 1916 prediction of gravitational define regional communities. It also with victims and whistleblow- waves, the ripples in the fabric of space-time, in criticizes narrow Western portrayals of ers—highlights this discrepancy his general theory of relativity. Two U.S. obser- queer Arabs—specifically, of gay men as while revealing the lengths the vatories, operated by the California Institute abused—and their use as a pretext for government has taken to con- of Technology and the Massachusetts Insti- unwanted foreign interventions. “As a ceal the program’s details. “I tute of Technology, collected the data, which queer person in the Arab world, every- think our society has to catch some 1,000 scientists from 15 countries worked where you turn someone wants to use up,” she told IndieWire, “and the to decipher. The discovery sets the stage for a your body, your story, or your life for public must decide how we use new era in astrophysics, in which scientists will their own purposes,” he wrote in the these weapons—if we want to explore the previously unknowable dark side Daily Beast. “[I]n the end, the only story use them at all.” of the cosmos. “This is the first time the uni- each of us can tell—the only body we verse has spoken to us through gravitational own—is our own.” NOTABLE FACT Although Ken- waves,” LIGO Executive Director David Reitze nebeck has focused on docu- told reporters. “Up until now, we have been NOTABLE FACT Haddad has been an aid mentary work, she aspires to deaf.” worker and a conflict and security advi- direct a big-budget science-fic- sor specializing in the Middle East. tion movie. NOTABLE FACT Anyone with a personal computer can take part in the grassroots-distributed com- puting project Einstein@Home, which allows thousands of active users to donate their com- puters’ idle time to help comb through LIGO data in search of gravitational waves. FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 81
Ocean Vuong POET NEW YORK CITY For rewriting the lines of nationalism. the chroniclers As nativism seizes center stage in U.S. polit- Zina Saro-Wiwa ical discourse, Ocean Vuong serves as a GLOBAL THINKERS reminder of how essential immigrant voices Basma Abdel Aziz ARTIST are to the American cultural landscape. Born NEW YORK CITY in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Vuong moved NOVELIST VUONG: COURTESY PHOTO; ABDEL AZIZ: COURTESY PHOTO; SARO WIWA: COURTESY PHOTO. to the United States with his family when he EGYPT For shouldering a was 2 and didn’t learn to read English until cultural legacy. he was 11. Today, he is a celebrated poet, lay- For telling an Orwellian ering his verse—written in his second lan- tale. Nigerian activist Ken Saro-Wiwa guage—with reflections on the histories of was killed by the state in 1995 Vietnam and America, and meditations on To describe military repression in Egypt, after protesting oil extraction in identity. His first collection, Night Sky With psychiatrist and activist Basma Abdel Aziz Ogoniland, his home region. Now Exit Wounds, won a 2016 Whiting Award. needed surrealist literature. “Fiction,” Aziz his daughter, Zina, uses art to “Visceral, tender and lyrical,” the selection told the New York Times, “gave me a very demonstrate how environmental committee noted, “these poems unflinch- wide space to say what I wanted to say about destruction has informed Ogoni ingly face the legacies of violence and cul- totalitarian authority.” Her debut novel, “emotional, social, and spiri- tural displacement but they also assume a The Queue, published in English this year, tual ecosystems.” She spent two position of wonder before the world.” is about a Middle Eastern administration years documenting the tribe’s rit- called “The Gate,” which assumed power uals and aesthetics, culminating NOTABLE FACT Vuong was named Vinh Quoc after a revolution known as the “Disgraceful in her first solo exhibition, which Vuong at birth. Upon moving to the United Events.” The Gate must grant citizens per- ran through March in Houston. It States, his mother, a manicurist, learned mission to undertake basic activities, yet its included a video installation of that oceans touch many countries—Viet- headquarters remain shut as the line outside Ogoni dancing around pipelines— nam and the United States, for example— grows ever longer. Aziz, who has drawn glow- the lively and powerful contrasted so she renamed her son. ing comparisons to Franz Kafka and George with the inorganic and inert— Orwell, told ArabLit.org that she hopes her and the first-ever photographs writing will “help in disclosing games played of the Ogele, secretive perfor- all the time by different authorities to con- mance groups that emerged in trol people’s lives.” the 1980s wearing masks that celebrated opposition to the oil NOTABLE FACT While her university was con- industry. Saro-Wiwa’s art, the Vil- trolled by the Muslim Brotherhood, she was lage Voice said, showcases “the one of only a few women who refused to wear gesture of masking, in all its eerie a hijab. Consequently, she was denied vari- strength.” ous positions and advancements. NOTABLE FACT Born in Ogoni- land, Saro-Wiwa grew up in the United Kingdom. She used to work for the BBC as a pre- senter on The Culture Show. 82 NOV | DEC 2016
Melinda Gates, Michael S. Smith II the moguls Crown Princess of Norway Mette-Marit, COO, KRONOS ADVISORY GLOBAL THINKERS and Kate Roberts CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA SMITH: WADE SPEES/THE POST AND COURIER. THESE THINKERS PUT THEIR MONEY WHERE THEIR MORALITY CO CHAIR, CO FOUNDER For bridging IS. FACEBOOK’S FIRST PRESIDENT AND CO CHAIR, AND CO FOUNDER, the government- DEDICATED $250 MILLION TO CUR MAVERICK COLLECTIVE hacker divide. ING CANCER; NOT TO BE OUTDONE, SEATTLE, NORWAY, THE WEBSITE’S FOUNDER AND HIS AND WASHINGTON, D.C. There aren’t many hackers who want PHYSICIAN SPOUSE STEPPED UP to be involved with U.S. authorities. WITH $3 BILLION GEARED TOWARD For harnessing But to effectively combat the Islamic WIPING OUT DISEASE ALL OF girl power. State, they don’t have much choice— IT IN THE NEXT CENTURY. OTHER so collectives such as Ghost Security GENEROUS GLOBAL CITIZENS PUT Less than 2 cents of every development dollar Group (GSG) and CtrlSec have turned CAPITAL IN THE HANDS OF AFRI goes to programs for girls. But Melinda Gates, to Michael S. Smith II. After attempt- CAN AMERICAN AND LATINO Crown Princess Mette-Marit, and Kate Roberts ing to contact government officials with ENTREPRENEURS, CONNECTING suspected that number would surge if women Islamic State-related tips, last year, GSG THEM TO HIGH GROWTH MARKETS; held the purse strings. To test this theory, they asked Smith, a congressional advisor on GAVE ARAB WOMEN A VITAL FORUM created the Maverick Collective—a partner- terrorism, to ensure the information got IN AN OPRAH STYLE TALK SHOW; ship between global-health nonprofit Popu- into the right hands. Since then, Smith BOOSTED ABORIGINAL AUSTRA lation Services International, where Roberts is has become the de facto middle- LIANS’ VISIBILITY IN TV COMEDIES a senior vice president, and the Bill & Melinda man, funneling hacker tips to govern- AND DRAMAS; AND SPREAD EDU Gates Foundation—to apply a female-driven ment desks. The only way for groups CATIONAL EXCELLENCE TO RURAL business approach to philanthropy. Through pri- like GSG to be effective, he told CNN VILLAGES IN INDIA. vate funds, they are experimenting with ways to Money, is to connect them to those who address reproductive health, gender-based vio- “have the mandates…to find, finish, and lence, and other key areas of women’s well- fix the enemy.” being. Started in May, the collective enlisted 14 women to donate their expertise and money—at NOTABLE FACT GSG was formed after least $1 million each—to sponsor various proj- the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris. ects. The efforts have already reached more Within its first year, GSG says it took than 300,000 women and girls. down some 150 Islamic State sites, 110,000 related social media accounts, NOTABLE FACT A 10 percent increase in and 6,000 propaganda videos. female school attendance raises a country’s gross domestic product by 3 percent, on aver- age, according to the U.S. Agency for Interna- tional Development. FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 83
Monique Woodard Anupama Nayar and Sally Riley WOODARD: STEVE JENNINGS; RILEY: PRESS PHOTO/CREATIVE COMMONS; SALBI: VIA WIKIPEDIA/CREATIVE COMMONS; CHAN: VIA WIKIPEDIA/CREATIVE COMMONS; ZUCKERBERG: VIA WIKIPEDIA/CREATIVE COMMONS. Vineet Nayar VENTURE PARTNER, 500 STARTUPS HEAD OF SCRIPTED PRODUCTIONS, SAN FRANCISCO CO FOUNDERS, AUSTRALIA BROADCAST CORP. SAMPARK FOUNDATION AUSTRALIA For offering minority INDIA entrepreneurs a leg up. For casting For unplugging Aboriginal In 2010, CB Insights reported that African-Americans technology entertainment. started less than 1 percent of venture-backed inter- so kids can learn. net companies. This abysmal Silicon Valley statis- When Sally Riley took over as head of tic is why, five years ago, Monique Woodard helped When educating poor youth, the indigenous division at Australian create Black Founders, an organization devoted to which are more effective: lap- Broadcast Corp. (ABC) six years ago, diversity in tech. That was just an opening gambit. In tops and iPads, or rings on television programs largely featured February, Woodard was named a venture partner at string and plastic blocks? white talent and characters. Since fund-and-seed accelerator 500 Startups—and put in Vineet and Anupama Nayar are then, Riley, of the Wiradjuri nation, has charge of a $25 million microfund to bankroll some betting $100 million that it’s hired more indigenous actors, writers, 100 black- and Latino-led startups. Her sights, though, the latter. Through their Sam- and producers, creating a network that aren’t limited to the United States. Early next year, park Foundation, the former is both entertaining and on the cut- she’ll co-lead a trip to Africa called “Geeks on a Plane,” HCL Technologies executive ting edge of social consciousness. This which will take investors, founders, and executives and his wife are on a mission to summer, ABC premiered Cleverman, a through high-growth tech markets in Ghana, Nige- revamp rural India’s primary superhero series with roots in Aborigi- ria, and South Africa. education system with low- nal mythology, acted by an 80 percent tech teaching tools. They’ve indigenous cast. The titular character’s NOTABLE FACT A recent report from ProjectDiane created “smart class kits,” struggle to unite a divided world—one found that of the thousands of venture deals com- which include various frugal that’s fearful of a minority group— pleted between 2012 and 2014, just 0.2 percent went innovations, such as a plastic made it, as local pop-culture site Jun- to black female founders. audio device that introduces kee proclaimed, “the show Australia English words and lasts 15 has been waiting for.” Earlier this year, days without a charge. Before Riley was tapped to head all ABC’s the kits were implemented in scripted productions. primary schools throughout Uttarakhand state this year, NOTABLE FACT Riley also commis- 41 percent of second-grad- sioned the groundbreaking hit Black ers could do simple addition; Comedy, the first indigenous sketch within six months, 91 per- show made in the country in 30 years. cent could. The Nayars want to reach 50,000 schools, includ- ing those in nearby Chhattis- garh, Jammu, and Kashmir states. NOTABLE FACT The cost of supplying kits is just $1 per year per child. 84 NOV | DEC 2016
Zainab Salbi HOST, NIDA’A ABU DHABI AND ISTANBUL For channeling Oprah. Sean Parker A few years ago, when Zainab Priscilla Chan and Mark the moguls Salbi learned that a Turkish Zuckerberg PHILANTHROPIST soap opera had empowered GLOBAL THINKERS LOS ANGELES an Iraqi woman to leave an PHYSICIAN AND CEO, abusive 20-year marriage, FACEBOOK For infusing “a lightbulb lit,” she says. It PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA cancer research with was then and there that the business savvy. founder and former CEO of For banking on a the nonprofit Women for moonshot. In April, former Facebook and Napster executive Sean Women International real- Parker initiated what he dubbed a new Manhattan ized that she could reach Diabetes, cancer, malaria—name Project—but its weapons would save lives, not end more women by broadcast- a malady, and this duo wants to them. Parker gave $250 million to a consortium of ing on television than by can- eradicate it. In September, Face- some 300 scientists researching immunotherapy, or vassing door to door. Last book’s founder and his wife, a harnessing natural defense systems to fight deadly fall, Salbi debuted the talk pediatrician, pledged at least $3 cell mutations. The “Immunotherapy Dream Team” show Nida’a (“The Calling”), billion to research aimed at cur- can share knowledge and coordinate research across which covers topics typically ing or managing all disease “in their institutions. Parker has also pledged to ensure considered taboo for Arab our children’s lifetime.” The first that treatment discoveries get to market. The goal, women, such as rape and $600 million is funding the Chan Parker told the Washington Post, is to create a “one- child brides. By the end of the Zuckerberg Biohub, which will stop shop” for the world’s best cancer therapies. To first season, the program was amass the brainpower of scien- kick things off, the billionaire is funding the first available to 4 million house- tists and engineers from Stanford human trial of CRISPR, the gene-editing technology; holds in 22 Middle Eastern University and the University of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania hope to and North African countries. California, in both Berkeley and modify T cells to target various malignancies. San Francisco. (One of its first NOTABLE FACT Under her lead- projects will be to map all human NOTABLE FACT Parker’s interest in immunotherapy was ership from 1993 to 2011, cells, with the result made pub- sparked by his history of asthma and by allergies to Women for Women Interna- lic worldwide.) Bold? Yes. But avocados, peanuts, and other nuts. tional distributed more than not impossible. Announcing the $100 million in direct aid and project, Zuckerberg wrote on microcredit loans to 400,000 Facebook: “[J]ust four kinds of women. diseases cause the majority of deaths. We can make progress on all of them with the right tech- nology.” NOTABLE FACT Facebook’s first couple met while waiting in line for the bathroom at a Harvard fraternity party in 2003. “He was this nerdy guy who was just a lit- tle bit out there,” Chan told the New Yorker in 2010. Illustration by LEONARDO GONZALEZ FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 85
Berta Cáceres and Austra Flores CO FOUNDER, COUNCIL OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DECEASED AND ACTIVIST HONDURAS For stemming corporate flow. DOING LAUNDRY: THAT IS HOW David Archambault II Before 44-year-old Berta CHARNOCK: COURTESY PHOTO; DERAMBARSH: COURTESY PHOTO; YONGCHEN: COURTESY PHOTO. ONE THINKER RESPONDED TO Cáceres was killed in March, THE REFUGEE CRISIS IN GREECE CHAIRMAN, STANDING ROCK SIOUX TRIBE the environmental activ- AND THE WASTE IT CREATES. THE STANDING ROCK SIOUX RESERVATION, NORTH DAKOTA ist had reportedly received RESULT WAS A PROGRAM THAT 33 death threats during her PROVIDES NEW ARRIVALS WITH For protecting decade-long fight against CLOTHING AND LOCAL WORK a homeland. Honduras’s proposed Agua ERS WITH EMPLOYMENT. OTHER Zarca Dam. The project, she STEWARDS PLANTED THEMSELVES At the center of the largest gathering of Native Amer- and other activists argued, BETWEEN PRECIOUS RESOURCES ican representatives in a century is David Archam- would cut off the water sup- AND SEEMINGLY UNSTOPPA bault II. The Standing Rock Sioux chairman has been ply for the indigenous Lenca BLE INDUSTRIAL FORCES FROM key in leading protests against the development of community. Cáceres’s death A NORTH DAKOTA PIPELINE TO A the $3.7 billion, 1,172-mile Dakota Access Pipeline, sparked international out- HONDURAN DAM TO A CHINESE which—if it ruptures or even leaks—would threaten rage and highlighted the RIVER. OTHERS TURNED POLLUTION his reservation’s access to clean water. From meet- peril facing green advo- INTO ART. IN SOME CASES, THESE ings with North Dakota’s senators to an op-ed in the cates in her country, where THINKERS PAID A HIGH PRICE New York Times, Archambault has made the pipe- 109 environmental activ- FOR THEIR ACTIONS. COLLECTIVELY, line a national issue, highlighting the dangers to the ists were slain between THEY WERE THE SORT OF reservation, as well as to the surrounding region, of 2010 and 2015. Not wanting PRESERVATIONISTS THE WORLD pumping approximately 500,000 barrels of crude her daughter’s fight to lose DESPERATELY NEEDS. oil daily. In September, demonstrators pressured momentum, Austra Flores the federal government to suspend construction, quickly took up the cause but building resumed a month later—alongside pro- and called out Desarrollos test camps that show no signs of dispersing despite Energéticos S.A., the private clashes with militarized police. energy company behind the dam, and the Honduran gov- NOTABLE FACT Since 2010, the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous ernment for their culpabil- Materials Safety Administration has reported more ity in her daughter’s death. than 3,300 leaks and ruptures at oil and gas pipelines. In September, she presented a petition to pressure Con- gress to cancel Agua Zarca once and for all. NOTABLE FACT Of the four people arrested in Cáceres’s slaying, two have ties to Desarrollos Energéticos S.A. 86 NOV | DEC 2016 Illustration by LEONARDO GONZALEZ
Garry Charnock EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, RSK UNITED KINGDOM For proving it takes a village to go green. Watching government offi- Arash Derambarsh Wang Yongchen Nitesh Kadyan, the stewards cials hem and haw about how Nikhil Kaushik, and to address the looming threat COUNCILMAN, COURBEVOIE FOUNDER, GREEN Anirudh Sharma GLOBAL THINKERS of climate change, Garry Char- FRANCE EARTH VOLUNTEERS nock grew tired of waiting CHINA CO FOUNDERS, GRAVIKY LABS for a top-down directive. So a For wasting no bread INDIA decade ago, the former jour- or cheese. For letting a nalist and trained hydrologist river run wild. For painting decided to sidestep gray-jack- France trashes roughly 15 billion pounds of with pollution. eted bureaucrats and enlist food annually. Arash Derambarsh, a coun- The Nu is the last of hundreds of fellow residents cilman in the city of Courbevoie, says that China’s great wild riv- What if art could improve the to cut greenhouse emissions in figure is “scandalous and absurd”—par- ers. Although its valleys environment rather than just the tiny English village of Ash- ticularly because 12 percent of France’s sustain the traditional lament its degradation? Nitesh ton Hayes. Since then, they’ve population suffers from food insecurity. lifestyles of several Chi- Kadyan, Nikhil Kaushik, and erected solar panels, glazed Derambarsh and volunteers started dis- nese ethnic minorities Anirudh Sharma are hoping to windows for insulation, taken tributing food discarded by stores to needy and are home to some answer that question with Gra- fewer flights, and ditched dry- people, and he circulated a petition demand- of the most ecologically viky Labs, an Indian firm that uses ers for clotheslines. Now in its ing that the national government scale up diverse habitats in the polluted air to create art sup- 10th year, the experiment has his effort, which garnered 200,000 sig- world, the Nu has been plies. Taking particles captured resulted in a 24 percent reduc- natures. Derambarsh succeeded: As of the proposed site of by a cylindrical device on a car’s tion in emissions. Inspired by February, a law—the first of its kind any- multiple dams over the exhaust pipe, Graviky has devel- Ashton Hayes’s achievement, where—bars supermarkets from tossing past decade. The river oped Air Ink, oil-based paints, at least 200 towns, cities, and food before it expires, instead compel- remains pristine largely spray paints, and pens that con- counties—in countries from ling them to donate it or face a 3,750 euro thanks to persistent tain pigments derived from car- Norway to the United States to fine (around $4,000). Derambarsh wants efforts by environmen- bon soot. In August, Graviky Taiwan—have adopted similar the policy implemented across Europe. In talist Wang Yongchen. teamed up with Tiger Beer to pro- measures. a video message, he urged U.S. President Her latest battle started vide local Hong Kong artists with Barack Obama to enact similar legislation. when plans to con- 150 liters of Air Ink—from 2,500 NOTABLE FACT Charnock got struct dams on the river hours’ worth of pollution—to cre- the idea of transforming NOTABLE FACT Derambarsh is known for were renewed in recent ate street murals. Their products Ashton Hayes into Great Brit- pranks: In 2008, he convinced members years as part of China’s aren’t currently sold commercially. ain’s first carbon-neutral town of the French media that he had become attempts to move toward They hope cities will use Graviky’s after attending a lecture about “president of Facebook”—a title, of course, renewable energy. Wang devices to revamp public trans- global warming at the Hay Fes- that doesn’t exist. fought back, contacting portation. tival, an annual literary confab China’s National Energy in Wales. Board. In March, provin- NOTABLE FACT Each 30-milliliter cial officials instead pro- Graviky pen contains 30 to 50 posed a national park minutes’ worth of air pollution gen- along the river, saving erated by a single car. the free-flowing Nu—at least for now. NOTABLE FACT The name “Nu” means “angry” in Chinese, but the river is named for the Nu people who live near it. FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 87
Alison Terry-Evans FOUNDER, DIRTY GIRLS GREECE For laundering the refuse of a global crisis. the stewards Eric Hochberg Refugees pouring onto the Brianne West Greek island of Lesbos leave GLOBAL THINKERS PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR, detritus in their wake: luggage FOUNDER, ETHIQUE CORAL REEF AIRBORNE LABORATORY lost in the Mediterranean, NEW ZEALAND BERMUDA dirty clothing abandoned on HOCHBERG: JAMES ROUND/NASA; TERRY EVANS, COURTESY PHOTO; WEST: COURTESY PHOTO. shore, soaked blankets thrown For making For exposing underwater from chilly shoulders. Ali- beauty ecosystems. son Terry-Evans, an Austra- eco-friendly. lian photographer who lives Coral reefs are home to a quarter of marine spe- on Lesbos, doesn’t want these When Brianne West dropped her sham- cies, but the study of many of these underwa- belongings to go to waste. In poo in the shower one morning, she ter ecosystems is limited to what divers can October 2015, she founded watched the contents disappear down reach and monitor. What if, NASA posited, the Dirty Girls, an organiza- the drain and was struck by how much solution isn’t going deeper into the seas but tion that launders discarded of it was water—turns out, 80 percent higher into the skies? “Right now,” says ecologist clothes, blankets, and other in some bottles. The university stu- Eric Hochberg, “the state of the art for collect- items then redistributes them dent used her training as a biochem- ing coral-reef data is scuba diving with a tape to the island’s refugee camps. ist to start Ethique, an eco-conscious measure.” Now he’s taking NASA’s Coral Reef The group, staffed by volun- beauty company that sells shampoo, Airborne Laboratory into the skies. Flying five teers and local employees, has conditioner, and other products in the miles above the Pacific, their plane is equipped saved more than 150 tons of form of concentrated bars packaged in with a super-sensitive camera, which captures material from landfills. This compostable paper and cardboard. This an immense spectrum of colors, enabling Hoch- year, Dirty Girls, which also eliminates the use of both water and berg’s team to map the reefs and determine how distributes detergent to refu- plastic. Using $200,000 raised through best to protect them. gees so they can wash personal PledgeMe, a crowdfunding platform, items by hand, contracted a the climate-neutral company was able commercial laundry in Athens to expand its operations this year and to expand operations to main- now sells bars to global markets. So far, land Greece. Ethique has saved 60,000 plastic bot- tles—with the goal of hitting 1 million by NOTABLE FACT In 2015, more 2020. than half of all refugees enter- ing Europe through Greece NOTABLE FACT West attracted the high- passed through Lesbos. est number of female investors in PledgeMe’s history. NOTABLE FACT The NASA-developed camera records more than 200 colors—a typical cam- era captures three—enabling researchers to dis- tinguish between actual reefs and other objects and structures. 88 NOV | DEC 2016
Raed Al Saleh the healers LEADER, Roger Nitsch and Alfred GLOBAL THINKERS SYRIAN CIVIL DEFENSE Sandrock; Matthew Kennedy AL SALEH: BERND VON JUTRCZENKA/GETTY IMAGES. IN MANY WAYS, THE HEALTH GAP SYRIA IS ONLY WIDENING AS MEDICINE PRESIDENT, NEURIMMUNE AND ADVANCES. NEW DRUGS, TREAT For risking life and EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, BIOGEN; MENTS, AND FACILITIES ARE OFTEN limb for his DIRECTOR, EARLY DISCOVERY AVAILABLE ONLY FOR THE FEW countrymen. NEUROSCIENCE, MERCK WITH MONEY AND ACCESS, NOT SWITZERLAND AND CAMBRIDGE, THE MANY IN NEED. THE INDIVID A constellation of actors—the government, opposi- MASSACHUSETTS; BOSTON UALS IN THIS CATEGORY WANT TO tion fighters, jihadi forces—is laying waste to Syria. CLOSE THE CHASM. A WHITE Which actor a person supports can be a matter of life For unclogging brains. HELMETED ARMY OF VOLUN and death. Raed Al Saleh, though, refuses to choose TEERS PROTECT CIVILIANS IN sides. To him, all lives matter. Saleh heads the Syr- More than 40 million people suffer from SYRIA. WESTERN DOCTORS CON ian Civil Defense, a humanitarian, politically neutral Alzheimer’s or a related dementia, and no NECT INSTANTLY WITH PEERS volunteer force that warns civilians before airstrikes, drug exists that can stop or even slow the AND UNDERSERVED PATIENTS transports victims of bombings to medical facilities, neurodegenerative disease. Two prom- IN DISTANT NATIONS. A YOUNG and conducts search-and-rescue operations. Known as ising new therapies, however, target the RESEARCHER DEMONSTRATING the White Helmets for the headgear they wear, Saleh’s deposits of amyloid plaques that clog the A GROUNDBREAKING METHOD OF group comprises almost 3,000 volunteers across oppo- brain and are believed to be signatures DEFEATING ANTIBIOTIC RESIS sition-held territory. It estimates that it has saved tens of Alzheimer’s. Researchers Roger Nitsch TANCE MAY BE LESS SEXY THAN of thousands of people—mostly civilians, but some and Alfred Sandrock found this year that GRINDR PROVIDING HEALTH rebels and government soldiers, too. This year, Saleh’s an antibody treatment called aducanumab INFORMATION TO AT RISK QUEER organization was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. can clear the brain of existing amyloids. POPULATIONS FROM LEBANON TO A second drug, verubecestat, studied by CALIFORNIA BOTH, THOUGH, ARE NOTABLE FACT In April, he was denied entry into the Matthew Kennedy, was shown to prevent POWERFUL EXPRESSIONS OF LOVE. United States after flying to Washington, D.C.’s Dulles plaque production. While the scientists International Airport to receive an award from a non- say it’s too soon to reach any definitive profit coalition. At the time, he was not told why he conclusions—trials for both drugs are was barred. ongoing—the preliminary findings offer hope that Alzheimer’s eventually will be treatable. NOTABLE FACT The estimated amount per year it will cost the United States to take care of Alzheimer’s patients by 2050 is a whopping $1 trillion. FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 89
Petra Vertes and Kirstie Whitaker Hans Flu Timothy Jamison, Klavs NEUROSCIENTISTS SURGEON Jensen, and UNITED KINGDOM NETHERLANDS Allan Myerson For mapping Dorry Segev; For weaving CHEMIST the origins Peter Stock a worldwide AND CHEMICAL of schizophrenia. web of medical ENGINEERS TRANSPLANT SURGEONS knowledge. CAMBRIDGE, Mental illness often appears in BALTIMORE; SAN FRANCISCO MASSACHUSETTS adolescence. British scientists When Hans Flu noticed doctors Petra Vertes and Kirstie Whita- For cutting using social media to impart For ker have found clues as to why into transplant critical information to patients restocking in MRI scans. They examined waiting lists. halfway around the world, the pharmacies in some 300 young brains, noting Netherlands-based vascu- record time. that the “hubs” that connect dif- More than 20 Americans die lar surgeon decided to create ferent regions of the brain are every day waiting for organ a program known as MDLink- Manufacturing phar- still changing during the teen- transplants. In 2011, Johns ing—a supercharged LinkedIn maceuticals is cum- age years. Vertes and Whitaker Hopkins University’s Dorry for doctors. The private, secure bersome. Often, a then consulted the Allen Brain Segev published research show- platform allows vetted pro- single drug’s chem- Atlas, which maps regions of the ing that HIV-positive individ- fessionals to swap expertise, ical components are brain by gene expression, and uals, banned from donating upload technique videos, access produced at differ- found that the areas where the since 1988, could expand the a database of more than 3,400 ent plants, and it can MRIs revealed the most change donor pool by 500 to 600 peo- medical journals, and even take several months were those where genes linked ple annually. He lobbied Con- demonstrate complicated pro- to coordinate logistics. to schizophrenia had the stron- gress to discard the injunction, cedures. Not only that, but Flu’s When demand spikes gest expression. The discovery which it did in 2013. This March, team is experimenting with vir- because of, say, a dis- may prove an essential building Segev performed America’s tual reality in order to film oper- ease outbreak and block for future health research. first HIV-positive transplant. In ations from multiple viewpoints. production can’t keep “Knowing what happens in the May, Peter Stock of the Univer- The result? A doctor in rural pace, the results can run-up to the emergence of men- sity of California, San Francisco, Liberia, for instance, will be able be disastrous. Three tal health disorders gives us the persuaded his state govern- to connect seamlessly with a scientists are optimis- chance to build interventions ment, which still had its own specialist at Harvard. The free tic that the cure for and treatments that might pre- prohibition, to enact legislation app began as a pilot program in dangerous shortages vent them in the future,” Whita- reversing course. Only HIV-pos- May. Flu plans to launch it fully is a refrigerator-sized ker told ScienceNode. itive recipients can get infected before the end of the year. portable machine donations. Yet because these with a system—think NOTABLE FACT Genetics are known individuals are also eligible NOTABLE FACT Flu gave up of it as an all-in-one to be an important risk factor for seronegative organs, new practicing medicine about a chemical assembly for schizophrenia. The risk is donation policies could boost year ago. He misses it so much line—that can man- highest among identical twins: all transplants, reducing the that he dreams about perform- ufacture up to 1,000 If one has the disorder, there is a time patients spend waiting for ing operations. doses of a drug in just 50 percent chance the other will health, regardless of their HIV 24 hours. The proto- develop it, too. status. type makes Benadryl, Valium, Prozac, and NOTABLE FACT More than Lidocaine. Next up, the 120,000 people in America are team hopes to improve waiting for organ transplants, the system and cook and a new name is added to the up even more complex list every 10 minutes. drugs. NOTABLE FACT The goal isn’t to run pharma out of busi- ness, Myerson says, but to provide “emer- gency backup for pharmaceutical manu- facturing.” 90 NOV | DEC 2016
Togo Kida and John Zhang David Nott and Elly Nott Gursaran the healers Akira Suzuki Prasad Talwar FERTILITY SPECIALIST FOUNDER AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE, GLOBAL THINKERS FOUNDERS, NEW YORK CITY THE DAVID NOTT FOUNDATION IMMUNOLOGIST SECOND LIFE TOYS UNITED KINGDOM INDIA JAPAN For delivering children For arming For For ripping a from genetic doctors vaccinating social taboo apart diseases. for battle. against at the seams. stigma. After losing two children to a Since the Syrian civil war erupted, the Only about 300 people a year rare mitochondrial disease, Assad regime has killed almost 700 Fueled by social in Japan receive organ trans- a Jordanian couple turned to medical personnel—and thousands stigma, poor detection, plants, despite some 14,000 their last hope: John Zhang. more have fled. In Syria, “health care and strains becoming patients in need. The rea- For the desperate family, the is seen as a weapon,” Welsh surgeon resistant to drug ther- son for this deficit is rooted Chinese fertility specialist David Nott told the Independent. “You apy, about 60 percent in both cultural stigma (the pioneered a procedure that take out one doctor, you take out 10,000 of the world’s new lep- traditional belief that bodies moved DNA from the moth- people he or she can no longer care for.” rosy cases—more than should be whole upon crema- er’s egg—leaving behind Over the past four years, Nott has pro- 125,000—are diag- tion) and legal restrictions the mitochondrial muta- vided emergency care in Syrian clinics nosed in India each that finally loosened six years tions—and placed it within a and has trained the remaining health year. In 2016, the ago (previously, only brain- healthy donor egg, which was workers in triage techniques and basic country initiated a pro- dead individuals over age 15 fertilized with the father’s surgical skills. When he’s back home in gram to eradicate the could donate, and only with sperm. The result? A healthy London, he provides trainees with real- disease, anchored by written consent). With Second baby born with three “par- time advice about cases through text the rollout of the first Life Toys, which repairs and ents.” Zhang understands messaging. In February, Nott and his leprosy vaccine. The transforms damaged stuffed the ethical questions his wife, Elly, launched a foundation dedi- inoculation, devel- animals, Togo Kida and Akira method poses, which is why cated to preparing doctors for war zones. oped by immunologist Suzuki are counting on a new he avoided U.S. restrictions About 30 Syrians attended its first train- Gursaran Prasad Tal- generation to end the nation’s on human embryo manip- ing session in southern Turkey. war, could decrease transplant hang-up. Picture ulation by performing the leprosy rates by 65 a lion with an elephant’s ear, procedure in Mexico. He and NOTABLE FACT The Notts met at a fund- percent over three or an alligator with a mon- his peers, though, hope that raising event. But it took months—and years. The vaccine is key’s tail. After the surgery, their success will resurrect a particularly brutal day working in the being administered toy recipients are encouraged medical research that has Gaza Strip during the 2014 war—to push first to leprosy patients to write a thank-you letter to long been banned or heav- David to ask Elly on a date via email. and their close con- donors, making the process ily restricted. “To save lives,” tacts in Gujarat and both personal and open. Zhang told New Scientist, “is Bihar states, two dis- the ethical thing to do.” ease hot spots, before NOTABLE FACT Suzuki and Kida authorities scale up are colleagues and creative NOTABLE FACT In the 1990s, distribution. Of Tal- directors at the Japanese efforts to create a baby using war’s breakthrough, ad agency Dentsu, ranked genetic material from three Soumya Swamina- No. 5 in Advertising Age’s list people resulted in chromo- than, head of the of largest agencies last year. somal abnormalities—hence Indian Council of Med- the current U.S. ban. ical Research, told the Guardian, “It shows exactly how Indian research and devel- opment can solve our own problems.” NOTABLE FACT In India, 16 national laws still discriminate against people with leprosy. Fear of the ill- ness dates back thou- sands of years. Hindu epics call it kustha, which in Sanskrit means “eating away.” FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 91
the healers Christine C. Johnson Jack Harrison-Quintana and Susan Lynch GLOBAL THINKERS Shu Lam DIRECTOR, GRINDR EPIDEMIOLOGIST AND FOR EQUALITY MICROBIOLOGIST STUDENT WASHINGTON, D.C. DETROIT AND SAN FRANCISCO AUSTRALIA For wielding For For attacking superbugs a dating app investigating without antibiotics. as a public asthma’s health tool. genesis. Drug-resistant bacteria, or superbugs, kill 700,000 people worldwide every year. That number could Grindr is more than a way to Asthma is the most common jump to 10 million by 2050. Shu Lam, though, trusts hook up, according to Jack Har- noncommunicable disease that mankind can head off the crisis. The engineer- rison-Quintana, director of afflicting children worldwide. ing student developed SNAPPS (structurally nano- Grindr for Equality (G4E). It’s an Why, though, do some kids engineered antimicrobial peptide polymers), which opportunity for public outreach. develop the disease while have destroyed six superbug strains during tests. With 2 million daily active others do not? Christine C. Unlike antibiotics, which also can harm healthy cells, users, the gay social network Johnson of the Henry Ford SNAPPS directly target bacteria, penetrating and is uniquely situated to address Health System in Detroit and ripping them apart. Pathogens have yet to develop health, justice, and other Susan Lynch of the Univer- resistance to the polymers. Although her discov- important issues among LGBT sity of California, San Fran- ery, announced in September and not yet tested in populations. Harrison-Quin- cisco, may have found the humans, is a long way from clinical applications, tana has teamed up with Leba- elusive answer—in babies’ it’s a promising breakthrough that scientists think nese activists and used Grindr’s stomachs. They analyzed “could change the face of modern medicine,” accord- messaging platform to con- the gut microbes of nearly ing to the Telegraph. tact queer Syrian refugees 300 infants and did the same about community support. In when the subjects were 2 NOTABLE FACT In America, more people die from super- the United States, where a sur- and 4. Children suffering bugs than are killed in homicides each year. vey showed geographical and from asthma, Johnson and racial disparities in Pre-Expo- Lynch learned, lacked certain sure Prophylaxis (PrEP) use, bacteria and had high lev- G4E sent targeted messages— els of some fungal species at in English and Spanish—edu- birth. Identifying vulnerable cating Grindr users about the infants and figuring out how therapy that vastly reduces HIV to rebalance their microbiota, transmission risk. Follow-up the researchers posit, could research recently showed that be the key to reducing life- G4E influenced 20 percent of time asthma risk. new PrEP users’ decisions to start treatment. NOTABLE FACT About 235 mil- NOTABLE FACT Harrison-Quin- lion people worldwide have tana majored in Asian studies at asthma. Georgetown University, study- ing Korean language and lit- erature at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea. 92 NOV | DEC 2016 Illustration by LEONARDO GONZALEZ
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NATIONAL SECURITY ECONOMICS BOOKS CULTURE THE FIXER The space race What’s the secret Barack Obama Maram Salim on never lapsed. antidote for couldn’t close the where to drink Pal- Earth’souter lim- sluggish national breach between estinian Pilsner its were being mili- growth? It’s literature and and hike through tarized quietly this productivity, politics. Can biblical history in whole time. | P. 96 stupid. | P. 98 anyone? | P. 100 Hebron. | P. 102 Illustration by EFI CHALIKOPOULOU
national security by JAMES BAMFORD Spooks in Space How a banal celestial lab kicked off a new age of warfare. Back in 1968, three Apollo 8 astro- The project, which was in place from 1963 to 1969, aimed to spy on nauts circled the moon on Christ- and thwart the Soviet Union in space. According to the declassified mas Eve and returned home, documents, one objective was to explore the feasibility of attacking where they were greeted with a Moscow’s satellites by knocking them out of orbit or firing projectiles ticker-tape parade and honored at them. The program also included an elaborate plan to capture a on the cover of Time. Far out of Russian spacecraft in orbit, swaddle it in heat-shield material, and sight from these public celebra- send it back to Earth for inspection. Yet despite Washington’s best tions, however, another group of efforts to keep these experiments under wraps at the time, its main astronauts was training to reach adversary discovered the operation. space. Unlike the Apollo pro- gram, these spacemen were part In fact, Moscow equipped its secret manned space station, Almaz, of a clandestine military oper- with a rapid-fire cannon, according to chief designer Vladimir Poly- ation that had less to do with achenko. If a U.S. spacecraft attempted “to inspect or even attack the peaceful exploration of the heav- Almaz, we could destroy it,” Polyachenko told PBS in 2007. He also ens and much more to do with said that in 1975, cosmonauts test-fired the cannon, making the Soviet wreaking havoc in them. ¶ One Union the first nation to weaponize an orbiting spacecraft. of those secret astronauts was retired Vice Adm. Richard Truly, For budgetary reasons, Washington’s MOL never got off the ground. 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 the intelligence community’s National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)—were revealed last year when the NRO partly declassified more than 800 files and photos. 96 NOV | DEC 2016 Illustration by MATTHEW HOLLISTER
OBSERVATION DECK Many of the astronauts transferred to NASA’s ities…to ensure that the President will have purpose is to disable or destroy U.S. satellites Space Shuttle program, but specifically to the the option to deploy weapons in space.” A clandestine side operated by the Air Force and year later, President George W. Bush withdrew in the event of a conflict. NRO. Between 1982 and 1992, it conducted 11 from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with shuttle missions that remain top secret. Given Russia. In 2004, the secretary of the Air Force To be sure, the more satellites spinning in what operations were underway by the Air issued a document that codified its space- Force, it’s clear that foreign-satellite destruc- warfare policies and called for “space superior- space, the greater the chances that they col- tion was a high priority. In 1985, for instance, ity,” which was defined as “freedom to attack an Air Force pilot flying an F-15 fighter jet fired as well as freedom from attack.” lide, an accident that could be wrongly inter- a missile at a failing U.S. satellite in low-Earth orbit. Until that day, no other country had While President Barack Obama vowed preted by an adversary. Of the roughly 1,300 annihilated a spacecraft with a weapon. at the start of his first term not to militarize space, he did the opposite when he approved active satellites,568areAmerican—about120 It would take 22 years before another the launch of a number of military spacecraft power emulated that move: In 2007, Beijing that could double as both intelligence col- of which are military or intelligence space- launched a missile that demolished a Chinese lectors and weapons systems. As recently weather satellite. Not to be outdone, Wash- as June, Gen. John E. Hyten, commander craft—more than double the number belong- ington blasted another of its malfunctioning of the Air Force Space Command, issued a satellites the following year. white paper that reiterated the push for “a ing to China and Russia combined. force capable of achieving space superiority.” Coincidentally, circling above Earth at the One alternative to orbital calamity, of time was an orbital test vehicle, the X-37B (of which the Air Force has two). First launched course, is orbital diplomacy. While the 1967 in 2010, the unmanned plane is capable of Outer Space Treaty bars the placement of weapons of mass destruction in orbit or outer space, it is silent on conventional weapons. The 1979 Moon Agreement bans the mili- tarization of the moon and other celestial bod- ies, but it has not been ratified by the United States, Russia, China, or any other nation. In 2008, China and Russia proposed an agreement to ban such arms. The U.N. Gen- THE SPACE AGE CONSISTED OF eral Assembly finally adopted a version of TWO VERY DISTINCT PARTS: their proposal last December. The United ONE IN THE SPOTLIGHT AND ANOTHER States, arguing that the agreement is flawed IN THE DARKNESS. and unverifiable, opposed it. Without Washington’s buy-in, there is lit- tle incentive for others to adhere to the treaty. Other countries with military satellites in orbit, such as India or Israel, may also begin Back then, some might have argued that remaining in space for up to two years at a exploring defensive and offensive capabili- the space race had resumed. However, the time. Although the Air Force refuses to dis- NRO documents make it clear that the race close the X-37B’s activities, its design is very ties to protect their space assets. never lapsed. They reveal that from its onset, similar in size, shape, and capabilities to the the Space Age consisted of two very distinct X-20 Dyna-Soar from the 1960s, which was Although Donald Trump said little about parts: one in the spotlight, run by NASA, to crafted to be manned by a single pilot and to explore the universe; and another in the dark- launch a nuclear weapon from space. Wash- space during his campaign, he indicated plans ness, run by the Pentagon, to militarize the ington’s discreetness now has some—China, universe. Today, NASA exists without a shut- in particular—wondering whether the X-20 to initiate a military buildup, which could tle, pays Russia for rides, and wrestles with has come full circle in the X-37B. budget problems. Yet Washington continues very well include the cosmos. But he has a to expand its secret space program—sending In June, Beijing debuted its own mysteri- planes into orbit and developing satellites ous spacecraft into the galaxy. It is equipped key question to answer: Is humanity better off that have potentially offensive capabilities. with a long mechanical arm, ostensibly to scoop up space junk. But given the enormous with a celestial Wild West or with an orbital In 2001, a commission recommended that amount of space debris and the maneuver- Washington “vigorously pursue the capabil- ability of the vehicle, some fear that its real order, however imperfect? Q JAMES BAMFORD (@WashAuthor) is a colum- nist for FOREIGN POLICY and the author of The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA From 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on Amer- ica. He also writes and produces docu- mentaries for PBS. FOREIGNPOLICY.COM 97
economics by GILLIAN TETT The Productivity Imperative Advice for the president-elect. Ask business leaders what Pres- who use the internet, for example, and the 64 percent who have ident-elect Donald Trump’s top smartphones. The annual growth rate of e-commerce is depend- economic priority should be, ably robust, vacillating between 15 and 17 percent since 2010. and you’ll get an array of predict- able answers: Cut business taxes. GE is the poster child of the productivity gains many people Reduce the debt. Reform trade associate with the U.S. economy. A half-century ago, its factories deals. Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of Gen- had human assembly lines. Today, it puts robots to work on a mas- eral Electric Co., has a different sive scale. This year alone, it anticipates making $500 million in response. “We have to find ways productivity gains by applying digital technology to its operations. to raise productivity,” Immelt told Looking ahead, Immelt expects 3-D printing to produce about a an audience at a September con- fifth of GE’s industrial output in the next two decades, raising pro- ference in New York. Otherwise, ductivity even further. he warned, America could face years of below-trend growth with Yet looks can be deceiving. Consider the official data on economic all the associated problems: rising activity produced per hour of labor in the United States. Starting debt, falling living standards, and in the 1950s, the average annual rate of productivity growth was so on. Conversely, GE economists 2.3 percent, rising above 4 percent in some years. As recently as estimate that if the world boosted the early 21st century, it topped 3 percent. Over the past decade, 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 ubiq- uitous. According to a McKinsey study, digitization influences up to 98 percent of the U.S. economy— thanks to the 87 percent of adults 98 NOV | DEC 2016 Illustration by MATTHEW HOLLISTER
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