Foreign Policy - #209 November-December 2014

FOREIGN POLICY: LEADING GLOBAL THINKERS 99

Atlas, as a Bahamian girl, supports the sea; flora and fauna coat the art with vivid colors in this silent underworld. 100 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2014

The Moguls BY NATURE, IT SEEMS, THE VISIONARIES OF THE BUSINESS WORLD are always looking for “the next big thing.” That can mean a new product that will make billions of dollars or a new way of delivering goods and services that will change the face of a sector. From Russia to China, Saudi Arabia to India, these Global Thinkers are doing anything but business as usual. They are revolutionizing e-commerce, welcoming women into long-unequal workplaces, bringing down the cost of medicine, making genetic sequencing available to the masses, and striking deals that undercut traditional East-West energy politics. Some of their aims are noble, and others not, but all are undoubtedly original. 101FOREIGN POLICY: LEADING GLOBAL THINKERS

Jack Ma’s first job JACK MA GENNADY KIRAN was as an English TIMCHENKO MAZUMDAR SHAW teacher. He once FOR OUT INNOVATING AMAZON. tried—and failed— FOR NAILING THE ENERGY FOR INSISTING THAT GOOD HEALTH to get a job at KFC. Founder and executive DEAL OF THE DECADE. CARE SHOULDN’T BREAK THE BANK. chairman, Alibaba | China Russian oilman | Switzerland Chairperson and managing director, MA: MICHAEL LOCCISANO/GETTY IMAGES; TIMCHENKO: OLGA MALTSEVA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES; MAZUMDAR SHAW: TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/GETTY IMAGES Alibaba is not China’s eBay, its Biocon | India Amazon, or its Wal-Mart, but It’s no surprise that Russian something entirely new: a President Vladimir Putin Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw started conglomerate that includes considers Gennady Timchenko, Biocon out of a garage in 1978. China’s largest business-to- as the tycoon himself puts it, “our Thirty-six years later, her company is business trading platform, its main man for China.” In May, the India’s biggest biotechnology firm, largest consumer-to-consumer billionaire Russian oilman and Mazumdar-Shaw is the country’s retail trade site, and other secured Moscow a 30-year, $400 richest self-made woman. Now she is trading websites that together billion gas deal with Beijing. using her position to expand access dominate e-commerce. Negotiated in the heat of the to affordable health care among Ukraine crisis, the blockbuster India’s 1.2 billion people. Jack Ma, who founded deal saved Russian energy giant Alibaba in his apartment in Gazprom from a serious bind: This year, Biocon launched 1999, possessed not only the Europe, not exactly thrilled with CANmab, a breast-cancer drug 25 tenacity and managerial Russian expansionism, had been percent cheaper than its nearest brilliance to build a large the company’s only major client. competitor. In India, where around company, but the vision to The deal was a turning point for 150,000 people are diagnosed with synthesize proven technology— bilateral relations. China shored breast cancer each year, Biocon’s what places such as Yahoo, a up its energy security while drug should significantly expand major investor, had already Russia set the stage for a new era access to lifesaving treatment. established—with new ideas: of lucrative trade with its eastern CANmab is only the latest in a string provide credit rating and escrow neighbor. of accessible health-care projects: services, and prioritize Mazumdar-Shaw funds an affordable customers and employees over But the year wasn’t without cancer-treatment center, underwrites shareholders. hazards for Timchenko. In a health-insurance program for rural March, he was hit with U.S. residents, and has promised to Alibaba’s late-September sanctions for being a close donate three-quarters of her $1.2 initial public offering, which associate of Putin, and he has billion fortune to charitable causes. raised roughly $25 billion, was sold off stakes in companies to the largest in history and made protect them. (Timchenko Ma the richest man in China. The reportedly lost $1.8 billion of his company’s market capitalization roughly $14 billion net worth due at press time—$271 billion— to sanctions.) Yet thanks to the makes it worth more than gas deal, Gennady seems to be Amazon. Ma’s philosophy? Learn on Putin’s good side—which, in from your competitors, but “copy Russia, can make all the and you die.” difference for a person’s future prospects. 102 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2014

COURTESY PHOTO LEI JUN leading to more bad debt and JAY FLATLEY macroeconomic inefficiencies: If FOR SHAKING UP CHINA’S banks must waive bad loans, it FOR OFFERING A DISCOUNT MOBILE MARKET. hampers their ability to price ON GENETIC PROFILES. risk. To fight this scourge, in July Co-founder, Xiaomi | China Bhattacharya called out the newly CEO, Illumina | Rancho elected leaders of the states of Santa Fe, Calif. Lei Jun wears a black shirt and Andhra Pradesh and Telangana blue jeans like Steve Jobs did, for their proposed policies on debt In January, Jay Flatley’s Illumina, the and much of his phone’s design forgiveness, and she has suggested leader in genetic-sequencing shares similarities with Apple (politely) that Prime Minister technology, unveiled a system that products. But the ideas behind Narendra Modi’s government turn will sequence a human genome for his sales and marketing edge are away from waiver policies. Yes, she less than $1,000, making far more anything but imitative. admits, this would benefit her affordable a process that has bank—but it would greatly benefit typically cost around $10,000. The His brilliance? “Instead of India as well. device, called the HiSeq X Ten, brandishing phones’ high-cost completes sequences faster and luxury appeal like that Cupertino REEMA BINT more accurately than previous company,” Fast Company wrote BANDAR AL SAUD designs. It sells for about in February, Lei “sells them in $10 million and could be a buzz-generating flash sales at FOR CATERING TO THE KINGDOM’S game-changer, allowing doctors razor-thin margins, then takes WORKING WOMEN. new insights into diseases even advantage of revenue streams before symptoms start. provided by software.” Lei’s Princess, corporate executive | cell-phone company, founded in Saudi Arabia Under Flatley’s leadership, which April 2010, has passed Samsung began in 1999, Illumina has grown to become China’s leading More than half of Saudi to claim about 80 percent of cell-phone vendor, claiming Arabia’s university students are market share. Sequencing for all is 30 percent of the country’s market female, yet women make up a goal close to the CEO’s heart. “We share in this year’s third quarter. less than a fifth of the believe that someday everybody’s country’s workforce. Princess going to get sequenced,” Flatley Xiaomi, which didn’t release Reema Bint Bandar Al Saud, said in a 2013 interview with a San its first smartphone until 2011, is CEO of the Saudi luxury retailer Diego newspaper. Lowering the already planning to expand into Alfa International, is working to price places that goal within reach. foreign markets, including tip the balance. Russia, Brazil, and Mexico, later 103FOREIGN POLICY: LEADING GLOBAL THINKERS this year. At the Riyadh branch of luxury department store Harvey ARUNDHATI Nichols, Princess Reema has BHATTACHARYA hired dozens of female salesclerks, created in-house FOR TELLING HARD TRUTHS day care, and provided ABOUT INDIA’S DEBT. transportation stipends to female employees over the Chair, State Bank of India | India past three years. It’s an encouraging model for female While the money of a few hiring in Saudi Arabia—one corrupts America’s politics, the that not only introduces women money of many corrupts India’s. to work outside the home, but As chair of the State Bank of also helps them integrate their India, overseeing $400 billion in private and professional lives. assets, Arundhati Bhattacharya As Saudi women inch their is aiming to bring greater way into the private sector— discipline to the country’s this year saw the opening of banking system. the country’s first female-run law firm and the promotion, A tried-and-true tactic by for the first time, of a woman politicians before Indian to the top editorial position elections is to promise to waive at a daily newspaper—Princess sometimes billions of dollars in Reema’s high-profile example farm loans in an effort to win the could lead the way to gradual votes of the rural poor. The but profound changes far practice discourages farmers beyond the workplace. from repaying their loans—

IN OTHER WORDS Character Development It’s been touted as a revolutionary platform for expression, but does Twitter literature really have a future? By Ruth Franklin Illustrations by Maayan Pearl THE TWITTER FEED OF @ElsaJohanssen: ummm a Later that night, the redhead fell to her woman with red hair just sucked death from the roof, letting out, accord- T American novelist Elliott down three cocktails in a row. now ing to @SimonSmithMilla, “A scream so Holt usually includes she’s dancing like a maniac. #wtf infernal I wasn’t sure it was human.” remarks on what she’s Afterward, the guests’ Twitter feeds were reading, retweets of @MargotBurnham: Red haired cited as evidence of what had happened. friends’ book news, and occasional woman has had way too much to But was the incident a suicide, a murder, political commentary. But one night a drink. Those cocktails go down too or simply an accident? mystery unfolded there. As Holt’s easily. followers watched, she retweeted the None of the above: It was fiction. Holt, feeds of three guests at a swanky party in @SimonSmithMilla: Woman with along with some 30 other writers around SoHo. Each one encountered a red-haired ginger hair is doing a show. What the world, was participating in Twitter’s woman and tweeted about her odd is this, Flashdance? first Fiction Festival, an event launched behavior: two years ago this fall to promote creative 104 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2014

IN OTHER WORDS uses of the popular microblogging Rather than a new suited to tweeted installments. “People platform. In addition to Holt’s murder path for the novel, rarely look the way you expect them to,” mystery, readers could follow, among what Twitter the story began (31 retweets). “If you’re others, a nanny in a fictional White offers is a platform having trouble perceiving and projecting, House tweeting about her eerie visions for an increasingly focus on projecting” (10 retweets). (an updating of Henry James’s The Turn sophisticated “Necessary ingredients for a successful of the Screw) and a “memoir in Tweets” form of literary projection: giggles; bare legs; shyness” (16 by a fictional English B-movie star. performance art. retweets). “The goal is to be both Although much of the material seemed irresistible and invisible” (38 retweets). promising, the festival felt a little below American Novel could be in the works the radar. While book-lovers could follow on Twitter. Some readers enjoy watching these online from anywhere in the world, a sorts of stories unfold, but others don’t— sparsely attended meet-up anchored the New forms of writing are indeed made and for good reason. They find that event at that print bastion, the main possible by Twitter’s unique dynamics: Twitter is “a clunky way of delivering branch of the New York Public Library. namely, the flow of tweets in real time. fiction,” as Sarah Crown, a former There, writers, editors, and readers And, certainly, moments of literary Guardian editor, complained on that milled around as tweets were projected beauty and wit are to be found on newspaper’s Books blog in response to onto TV screens. The same question Twitter. While many writers seem “Black Box.” (Crown also did not appeared to be on everyone’s mind: Is primarily attracted by the platform’s appreciate that a reader in Britain would this stuff to be taken seriously? casual immediacy, others have been have to stay up past midnight to follow galvanized by the possibility of creating Egan’s live tweets.) In addition, there’s With its 140-character limit, Twitter ambitious works fundamentally different the difficulty of assembling all the pieces wouldn’t seem an obvious outlet for from anything on the printed page. But later: If the tweets aren’t sequenced by an narrative experimentation. Although it their experiments show that rather than a external site such as Storify, good luck was conceived as a way for people to new path for the novel, what Twitter finding them again. broadcast brief status updates, it caught offers is a platform for an increasingly on primarily as a means for users to sophisticated form of literary perfor- There are other reasons it doesn’t work connect with each other. Worldwide, mance art. Whether it works as literature, to tweet a linear story line by line. Deep, there are currently around 650 million as we understand it, is another question. immersive reading suspends time, but Twitter users who send a collective 500 attempting to follow a live narrative on million tweets each day. (In 2010, the ONE MIGHT THINK THAT A WRITER WOULD MOST Twitter makes readers hyperaware of the U.S. Library of Congress appointed itself naturally use Twitter to unspool a down time between tweets. David custodian of this output, preserving narrative gradually, moment by moment. Mitchell’s story “The Right Sort,” about a every public tweet in a digital archive.) But when some novelists, including boy high on his mother’s Valium, suggests Egan, Mitchell, and McCall Smith, have that the way Twitter filters experience is Yet tweeting has permeated the popular tried to put this method into practice, the similar to the effects of the drug: “The culture so deeply that the concept of results have been mixed. Egan’s short pill’s just kicking in now. Valium breaks Twitter literature was inevitable. Today, story “Black Box,” which appeared in the down the world into bite-sized sentences. writers around the world such as Jennifer June 4, 2012 issue of the New Yorker, was Like this one. All lined up. Munch- Egan, David Mitchell, and Teju Cole are tweeted from the magazine’s @NYerFic- munch.” It’s hard not to read those lines as producing original works on the platform. tion handle for an hour every evening for a comment on our collective addiction to Even best-selling British writer Philippa 10 days. Egan had been wondering “how repeated pings of new information. But Gregory, whose historical novels range in to write fiction whose structure would the British novelist also finds poetry in focus as far back as the 15th century, lend itself to serialization on Twitter,” she Twitter’s fictional constraints. He created a fictional feed for one of her told the magazine’s Page-Turner blog. compares the Twitter “straitjacket” to the characters. If Twitter literature started out She came up with a lengthy sequence of playful restrictions employed by the as a scrappy affair, it is now moving single-sentence paragraphs, many French experimentalist Georges Perec, rapidly into the mainstream. “Twitter is coming in well under the 140-character who wrote an entire novel without using where the world tells its stories all day, limit, that amounted to a kind of the letter “e.” Each tweet, Mitchell has every day” was the slogan for this year’s handbook for a female spy in the future. said, ought to be a “balanced entity,” as Twitter Fiction Festival, which featured Although she wrote the story by her usual compact and elegant as a haiku. work by popular authors such as Rhode- method—in a notebook, by hand—its sian-born British detective novelist format as a step-by-step primer seemed Yet despite his idealistic intentions, Alexander McCall Smith and American Mitchell’s story, like Egan’s, was defeated thriller writer Brad Meltzer. In an by the mechanics of the Twitter platform. interview with Fast Company, Andrew As one Washington Post critic noted, Fitzgerald, the Twitter media guru who readers who followed Mitchell’s story has spearheaded the festivals to date, were “either catching stray sentences in proclaimed Twitter “the ultimate canvas their social media feeds, or … scrolling, for creative storytellers.” For those who scrolling, scrolling to read all of might think he’s getting a little carried @david_mitchell from top to bottom.” away, New Yorker staffer Ian Crouch The natural momentum of the platform, recently speculated that the next Great which allows readers to move both forward and backward, can actually work against FOREIGN POLICY 105

IN OTHER WORDS serialized literature. It is true that the whole, serialization on Twitter seems @tejucole: Prince Monday medium’s unpredictability may generate nothing more than the latest way for Whiskey was, on Monday, whisked an innate suspense: A user following from authors to augment their readerships and away by persons unknown. the beginning of a story must wait for each market themselves. Even Twitter itself new passage of text to arrive. “The idea of has gently discouraged would-be fiction Cole’s project “Small Fates,” which ran installments is a very good idea,” McCall writers from serializing. “We love fiction from 2011 to 2013, was inspired by the genre Smith remarked sanguinely of his own that uses Twitter functionality in the of faits divers, piquantly brief crime stories serialization efforts in an interview with most creative way possible,” the guide- popularized by French periodicals around the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, lines for the most recent Fiction Festival the beginning of the 20th century. He because “everybody’s left wondering read. “That means perhaps something combed Nigerian newspapers for tales of what’s going to happen next.” But that’s not more than just tweeting out a narrative especially resonant crimes and retold them how it works for most readers—those who line-by-line.” in single tweets. Like epigrams, his tweets join the stream in the middle of the relied on careful word choice and devices sequence or after it has already ended. For Nigerian-American novelist Teju such as rhythm, alliteration, and puns. Those users are forced to scroll back to the Cole, that “something more” has taken a Twitter’s enforced compression often opening of the story, experiencing the variety of forms. First was a series of heightened the irony: “With a razor blade, tweets in reverse sequential order. There’s self-contained stories within the Sikiru, of Ijebu Ode, who was tired of life, no better way to ruin suspense than to read constraints of 140 characters, akin to the separated himself from his male organ. But the ending first. famous short-short story often falsely death eluded him.” Each tweet stood on its attributed to Ernest Hemingway: “For own, as Cole explicitly declined to weave While McCall Smith has touted sale: baby shoes, never worn.” them into a larger narrative. serialization as a “standard way of writing” for authors from Charles @tejucole: Ude, of Ikata, recently “Most see [Twitter] as a sort of ephemer- Dickens to Leo Tolstoy, it gained lost his wife. Tired of arguing with al and unworthy venue,” Cole told Matt popularity in Victorian times as a way to her, he used a machete. Pearce of the New Inquiry. “My view is: sell newspapers, not as a spur for fictional That’s where the people are, so bring the experimentation. And, at any rate, @tejucole: Arrested for theft in literature to them.” The people responded, newsprint is static, not a fluid medium. Mecca, the Nigerian immigrant and Cole became one of the more popular Rather than adding literary value to a Ibrahim is now learning to use his highbrow authors on Twitter, with around story that’s intended to be read as a left hand. 168,000 followers. Although he is Founded in 1982 by former U.S. Vice President, Peace Programs President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, The Carter Center was created Atlanta, GA to advance peace and health worldwide. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, The Carter The Carter Center seeks a Vice President for Peace Programs. The Vice Center, in partnership with Emory President (VP), Peace Programs is responsible for the overall direction, University, is guided by a fundamental strategic planning, development, and implementation of initiatives aimed commitment to human rights and the at advancing peace with justice in countries around the world, most commonly in alleviation of human suffering. As a economically poor and politically weak states. Current peace program activities nongovernmental organization, the are focused in the following areas: human rights, democracy, access to information, Center has helped to improve life for conflict prevention and resolution, cooperation in the Americas and U.S.-China people in more than 80 countries by relations. The VP, Peace Programs oversees the leadership and professional resolving conflicts; advancing democracy, development of 35 staff members and the development and implemention of 30 human rights, and economic opportunity; program activities with annual budgets of nearly $25 million. He/she reports to preventing diseases and improving mental the CEO of The Carter Center and works as part of the senior leadership team health care. with three other Vice Presidents of Health Programs, Finance, and Operations and Development. For additional information regarding accomplishments, leadership, governance, The VP, Peace Programs must have broad experience and a deep substantive and current programs, please go to knowledge of international affairs. Candidates must have proven managerial and www.cartercenter.org leadership skills, including the ability to oversee several complex international multi-disciplinary initiatives simultaneously. The successful candidate will be a team-builder with an inclusive and collegial approach. Extensive international experience in one or more of the following geographic areas is also required: Africa, Central America, South America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, or Asia. A terminal degree in a relevant field is strongly desired. The ideal candidate will also have a record of distinguished service as a practitioner, ideally in a variety of organizational settings (e.g. government, academe, NGOs, multilateral organizations and/or independent consulting). This is an Atlanta- based full-time position with domestic and international travel as required. To be considered for this position, you must apply online: http://www.hr.emory.edu/eu/careers/ JOB # 47671BR 106 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2014

IN OTHER WORDS PHOTOILLUSTRATION BY MAAYAN PEARL currently taking a break from tweeting, as @potw_Teju: @potw_Bernie But TWITTER LITERATURE AS A PHENOMENON MAY he recently told FOREIGN POLICY, his the chains: these men are not be gaining popular traction, but is the reputation as a Twitter innovator could dangerous. Why the chains? quality of the fiction keeping pace? Some only have helped with the promotion of regard Elliott Holt’s Manhattan murder his novel Open City, which came out @potw_Bernie: @potw_Teju It’s mystery, from the original Twitter Fiction around the time he began “Small Fates.” more convenient. Festival, as the most creative use yet of the But the novel, while brief, is discursive platform. Unlike the writers who serial- and ruminative, written in a style very This dialogue illustrates one of ized work designed for the page, Holt was different from Cole’s Twitter voice. In Twitter’s defining characteristics: its a regular Twitter user when she wrote her other words, he seemed to have discov- default mode is public. Conversations story, and she created it with the medium ered a way to use Twitter not as a delivery usually take place out in the open, where in mind: “the way it unfolds in real time, system for the kind of fiction he had been anyone can listen. Its literary analogue the performative nature of tweets, the accustomed to writing, but as an impetus isn’t the Proustian genius sealed in his hashtags and irony, even the typos,” she to create something entirely new. chamber; it’s an open-mic poetry slam, told BuzzFeed this year. American author with the audience constantly interrupt- Chris Arnold recently did something Finishing “Small Fates” freed Cole to ing to clap or boo. While Cole’s recent similar with his piece “#PolarVortex,” try out yet another method of using efforts mimic this interactivity, they which depicts the fictional @NEX_Airport Twitter. In January 2014, he disseminat- function effectively as literature because in the throes of a winter storm. Public rela- ed a story called “Hafiz,” composed as a they do not actually surrender to it. In tions tweets from fictional airlines and ads series of tweets, to a number of friends selecting and arranging the tweets to for the airport’s sushi bar mingle with the who had agreed to tweet the work. Cole suit his purposes, he remains the stories of stranded passengers and crew then retweeted the story, line by line, so puppeteer behind the scenes—as he members—one anxiously en route to a job that the narrative appeared in sequence must. interview, another watching his relation- in his own feed. The effect was choral, as ship fall apart via text. With a nod to the if each storyteller stepped out of the A few writers have gestured toward increasing use of Twitter as a means for Twitter cacophony, spoke his or her the idea of responsive fiction on Twitter, sharing images, Arnold’s narrative takes designated line, and then disappeared notably best-selling fantasy author advantage of the platform’s visual back into the din: Andrea Cremer (@andreacremer), who capabilities, collaging weather maps, responded to comments from her photographs, and video in his feed. @AfricanCeleb: The seated man roughly 16,000 followers as she tweeted was closer to sixty than to fifty, a story about a person who finds a To a person familiar with Twitter, dressed in an ordinary way, a mysterious unopened letter in an attic. these projects are fascinating. But the button-down long-sleeved shirt, But all serious fiction has to be hermetic, thrill they provide is primarily that of trousers. because writers must maintain control seeing a recognizable world faithfully over their work. Imagine Tolstoy, while duplicated, with all its attendant @seyitaylor: His right hand was tweeting Anna Karenina, taking reader conventions and idiosyncrasies. So far, inside his shirt. He clutched at his suggestions regarding his protagonist’s the most successful works of fiction on heart and winced. fate: Send her back to her husband! No, Twitter have been compelling precisely throw her under the train! in re-creating the experience of being on @pushinghoops: The young man Twitter. They feel clever and timely, but with the phone said, “He’s having chest pains. Earlier he said he was having chest pains.” In March, Cole published a long narrative essay, “A Piece of the Wall” (“POTW”), about a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona. For this hybrid work of literary journalism, he incorporated the voices of people he interviewed, assign- ing a Twitter handle to each. This is how he represented his dialogue with a courtroom security guard: @potw_Teju: @potw_Bernie Are you, yourself, from a Mexican family? @potw_Bernie: @potw_Teju My father didn’t fight for this country in World War Two so that people could call me Mexican. FOREIGN POLICY 107

Jen Burney Junjie Zhang Barbara Walter Dr. Burney is an environmental Dr. Zhang is an environmental Dr. Walter is an expert on scientist focusing on global food economist focusing on climate international security, with an security and climate change. change, water resources, emphasis on internal wars, She designs technologies for bargaining and cooperation, and poverty alleviation and agricultural YLUL^HISLLULYN`HUKÄZOLYPLZ terrorism/counter-terrorism. adaptation, and studies the links with a particular interest on between energy poverty and food East Asia. Walter teaches classes on security. international politics and security Zhang teaches classes on and policy responses to global She teaches classes on food sustainable development and problems. security and quantitative methods. Chinese environmental and energy policy. UC San Diego David Victor an established leader on Dr. Victor directs the Laboratory on economic development International Law and Regulation and global public policy (ILAR) at IR/PS. His research focuses on energy Earn a two-year professional or markets in emerging countries and one-year executive master’s degree environmental regulatory law. Victor PUPU[LYUH[PVUHSHɈHPYZ teaches energy policy, international law, and climate change courses. Concentrations available in environmental policy, economics, Gordon McCord development, public policy, politics and management Dr. McCord focuses on understanding the changing irps.ucsd.edu role of geography in economic development. His research explores using weather [VTVKLS[OLLɈLJ[VMTHSHYPHVU child mortality and fertility behavior, as well as the role of geography in Chinese city growth. He teaches classes on GIS, development and managerial economics.

IN OTHER WORDS they do something fundamentally If we are doomed so than conventional literature—is different from what novels and other to end up reading conveying short bursts of beauty. ambitious works of fiction are meant to novels the way American novelist and food critic Ruth do. Novels show us something of how the we read Twitter, Reichl (@ruthreichl) tweets about her world works. Twitter fiction, so far, has it doesn’t follow meals and daily routine in language that been best at showing us how Twitter that we read veers into poetry: “Deep misty morning. works—hashtags and all. Twitter the way Landscape erased. Warm peach cobbler. we read novels. Splash cream. Black coffee. Waiting for the More importantly, the way we experi- fog to clear.” Pentametron (@pentamet- ence Twitter is fundamentally different the paperback in our hand the same way ron) is a bot that finds tweets written in from the deep engagement that takes we allow our eyes to wander in and out of iambic pentameter—almost always place when we read immersive fiction. A our Twitter feeds. But if we are doomed to unintentionally—and matches them with tweet is so brief that it can be consumed at end up reading novels the way we read others that rhyme, pairing strangers in a glance; conversely, a user can spend Twitter, it doesn’t follow that we read odd duets. “Put fear aside and be yourself hours scrolling through the always- Twitter the way we read (or used to read) today,” tweets a life coach in Cape Town, fluctuating stream of words and images, novels—deeply, empathically, creatively. and a guy who identifies himself only as eyes flickering from nugget to nugget. The feed simply does not lend itself to @young_hittah718 responds with the Researchers, such as Maryanne Wolf at that kind of reading experience. Nikki Minaj lyrics “a million, billion, Tufts University, have confirmed what trillion miles away.” everyone who reads on a screen intuitively What it does lend itself to—even more knows: that the choice to read a text on Is it great literature? Of course not. But it’s paper or plasma has a profound impact on a new way of making sense out of the stories the way we experience it. We use various the world tells all day, every day—which is cognitive processes as we shift back and what writers have always tried to do. forth between paper and screen. Our brains are adaptive and plastic throughout Ruth Franklin is a contributing editor our lives, so excessive screen reading can at the New Republic and the author of cause our deep-reading skills to atrophy A Thousand Darknesses: Lies and Truth and our comprehension, in particular, to in Holocaust Fiction. She is at work on a slack off. We wind up skimming through biography of author Shirley Jackson. “[An] exceptionally interesting and surprisingly moving book.” —THE WASHINGTON POST “What [Frankel] finds is that war dogs serve so many purposes at once that their value to the military far exceeds the line-item costs of housing, feeding and training them, several times over.” —THE NEW YORK TIMES AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE BOOKS ARE SOLD. ALSO AVAILABLE AS AN EBOOK. FOREIGN POLICY 109

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COLUMN << CONTINUED FROM PAGE 112 In researching selected—each of whom had to meet our without Washington, and that the world is my book National Insecurity, I looked at criteria of generating an idea or series of doing likewise. There are bad guys 10 of the most prominent think tanks in ideas that actually resulted in actions too—offering up bad ideas and translating Washington over a period of a decade. influencing people’s lives, whether them into bad acts—who show that, These organizations produced almost positively or negatively—precisely two without strong leadership and ideas in 12,000 events, papers, and research work in Washington, D.C., and neither of Washington, the world may find itself at reports over that time. Of these, the vast them works in the U.S. government. greater risk for tumult and chaos. majority concentrated on just a few topics—such as the Middle East, the war Now, I’ll admit this is a subjective list. Before the anti-government types start on terror, and China—linked closely to We pick who is on it, and hard choices are saying it was ever thus, let’s not dismiss the whatever was in the headlines at the time. involved when looking at well more than impact of the birth and growth of American Other areas, deserving of focus but 100 possible candidates. But candidly, this democracy; the push westward fostered by outside the “buzz zone,” got much less year, when it came to Washington, there federally sponsored expeditions, such as attention. The areas that got by far the just weren’t that many choices. At the that of Lewis and Clark; the abolition of least coverage? Science and technology— moment, the Beltway is pretty close to slavery; the cultivation of national never mind that they are responsible for brain-dead, especially according to our infrastructure; the space program; the most of the changes redefining life on the criteria. That’s not to say people in D.C. Internet; and a host of other things that, if planet and many of the emerging threats did not take actions that affected many not exclusively born of Washington, were at with which humanity is grappling. people; but when they did, those actions least nurtured there. When Washington has did not flow from new thinking or been a source of creativity, America and the In short, the city most in need of big, anything remotely like a big idea. world have benefited greatly. new ideas may be home to the most dumbed-down smart people of all. The good news is that there are many The absence of Washingtonians on our Combine a lack of creative thinking, thinkers out there who deserve the Global Thinkers list isn’t just a reflection of organized stupidity like the war on science, recognition we hope our list brings—for the fact that we think America’s capital has and political paralysis, and you get today’s challenging convention, stimulating hit a new low or that we worry about how Washington, sleepwalking into America’s thought, improving lives, disrupting the that low is linked to the broader dumbing- future. A symptom of this problem is seen status quo. They are scientists, engineers, down trend limiting America. Rather, we in FOREIGN POLICY’s list of the Leading designers, artists, writers, leaders, are also casting light on the situation in the Global Thinkers of 2014. Of the people we politicians, and more who show that hope that it triggers a discussion about how America is finding ways to flourish Washington must change. It is high time for America to identify and work to reverse PEACE AND SECURITY the developments that have led to the quashing of imagination in Washington. FELLOWSHIP This work includes bringing new perspec- tives to a city that has far too many lawyers IN WASHINGTON, DC and lobbyists and not enough scientists, technologists, entrepreneurs, and other 7KH+HUEHUW6FRYLOOH-U3HDFH)HOORZVKLSLQYLWHVUHFHQWFROOHJHDQGJUDGXDWHVFKRROJUDGXDWHV creative thinkers. WRDSSO\\IRUVL[WRQLQHPRQWKIHOORZVKLSVLQ:DVKLQJWRQ'&IRFXVLQJRQDUPVFRQWUROSHDFHDQG LQWHUQDWLRQDOVHFXULW\\LVVXHV)RXQGHGLQWRGHYHORSDQGWUDLQWKHQH[WJHQHUDWLRQRIOHDGHUV The world certainly does not always RQDUDQJHRISHDFHDQGVHFXULW\\LVVXHVWKHSURJUDPKDVDZDUGHGIHOORZVKLSV need Washington to function, even thrive—the past few years have proved 6FRYLOOH)HOORZVZRUNZLWKRQH )HOORZVDUHVXSHUYLVHGE\\DQG &DQGLGDWHVPXVWKDYHDQ that. But it is clearly better off when the RIPRUHWKDQWZRGR]HQSDUWLFLSDW OHDUQIURPVHQLRUOHYHOVWDIIDQG H[FHOOHQWDFDGHPLFUHFRUG business of Washington is driven by new LQJSXEOLFLQWHUHVWRUJDQL]DWLRQV RIWHQKDYHWKHRSSRUWXQLW\\WRSXEOLVK DQGDVWURQJLQWHUHVWLQLVVXHV ideas rather than when, as seems to be the 7KH\\PD\\XQGHUWDNHDYDULHW\\RI DUWLFOHVRUUHSRUWV7KHSURJUDPDOVR RISHDFHDQGVHFXULW\\7KH case today, it is stunted by fear of them. DFWLYLWLHVLQFOXGLQJUHVHDUFKZULW DUUDQJHVPHHWLQJVIRUWKHIHOORZV SURJUDPLVRSHQWRDOO86 LQJDQGDGYRFDF\\RQDUDQJHRI ZLWKSROLF\\H[SHUWV0DQ\\IRUPHU FLWL]HQVDQGQRQ86FLWL]HQV David Rothkopf is CEO and editor of the VHFXULW\\LVVXHVLQFOXGLQJQXFOHDU 6FRYLOOH)HOORZVKDYHJRQHRQWR OLYLQJLQWKH86HOLJLEOHIRU FP Group. His latest book is National FKHPLFDODQGELRORJLFDOZHDSRQV SXUVXHJUDGXDWHGHJUHHVLQLQWHUQD HPSOR\\PHQW%HQHILWVLQFOXGH Insecurity: American Leadership in QRQSUROLIHUDWLRQPLVVLOHGHIHQVH WLRQDOUHODWLRQVDQGWDNHQSURPLQHQW DVDODU\\KHDOWKLQVXUDQFH an Age of Fear. ZHDSRQVWUDGHHQYLURQPHQWDO SRVLWLRQVLQWKH¿HOGRISHDFHDQG DQGWUDYHOWR:DVKLQJWRQ DQGHQHUJ\\VHFXULW\\DQGUHJLRQDO VHFXULW\\ZLWKSXEOLFLQWHUHVWRUJDQL '&7KHQH[WDSSOLFDWLRQ FP (ISSN 0015-7228) November/December 2014, issue VHFXULW\\DQGSHDFHNHHSLQJWKDW ]DWLRQVWKH)HGHUDO*RYHUQPHQW GHDGOLQHLV-DQXDU\\ number 209. Published six times each year, in January, VXSSRUWWKHJRDOVRIWKHLUKRVW DFDGHPLDDQGPHGLD IRUWKHIDOOVHPHVWHU March, May, July, September, and November, by The FP RUJDQL]DWLRQDQGPD\\DWWHQG Group, a division of Graham Holdings Company, at 11 FRDOLWLRQPHHWLQJVSROLF\\EULH¿QJV +HUEHUW6FRYLOOH-U3HDFH)HOORZVKLS Dupont Circle NW, Suite 600, Washington, D.C. 20036. DQG&RQJUHVVLRQDOKHDULQJV Subscriptions: U.S., $59.99 per year; Canada and other  QLQIR#VFRYLOOHRUJQZZZVFRYLOOHRUJ countries, $59.99. Periodicals Postage Paid in Washington, D.C., and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send 3URYLGLQJ2SSRUWXQLWLHVIRU7RPRUURZҋV/HDGHUVLQ3HDFHDQG6HFXULW\\ U.S. address changes to: FP, P.O. Box 283, Congers, NY 10920-0283. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: P.O. Box 503, RPO West Beaver Creek, Richmond Hill, ON L4B 4R6. Printed in the USA. FOREIGN POLICY 111

COLUMN The Dumbing Down of Smart—and Washington By David Rothkopf Illustration by Matt Chase Americans have an uncomfortable relationship with smart. They are perfectly happy to celebrate genius, provided it doesn’t make them uncomfortable or require too much of them. They are more concerned that their children get into college alternatively, feeling dumb in the way that hard ideas sometimes than they are that those kids are graded against the kind of tough make you feel—and should—when you first encounter them. standards that might ensure understanding of important concepts. Once in college, students often really have to screw up Perhaps worst among the consequences of the dumbing down to get a D or an F. I taught graduate school for a number of years, of America is the hyper-politicization of discourse. This has led and I practically had to alert psychological counselors if I gave to the rise of media outlets and debates that are tailored to anyone anything below a B. specific audiences who seek out viewpoints that support already-held beliefs. (The notion that beliefs are more important This phenomenon was once described as “the dumbing down than actual knowledge is a byproduct or perhaps a driver of all of America.” And in recent years, the trend has accelerated. One this.) So people watching or reading the news tend not to see both particularly odious element of it is what might be called pop sides of any issue—much less issues that have more than two intellectualism. Big, buzzy ideas are boiled down into short books sides. Litmus tests and the ability to articulate already-popular that provide more cocktail-party conversation than significant views are valued more than what is really new or challenging. concepts that require a little work to grasp. Think The Tipping Point and The Black Swan. (For real heavyweights, there’s always Unsurprisingly, this trend’s impact on creativity and the biography of Steve Jobs or recent, popular volumes by imagination in Washington—the epicenter of political Thomas Piketty and Henry Kissinger to leave on the coffee polarization and the wellspring from which all litmus tests table and make an impression. Because let’s be clear, more people flow—has been particularly egregious. In the policy community, buy these books as fashionable accessories, not for what’s on people who may wish to do more than tailor ideas to pre-existing, their pages.) polled audiences have discovered that in doing so they run the risk of offending someone on Capitol Hill who might not vote to Worse still is the whole TED talks phenomenon, which offers confirm them in top jobs were they ever to want them; that is to the intellectual equivalent of diets in which someone can lose 10 say, originality is not only frowned upon, but it is actually pounds in two weeks without giving up ice cream sundaes or institutionally quashed. Thus, far too little bold thinking goes pizza. In just 18 minutes, a person can be exposed to breathlessly on in the country’s think tanks. It is safer to write an article earnest genius—a slickly marketed brand of chicken nuggets for that doesn’t offend than it is to write one that actually breaks the brain. The talks enable non-scientists and non-technologists new ground. The result? Journals that are exercises in reputation to feel smart, but that is not the same as actually being smart or, management. The bland leading the bland. CONTINUED ON PAGE 111 >> 112 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2014

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Addressing the critical issues facing Asia in the 21st century On November 18, we release our annual Survey of the Afghan People, Afghanistan’s broadest and longest-running public opinion poll. 9,300 Afghans from all 34 provinces tell us what they think about: the elections, corruption, security, women’s rights, the economy, the Taliban. Our surveys in Afghanistan over the past decade provide a powerful resource for decision makers and an unmatched barometer of Afghan opinions over time. AFGHANISTAN IN 2014: A Survey of the Afghan People READ IT HERE: asiafoundation.org