What We’re Reading

Preeti Aroon "The Most Important Trends of 2007," in BusinessWeek. From toxic toys to $100 oil to social networking, this slide show recaps the trends and fads that have defined 2007. Mike Boyer "How Africa's desert sun can bring Europe power," by Robin McKie in The Guardian. Can a $10 billion solar power project in ...

Preeti Aroon

Preeti Aroon

  • "The Most Important Trends of 2007," in BusinessWeek. From toxic toys to $100 oil to social networking, this slide show recaps the trends and fads that have defined 2007.

Mike Boyer

Christine Chen

Blake Hounshell

  • Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton: A Biography. Edward Rice's profile of the Victorian age's most colorful explorer and spy reveals a man with a hands-on interest in foreign sexual practices, obsessed with obscure languages, and surprisingly receptive to early Mormonism. Burton's wife, Isabel, wasn't too impressed by his intellectual defenses of polygamy, however.

Prerna Mankad

  • "Taking sport seriously," in Prospect. David Goldbatt argues that it's high time athletics be accorded the same cultural weight as regular performing arts. With half of humanity tuned in, he writes, the World Cup finals are "the greatest collective experience in history" and the Olympic Games are "the most significant global celebration of internationalism."

More from Foreign Policy

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping give a toast during a reception following their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 21.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping give a toast during a reception following their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 21.

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Xi and Putin shake hands while carrying red folders.
Xi and Putin shake hands while carrying red folders.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin greets Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
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It’s a New Great Game. Again.

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Kurdish military officers take part in a graduation ceremony in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, on Jan. 15.
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Iraqi Kurdistan’s House of Cards Is Collapsing

The region once seemed a bright spot in the disorder unleashed by U.S. regime change. Today, things look bleak.