FP Favorites: The Stories That Mattered in February 2011

In sharp reversal, U.S. agrees to rebuke Israel in Security Council, Feb. 16

Colum Lynch’s Turtle Bay blog has become the web’s go-to for all information U.N. — so much so that he was recently nominated for an ASME Digital Ellie Award for Best Digital News Reporting. This month, Lynch caused quite a stir by reporting that the Obama administration would support a U.N. Security Council statement reaffirming that the Council “does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement activity.”

Getty Images

10 Reasons Americans Should Care About the Egyptian Revolution, Feb. 10

Blogger Stephen Walt understands that maybe not everyone cares about the Egyptian Revolution as much as his readers. He offered a list of 10 reasons why non-foreign policy obsessed Americans should care about the what was happening in Cairo, connecting the events in Tahrir Square to the dollars in our pockets and the hash tags in our Tweets.

Paul Richards/AFP

From Malabo to Malibu, Feb. 22

One of the highlight’s of FP‘s March/April issue was Teodorin’s World, an investigative piece by reporter Ken Silverstein, which delved into the life of the son of the president of Equatorial Guinea and the world’s richest minister of agriculture and forestry, Teodorin Obiang — a story complete with Playboy bunnies and $2 million Bugattis. This slideshow vividly illustrated that world, contrasting the lavishness of Obiang’s Malibu estate with the abject poverty faced by most of the people in his country.

Javier Espinosa/El Mundo

China International, Feb. 22

As Gary Bass explains in Human Rights Last from FP‘s March/April issue, China’s diplomats have the ear of the world’s bad guys. In this astonishing photo essay, journalists Heriberto Araújo and Juan Pablo Cardenal, working with a team of photographers, traveled the world documenting China’s global influence in some of the world’s roughest spots from gold mines in Burma to construction sites in Angola.

PHOTOGRAPH BY LUIS DE LAS ALAS

Everybody Loves Loved Hosni, Feb . 1

Well, this is embarrassing. With Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak officially out of power, there are 30 years of photo ops documenting his close relationship with other world leaders. Everyone from Jimmy Carter to Vladimir Putin to Princess Diana has shaken his hand and joined him for a chat.

Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Winners and Losers of the Revolution, Feb. 14

In another classic list, Stephen Walt breaks down the Egyptian Revolution and names its winners and losers. While Tahrir’s demonstrators and Al Jazeera came out on top, the Mubaraks and Al Qaeda lost. As for Barack Obama? It’s too soon to tell.

John Moore/Getty Images

Who’s Next?, Feb. 11

To take a look at which autocratic leaders might be the next to fall after Mubarak, FP joined forces with D.C.-based democracy watchdog Freedom House. Kim Jong-Il and Robert Mugabe, beware.

Artyom Korotayev/Epsilon/Getty Images

Signs of the Times, Feb. 4

The protests in Cairo were colorful for many reasons, but many of the most memorable visuals came from the signs hoisted high by the crowds gathered in Tahrir. From depictions of Mubarak as “La Vache Qui Rit” to graffiti bearing the names of social media giants, the art of the Egyptian protest displayed both humor and insight into the nature of the revolution.

BULENT KILIC/AFP/Getty Images

So Long, Chicken Little, Feb. 22

In this article from FP‘s March/April issue, the New America Foundation’s Michael Lind asks, “Why is it that fallacies in foreign policy are so endlessly repeated?” He then lists the nine most annoying foreign policy clichés debunking everything from the likelihood that a nuclear bomb will explode in a U.S. city in the next decade to the death of the nation-state.

INFLUX PRODUCTIONS/PHOTODISC/GETTY IMAGES

Really Bad Week: Egypt Edition, Feb. 2

Even before Mubarak left, David Rothkopf knew that the Egypt’s revolution caught the attention of many world leaders — and had them shaking in their boots. Here, he explains why Bibi Netanyahu, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and likely future Chinese President Xi Jinping are so worried about the events in the Arab world.

MARCO LONGARI/AFP/Getty Images