cover

The Magazine

May/June 2017

The Magazine

May/June 2017

Features

Outside Geerisa, Somalia: An armed policeman stands beside a riverbank swelled from a flash flood the night before that left several people dead. As Somalia gets hotter and drier, it is also more susceptible to deadly flash floods when eventual rain hits the parched earth.

To be Somali used to mean to roam the land with your camels and others herds, surviving on their milk and meat and making home wherever the rains fell. Three out of four Somalis depend on the land to survive, either by herding or farming. Yet the rains are becoming less frequent and drought the norm. Land is degraded out of desperation, and people’s historic resilience is broken down. As access to water and pasture shrink, so do people’s options. The result is a growing wave of violence that swells with each short rain, dry well and failed crop. Men with guns are as common here as dusty roads, and as the fragile ties linking communities together break down the choice becomes clear: fight or die. (Photo by Nichole Sobecki) — Outside Geerisa, Somalia: An armed policeman stands beside a riverbank swelled from a flash flood the night before that left several people dead. As Somalia gets hotter and drier, it is also more susceptible to deadly flash floods when eventual rain hits the parched earth. To be Somali used to mean to roam the land with your camels and others herds, surviving on their milk and meat and making home wherever the rains fell. Three out of four Somalis depend on the land to survive, either by herding or farming. Yet the rains are becoming less frequent and drought the norm. Land is degraded out of desperation, and people’s historic resilience is broken down. As access to water and pasture shrink, so do people’s options. The result is a growing wave of violence that swells with each short rain, dry well and failed crop. Men with guns are as common here as dusty roads, and as the fragile ties linking communities together break down the choice becomes clear: fight or die. (Photo by Nichole Sobecki)

The Key to Saving Somalia is Gathering Dust in the British Countryside

What if there were a blueprint for climate adaptation that could end a civil war? An English scientist spent his life developing one—then he vanished without a trace.

Hayhoe_top

Yeah, the Weather Has Been Weird

People already care about climate change – the trick is getting them to realize it.

Katharine Hayhoe

ChinaDeniers_SW_V1

The Convenient Disappearance of Climate Change Denial in China

From Western plot to party line, how China embraced climate science to become a green-energy powerhouse.

Murphy_top

Forget Purple Mountains’ Majesty

With corporate interests and climate change threatening America’s national parks, international cooperation and entrepreneurial competition might be the only things that keep them safe.

Hayhoe_top

Yeah, the Weather Has Been Weird

People already care about climate change – the trick is getting them to realize it.

Katharine Hayhoe

observation deck

McCarthy

If Trump Dumps the Paris Accord, China Will Rule the Energy Future

The United States isn’t just forfeiting its environmental leadership. It’s shipping jobs and influence to Beijing.

Bamford

Washington’s Ministry of Preemption

To stop security breaches before they happen, U.S. intelligence agencies are surveilling everything.

Aperture

An offering of fruit and flowers sits on the banks of the Rio Magdalena. Such offerings are typically made only near clean water, a resource in short supply in Mexico City.

Mexico City’s Last Living River

As urbanization spreads, pollution threatens a precious natural resource at the outer edge of the metropolis.

Things That They Carried

TTTC_mj17

The Things They Carried: The Inuit Whale Hunter

The tools and techniques of the indigenous beluga hunt.

The Exchange

A woman and baby wearing face masks walk in the Forbidden City during heavy pollution in Beijing on February 28, 2013. Beijing residents were urged to stay indoors as pollution levels soared before a sandstorm brought further misery to China's capital. AFP PHOTO / Ed Jones (Photo credit should read Ed Jones/AFP/Getty Images)

As Environmental Catastrophe Looms, Is it Ethical to Have Children?

Two philosophers discuss the morality of family planning in the age of climate change.

passport

passport_wittmeyer

Don’t Call It Brexit Radio

Union JACK Radio was supposed to celebrate the quirks of British culture, from tea and scones to Mr. Bean. Then came Brexit. Then came the angry tweets.

Alicia P.Q. Wittmeyer

Carles Puigdemont, president of the government of Catalonia, waves to supporters in Barcelona on Jan. 10, 2016. (Lluis Gene/AFP/Getty Images)

A Secessionist Abroad

The president of Catalonia will have the vanilla.

Benjamin Soloway

Workers erect a brick wall at the former shop front of a restaurant in a hutong neighborhood near the Forbidden City in Beijing, China April 20, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter - RTS1340S

How to Destroy the Heart of a Chinese City

Beijing is wrecking migrants' shops and lives — and the capital's spirit with them.

passport_kenner

How Trump Backlash Is Funding a Refugee Camp School in Lebanon

The financial challenges are daunting – but Donald Trump has unwittingly spurred a wave of donations that will help educate thousands of children.

Recent Issues

The cover of Foreign Policy's fall 2023 print magazine shows a jack made up of joined hands lifting up the world. Cover text reads: The Alliances That Matter Now: Multilateralism is at a dead end, but powerful blocs are getting things done."

A Foreign Policy magazine cover illustration shows a glowing AI projection figure emerging from a pile of technological machinery and semiconductors. The on-image text reads: The Scramble for AI. Paul Scharre, Stanley McChrystal, Alondra Nelson, and more thinkers on the dawn of a new age in geopolitics. Erik Carter illustration for Foreign Policy

spring-2023-foreign-policy-magazine-cover

Lessons-Next-War-Foreign-Policy-magazine-cover-Winter-2023

Fall 2022 Foreign Policy magazine cover. Illustration by Vasava for Foreign Policy

A movie-poster style illustration shows a Delorean headed back to the foreign-policy future

Loading graphics