2023
In a year marked by wars, crises, and the policy debates surrounding them, much of Foreign Policy’s coverage was understandably focused on the current state of the world. But we wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t also ask our writers to step back and look beyond the news. Here are five of the sharpest articles looking at the geopolitical picture from 20,000 feet.
1. 6 Swing States Will Decide the Future of Geopolitics
By Cliff Kupchan, June 6
Instead of the usual debates pitting a global north against a global south, a more useful view of the non-Western world would focus on how key middle powers are changing global balance of power. These swing states should be the focus of U.S. strategy, Cliff Kupchan argues in a widely read essay.
2. The Battle for Eurasia
By Hal Brands, June 4
Hal Brands has written a series of magisterial essays on geopolitics and strategy for Foreign Policy, with more to come in 2024. In this article, he takes the long view and describes the global realignments that define the post-post-Cold War age.
Foreign Policy illustration/Getty Images
3. No, the World Is Not Multipolar
By Jo Inge Bekkevold, Sept. 22
Debunking conventional wisdom, Jo Inge Bekkevold argues that the world is still very far from having true centers of power other than the United States and China—and that misunderstanding the nature of the global system will lead to faulty and dangerous strategies.
4. Is There Such Thing as a Global South?
By C. Raja Mohan, Dec. 9
Raja Mohan takes an analytical scalpel to the notion of a global south. He argues that no such category exists, not least because of widely divergent interests and ideologies among the 120-some countries usually put into this bucket. Pretending otherwise denies agency to those individual countries and muddies debates, Mohan writes, but he isn’t holding his breath for the idea to go away.
5. Lessons for the Next War
By FP contributors, Jan. 5
For the cover story of our Winter 2023 print issue, Foreign Policy asked 12 experts to distill the most important lessons from Russia’s war in Ukraine that might help prevent, deter, or—if necessary—fight the next war. As confrontation heats up in East Asia and elsewhere over the coming years, these lessons could make the difference between war and peace.