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Last Updated 12/18/20

The Best of 2020

Our editors’ top picks from print and web.

20 Articles

Buy a Single Copy

20 Articles

Buy a Single Copy

Table of Contents

January/February 2020

January/February 2020

How Poverty Ends

The Many Paths to Progress—and Why They Might Not Continue

Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo

January/February 2020

January/February 2020

The New China Scare

Why America Shouldn’t Panic About Its Latest Challenger

March/April 2020

March/April 2020

The Digital Dictators

How Technology Strengthens Autocracy

Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Erica Frantz, and Joseph Wright

July/August 2020

July/August 2020

Chronicle of a Pandemic Foretold

Learning From the COVID-19 Failure—Before the Next Outbreak Arrives

Michael T. Osterholm and Mark Olshaker

July/August 2020

July/August 2020

The Endangered Asian Century

America, China, and the Perils of Confrontation

Lee Hsien Loong

July/August 2020

July/August 2020

The Rise of Strategic Corruption

How States Weaponize Graft

Philip Zelikow, Eric Edelman, Kristofer Harrison, and Celeste Ward Gventer

September/October 2020

September/October 2020

Giving Up on God

The Global Decline of Religion

Ronald F. Inglehart

November/December 2020

November/December 2020

Capitalism After the Pandemic

Getting the Recovery Right

Mariana Mazzucato

November/December 2020

November/December 2020

Rogue Superpower

Why This Could Be an Illiberal American Century

Michael Beckley

November/December 2020

November/December 2020

The Transformation of Diplomacy

How to Save the State Department

William J. Burns and Linda Thomas-Greenfield

January 28, 2020

January 28, 2020

The Wounded Presidency

How Impeachment Has Shaped U.S. Foreign Policy

Timothy Naftali

The Coronavirus Could Reshape Global Order

China Is Maneuvering for International Leadership as the United States Falters

Kurt M. Campbell and Rush Doshi

The Pandemic Will Accelerate History Rather Than Reshape It

Not Every Crisis Is a Turning Point

Public Health Calls for Solidarity, Not Warfare

Policing Is the Wrong Tactic for a Disease That Preys on Inequality

Natalia Linos and Mary T. Bassett

The Coming Post-COVID Anarchy

The Pandemic Bodes Ill for Both American and Chinese Power—and for the Global Order

Civil Rights Has Always Been a Global Movement

How Allies Abroad Help the Fight Against Racism at Home

Brenda Gayle Plummer

How a Great Power Falls Apart

Decline Is Invisible From the Inside

August 27, 2020

August 27, 2020

The Revolutionary Guards Are Poised to Take Over Iran

But Does the Paramilitary Force Have What It Takes to Govern?

Ali Reza Eshraghi and Amir Hossein Mahdavi

August 28, 2020

August 28, 2020

The World Is Becoming More Equal

Even as Globalization Hurts Middle-Class Westerners

Branko Milanovic

October 23, 2020

October 23, 2020

Fighting a Pandemic Requires Trust

Governments Have to Earn It

Thomas J. Bollyky, Sawyer Crosby, and Samantha Kiernan