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Steve Bannon addresses the 2017 California Republican Party Convention in Anaheim on Oct. 20. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images)

The Political Operative Shaping President Trump’s ‘America First’ Agenda

From Breitbart News to the White House, Steve Bannon represents a powerful and disruptive force that has reshaped American politics.

Director Roya Sadat on set in Kabul on Nov. 19. (Jesse Dittmar for Foreign Policy)

The Director Bringing the Story of Afghan Women to the Screen

As a teenager, Roya Sadat organized performances dramatizing the Taliban’s appalling treatment of women. Today, she is one of the country’s most prominent filmmakers.

Ho Dang Hoa in Hanoi on Nov. 22. (Jesse Dittmar for Foreign Policy)

The Producer Helping Show the Vietnam War in a New Light

In Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's “The Vietnam War,” Ho Dang Hoa shaped the Vietnamese side of the story.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi attends an Arab League summit in Jordan on March 29. (Khalil Mazraawi/AFP/Getty Images)

The Prime Minister Putting His Country Back Together

Haider al-Abadi has one of the world’s hardest jobs: driving ISIS out of Iraq, launching reforms to the public sector, and preventing his country from being used as a battleground.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in speaks at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington on June 28. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu via Getty Images)

The President Trying to Rebuild Decent Democratic Leadership

Despite inheriting a corruption scandal and a looming threat to the north, South Korean President Moon Jae-in is pushing for open government, dialogue, and peace.

Demonstrators participate in a “Me Too” survivors’ march in Los Angeles on Nov. 12. (David McNew/Getty Images)

The Women Who Came Forward

In 2017, what started as a trickle became a waterfall, as women across the world began sharing stories of sexual harassment and assault as part of the #MeToo campaign.

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FP’s 2017 Leading Global Thinkers

2017 was a year of reckoning. These minds found remarkable ways not just to rethink our strange new world but also to reshape it.

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How to Share Tips and Documents with Foreign Policy

FP offers a variety of ways for you to contact us securely and anonymously.

Anti-government protesters guard the perimeter of Independence Square, known as Maidan, on February 19, 2014 in Kiev, Ukraine. (Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images)

The Poet Laureate of Hybrid War

The tragicomic absurdities of 21st century warfare are finally being transformed into literature.

The tailor's room, where Lorena Enebral Perez fell to the ground after being shot in the room's doorway. After being cleaned of Perez' blood, the room has been unused since the September 11 shooting death of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) physiotherapist Lorena Enebral Perez (38), at the Mazar-i Sharif ICRC Orthopaedic Centre, which caters for the rehabilitation of Afghans with severe physical disabilities like amputations and paraplegia as well as those suffering from congenital diseases with physical side-effects like polio and cerebral palsy. Enebral Perez was shot by a patient who had had his polio treated at the orthopaedic centre for 19 years. The motive for the killing is still unclear. The orthopaedic centre closed in the days that followed the death. Passive security upgrades are being implemented and ICRC hopes to reopen soon.

One Deadly Bullet Shatters Thousands in Afghanistan

The International Committee of the Red Cross is “first in, last out” of conflict zones. Their scaling back in Afghanistan is a bad sign.

STRALSUND, GERMANY - SEPTEMBER 16:  A vandalized billboard showing German Chancellor and Christian Democrat (CDU) Angela Merkel stands on September 16, 2017 Stralsund, Germany. Merkel is seeking a fourth term in federal elections scheduled for September 24. She currently holds an approximate 16-point lead over her main rival, German Social Democrat (SPD) Martin Schulz. Both the German Greens Party and the Free Democrats (FDP) are hoping to position themselves to be part of the next coalition government. The right-wing, populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) will likely finish above the 5% election votes minimum and hence win seats in the Bundestag.  (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

The Dam Will Hold. Until It Doesn’t.

Europe has managed to slow the flow of migrants, at least for now — but is undermining its most-cherished values in the process.

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Nearly There, but Never Further Away

Europe has outsourced the dirty work of border control to Libyan militias. In doing so, it has turned African migrants into commodities to be captured, sold, and traded like slaves.

LAMPEDUSA, ITALY - MAY 19: A man is helped off a small rubber boat by crew members from NGO Sea-Eye on May 19, 2017 in international waters off the coast of Libya.  (Photo by Christian Marquardt/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The Savior’s Dilemma

Are naval search-and-rescue operations saving migrants’ lives — or just encouraging them to take greater risks?

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All for Nothing

Migrants who fail to reach Europe face humiliation, isolation, and impoverishment at home.

AGADEZ, Niger - Adji, driver. Adji has a wife a two children, and also cares for his deceased brother's eight children. He says the EU policy has made it too risky for him to continue driving as his family cannot survive if he were to be arrested. He has not found other work though, and his family is struggling to buy their daily rice.

A historical smuggling hub through which as many as 13,000 migrants passed each month in 2016, Agadez has been the site of a recent crackdown on human smugglers after the EU struck a $635 million deal with Nigerian authorities to keep a lid on migration. (Photo by Nichole Sobecki)

My Smuggler, My Savior

They’re migrants’ only chance of making it safely across the Sahara. They’re also outlaws engaged in a deadly game of cat and mouse with Niger’s military.

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Global Thinkers 2015 Issue Cover