WPR at 15

Fifteen years ago, when World Politics Review began publishing original reporting and commentary on global affairs, the world was in many ways a very different place. Over the years, as the events, issues and debates at the forefront of international politics have evolved, so too has WPR. Through all the changes, though, one thing has remained constant: WPR’s commitment to quality and integrity, in the service of our mission “to help our readers identify and make sense of the events and trends shaping our world.”

We’ve selected the following 30 in-depth articles from WPR’s archives based on a variety of criteria—some for the excellence of the writing and reporting that went into them; some for the enduring importance of the issues they deal with; some for their prescience about trends whose significance was not widely recognized at the time they were written; and some for the creativeness of their approach. It is hardly an exhaustive collection, but it is representative of the range of issues, trends and ideas we have judged to be important and compelling over the past 15 years. We look forward to continue finding those important and compelling topics, and bringing them to the attention of our readers, for the next 15 years—and more!

France’s far right presidential candidate and National Front party president Marine Le Pen attends a political rally in Chateauroux, France, Feb. 26, 2012 (Sipa via AP Images).
In-DepthAsia-Pacific
History’s Postscript: The Populist Threat to Liberal Democracy
Editor’s note: The following article is one of 30 that we’ve selected from our archives to celebrate World Politics Review’s 15th anniversary. You can find the full collection here. A quarter-century ago, a virtually unknown State Department official published an article in a neoconservative policy journal. The title of the piece as well as its author would go on to acquire global fame—or perhaps notoriety. Critics did not hesitate to dismiss Francis Fukuyama’s “The End of History?” Strobe Talbott, for instance, called it “the beginning of nonsense.” Yet the article, and the subsequent book that grew out of it, was often [...]
Students leave a testing site for China’s national college entrance examinations, in Nanjing, China, July 7, 2020 (Chinatopix photo via AP Images).
In-DepthAsia-Pacific
China’s Post-Mao Generation Still a Political Wild Card
Editor’s note: The following article is one of 30 that we’ve selected from our archives to celebrate World Politics Review’s 15th anniversary. You can find the full collection here. China’s post-Mao generation, born since Mao Zedong’s 1976 death, has had formative life experiences that fundamentally differ from China’s older generations. Unlike their elders, Chinese born in the post-Mao era have not suffered the trauma of civil war, revolution, collectivization, starvation or the chaos of Mao’s Cultural Revolution. They also have been far more geographically mobile than older generations, whose ability to move freely was highly constricted by the government’s strict residential [...]
A pedestrian walks near an electric market board in Tokyo, Sept. 16, 2008 (AP photo by Katsumi Kasahara).
In-DepthAsia-Pacific
Easy Money: Monetary and Industrial Policy After the Crisis
Editor’s note: The following article is one of 30 that we’ve selected from our archives to celebrate World Politics Review’s 15th anniversary. You can find the full collection here. It’s been almost five years now since the global financial and economic crisis formally began with Lehman Brothers’ filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Sept. 15, 2008. In today’s fast-paced, high-tech, hyperconnected world, five years is an eternity. In autumn of that year, the iPhone was barely one year old and only in its second iteration. No one had ever shared a photo of their dessert on Instagram because the service was [...]
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WPR at 15
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