by afew
Fri Dec 4th, 2009 at 04:35:03 AM EST
Foreign Policy has one of those wonderful end-of-year rankings up. This one is very important, since it lists the 100 Top Global Thinkers.
Foreign Policy's First Annual List of the 100 Top Global Thinkers | Foreign Policy
From the brains behind Iran's Green Revolution to the economic Cassandra who actually did have a crystal ball, they had the big ideas that shaped our world in 2009. Read on to see the 100 minds that mattered most in the year that was.
That sets the tone pretty well. It's "he said, she said", but with the subjacent balance tipping towards the essential rightness of the American way. Another colour revolution on the move, and even Cassandra Roubini is a credit to the system for having been proved right. The system works just great, as we can see by the choice of Number One Mind-That-Mattered-Most:
Foreign Policy's First Annual List of the 100 Top Global Thinkers | Foreign Policy
1. Ben Bernanke
for staving off a new Great Depression.
The Zen-like chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve might not have topped the list solely for turning his superb academic career into a blueprint for action, for single-handedly reinventing the role of a central bank, or for preventing the collapse of the U.S. economy. But to have done all of these within the span of a few months is certainly one of the greatest intellectual feats of recent years. Not long ago a Princeton University professor writing paper after paper on the Great Depression, "Helicopter Ben" spent 2009 dropping hundreds of billions in bailouts seemingly from the skies, vigilantly tracking interest rates, and coordinating with counterparts across the globe. His key insight? The need for massive, damn-the-torpedoes intervention in financial markets.
Yes, "Helicopter Ben" has single-handedly staved off the Great Depression we were going to get without him.
Scanning the list, "fair and balanced he said she said" seems to be the rule. Number Two is Obama, for...
"reimagining America's role in the world". He may fail, though, says Foreign Policy. And gives Dick Cheney the 13th spot (after the Clintons, all the same), "for his full-throated defense of American power".
Foreign Policy's First Annual List of the 100 Top Global Thinkers | Foreign Policy
In May, Cheney delivered his most vociferous argument for Bush's national security policies yet -- just minutes after Obama finished a speech on the same topic a mere mile away. Cheney's case for "enhanced interrogation" didn't budge an inch on the moral, legal, and strategic purity of the issue: Such techniques were, he said, "legal, essential, justified, successful, and the right thing to do." By delivering an unapologetic broadside against Obama at a time when many Republicans were apprehensive of refighting the national security battles of the Bush era, Cheney established himself as the most prominent dissenting voice in a moment of Democratic Party dominance.
"In the fight against terrorism, there is no middle ground, and half-measures keep you half-exposed." --Cheney, speech on May 21, 2009
Meanwhile, at Number Eight,
Foreign Policy's First Annual List of the 100 Top Global Thinkers | Foreign Policy
8. David Petraeus
for reshaping the way the U.S. military goes to war.
Really?
There are lots of other plums in there, like the defence of Benedict XVI, the inclusion yet now of Henry Kissinger in the 100 Minds That Shaped etc, but pick them out for yourselves.
The overall feeling it leaves me with is that Foreign Policy's "Reader's Digest" kind of world is imperturbably the same. The US's foreign and military policy has been disastrous in this decade? Never mind, ignore that, though you may have to include a few critics just to show "balance". American-led globalizing financial capitalism ran into the wall? Not really, look, Roubini, Stiglitz, and Krugman are American too, and Bernanke and Summers have saved us. Don't look down at the waves, just keep walking.
