Moisés Naím / Foreign Policy

Welcome to the new Foreign Policy magazine. This issue marks the beginning of a new phase in the life of this 30-year-old publication. In it you will find new features, new ideas, and new voices, presented in a new format created by David Herbick, an award-winning designer of several world-class magazines. Driving these changes are three paradoxes peculiar to our time:

First, the explosion of information and opinions fueled by the revolution in technology has not yielded a proportional increase in clarity and practicality. Too often the abundance of the information age seems merely to confuse and cloud our collective judgment.

Second, although international events have a greater impact on individuals, families, firms, and governments than ever before, the coverage and analysis of "foreign" news by most mainstream media has continued to diminish.

Third, at a time when the leaders of the International Monetary Fund, drug cartels, large hedge funds, multinational corporations, or Amnesty International can wield as much power as some heads of state, the bulk of international news still tends to focus on interactions among governments.

Foreign Policy magazine fills the gaps implicit in these paradoxes. Every two months we will provide you with the most provocative ideas and most relevant analyses of the powerful forces and trends reshaping the world. Our content, authored by the foremost thinkers and practitioners (including some fresh and unexpected voices), will surprise you; as a result, the headlines in your morning paper will not.

The new Foreign Policy also respects your time. If you are like us, you already have a guilt-inducing stack of "must read" books and magazines that are seldom read. Above all, Foreign Policy aims to not land in that pile. Our goal is to help you shrink it: The depth and breadth of our coverage will enable you to reduce the number of publications you feel required to follow. And no matter how complex the topic, we offer concise, jargon-free writing that you will find hard to put down.

In short, we believe that the new Foreign Policy is uniquely suited to meet the needs of well-informed, intelligent readers who want to keep up with the most important global debates and controversies of our time. We hope to oblige.