From the Editor

In this issue, the HPR has stepped outside its comfort zone by choosing a Covers topic on a region which often gets short shrift in political circles around Harvard and the Institute of Politics. Africa might not seem as current as health care reform, and it might not seem as sexy as drug politics or financial reform, our two most recent Covers topics. But it is important, influential, and interesting—perfect Covers material.
The HPR is also experimenting with new forms of content in this issue, and I’m not just referring to the Obama Mad Libs (p. 5). In addition to five traditional, interviews based articles, the Covers section features excerpts from two personal essays by African Harvard students (p. 17-18). We think that this new sort of content remains true to the magazine’s political focus while providing a fresh style and a new perspective. The full versions of these essays are available on our website, harvardpoliticalreview.com.
The other sections of the magazine have stayed closer to their traditional roots, but they are no less interesting for it. In the U.S. section, we cover a couple of political hot topics du jour: the filibuster (p. 21) and the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts (p. 24). Clearly the Senate is the fulcrum of American politics right now; the country will go one way or another, depending on what happens there. At press time, it looks like the Democrats may have found a way around the filibuster. But the last year has surely reminded us that it ain’t over ‘til it’s over.
In the World section, we have one country-specific article (on Chile’s presidential election, p. 28), one regional article (on Europe’s integration of Muslims, p. 30), and one worldwide article (on the Copenhagen climate change conference, p. 26). The theme is challenge: the challenge of spurring collective action on global warming, the challenge of adapting the Old World to new realities, and, in the case of Chile, tragically, the challenge of recovering from a natural, economic, and human disaster.
In Books & Arts, we have a review of Clint Eastwood’s Invictus (p. 32), which is an interesting read especially in light of the Covers article on South Africa and the upcoming World Cup (p. 9). Sports can be inspiring, our writers conclude, but do they hold as much potential for real change as some have ascribed to them?
Finally, rounding out this internationalist issue of the HPR, we have a couple of foreign policy-related interviews: one with Thomas Ricks, author, journalist, and Foreign Policy blogger (p. 36), and another with Stephen Walt, Harvard professor, author … and Foreign Policy blogger (p. 37).
But before you delve into the deep stuff, check out our special feature in the Front Section, “10 Things You Didn’t Know About Africa.” We hope that this issue of the HPR provides you with many more than that.