Foreign Policy Magazine - Champ or Chump?

Foreign Policy at the newstand. It was the Jan/Feb 2006 issue with our interesting neighbor down in Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, on the cover. The dominant cutline right over a photo of the grinning leader read, "Hugo Boss - How Chavez is refashioning dictatorship for a democratic age".

Frankly, I was intrigued by the cover (score one for them) and bought it. The editorial was solid and broached a few subjects that I had not previously encountered. The article on the NRA as global lobby and the story about Vladimir Putin's crackdown on the new oligarchs in Russia were more interesting but no less disturbing on some levels. And that is a good thing.

The layout is mostly two-column in layout and easy to read. The art direction is ok with the only real letdown being the oft visited area of Bangladesh for the amazing destruction of massive ships by hand. This subject has been visited in many other magazines with much more potent production values to gain much ground with readers here.

The publisher is the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace which makes you suspect where they might lean but I really didn't detect any major slant. Another plus.

All in all Foreign Policy gets it right I hope to see them increase their current publishing schedule to a more frequent one. Overall I'd rate this beast at a solid B which may not make it a full bore Champ but it is definately not a Chump. Check it out.