2015globalthinkers.foreignpolicy.comThe Year of Changing Our Minds: The Leading Global Thinkers of 2015

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Hickey Saxon Stiller The 2015 Global Thinkers Back Decision-Makers Angela Merkel Margot Wallström Ben Rhodes Ricardo Zuniga Roberta Jacobson Josefina Vidal Yanis Varoufakis Ali Akbar Salehi Ernest Moniz Vladimir Putin Sheikh Hasina Mohammed bin Salman Ameenah Gurib-Fakim Challengers Khaled al-Asaad Radhika Coomaraswamy Rodrigo Janot Eamon Gilmore Christopher & Regina Catrambone Anthony Kennedy Jim Obergefell Eka Zguladze-Glucksmann Selahattin Demirtas Fei-Fei Li Olga Russakovsky Erin Summers Zainab Ghadiyali Robyn Ayman Odeh Catherine Murphy Nicola Sturgeon Margrethe Vestager Iván Velásquez Loretta Lynch Shukria Barakzai Innovators Theresa Dankovich Nina Tandon Miguel Nicolelis Justin Sanchez Anthony Zador Michael Cima Robert Langer Amy-Willard Cross Thelle Kristensen Hans Jørgen Wiberg Daniel Fletcher Advocates Joanne Liu Wai Wai Nu Johnetta Elzie DeRay Mckesson Peter Bloom Mara Glennie Lenore Zietsman Andreja Pejic Nick Bostrom Sabeen Mahmud Cecile Richards Pierre Claver Mbonimpa Li Tingting Rebecca Gomperts Artists Tanya Bruguera María Magdalena Campos-Pons Sonita Alizadeh Banksy Invisible Borders Carla Dirlikov Canales Helly Luv Lin-Manuel Miranda Fabrice Monteiro Njideka Akunyili Crosby Fiona Hall Hanya Yanagihara Suzan-Lori Parks Vahagn Thomasian Ara Oshagan Levon Parian Gene Luen Yang Mike Holmes Adejoke Tugbiyele Serik Abishev Adilkhan Yerzhanov Healers George Church Robert Garry Alexander Bukreyev Michelle Meyer Mosoka Fallah Waleed Hassanein Donald Ingber Kim Lewis Slava Epstein Dena Marrinucci Stewards Christiana Figueres Trang Tran Pope Francis Amelia Telford Suhail al-Mazrouei Akon Anne Hidalgo Rachel Notley Chai Jing Gina McCarthy Marjan Minnesma Boyan Slat Kinlay Dorjee Chroniclers Khadija Ismayilova Anas Aremeyaw Anas Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently Alice Bowman Robin Hammond Marlon James Mário Macilau Johanna Schwartz Rosetta Mission Team Tobias Zielony Raif Badawi Leslee Udwin Eka Kurniawan Matthew Heineman Chigozie Obioma Moguls Rajan Adandan Emily Leproust Laura Mather Tawni Cranz Shannon Schuyler Ayesha Khanna SHARE HOME DECISION-MAKERS CHALLENGERS INNOVATORS ADVOCATES ARTISTS HEALERS STEWARDS CHRONICLERS MOGULS STATISTICS credits All Global Thinkers The 2015 GLOBAL THINKERS Previous Next ESSAYS / Q&As Previous Next fp global thinkers 2014 fp global thinkers 2013 Previous Close Next 2 of 10Previous Close Next 2 of 10Home Welcome Decision-Makers Challengers Innovators Advocates Artists Healers Stewards Chroniclers Moguls Statistics A World Disrupted: The Leading Global Thinkers of 2014next Welcome to our seventh annual special issue featuring FP’s 100 Leading Global Thinkers. Welcome to our seventh annual special issue featuring FP’s 100 Leading Global Thinkers. If the events of last year — from the rise of the Islamic State to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — harbingered the fracturing of the world, then 2015 showed that some wounds can in fact be healed. Historic agreements with Iran, Cuba, and Greece all emerged from months, even decades, of hard-fought, spirited negotiations. Common ground, whether political, economic, or moral, ultimately bested the power of indifference. Other stories showed that public opinion, no matter how seemingly intransigent, can change: In both the United States and heavily Catholic Ireland, for instance, same-sex marriage is now legal. Yet despite this headway, the work of curing what ails the world is not done. This year’s Global Thinkers represent how the struggle — from Raqqa to Washington, Athens to Kabul — continues. While some of them are impediments, many more have generated ideas that could promise humankind a better future. DECISION-MAKERS Decision-Makers Getting to yes is rarely easy. This year, however, diplomats and politicians came together to open long-closed doors in Iran and Cuba, bring Greece back from the precipice of collapse (for now, at least), and address a refugee crisis of epic proportions. Other Global Thinkers made headlines for forging a feminist foreign policy, tackling climate change despite a poor country’s economic limitations, and seeking to place science at the heart of national development. For good or evil, this cohort held some of the world’s most important keys. meet the decision-makers CHALLENGERS Challengers No belief was too deep-seated, no institution too entrenched, and no cause too daunting for these Global Thinkers to tackle in the name of effecting change. Some of them targeted corruption in organizations so powerful they were previously thought to be untouchable. One gave his life to protect ancient history. Another united long-fractured Arab political parties in Israel. And several threw wrenches into the plans of dictators, oligarchs, and other powerful interests by demanding or designing government reform. Each of these thinkers, in other words, proved that even sacred cows can be toppled. meet the challengers INNOVATORS Innovators An iPhone app that serves as eyes for the blind. A book with pages that clean dirty water. A device that turns a smartphone into a microscope capable of diagnosing tropical diseases. A process for growing new bones in a lab using human stem cells. A digital index that grades businesses on their support for gender equality. The groundbreaking work from this group of Global Thinkers serves as a snapshot of the leaps forward that technology took in 2015 — and of the good this progress can do for global health, human rights, security, and more. meet the innovators ADVOCATES Advocates These Global Thinkers stood in solidarity with some of the world’s most vulnerable populations, from transgender individuals to victims of sexual abuse, ethnic minorities to civilians caught in the crosshairs of war. They used social media to build unprecedented political movements, offered safe spaces for discussion in societies that restrict free speech, and educated publics about taboo subjects. Some were bullied for their work. One survived an assassination attempt; another was not so lucky. But no matter the risks involved, for these advocates the fight for justice was necessary. meet the advocates ARTISTS Artists Across a range of media — rap, opera, sculpture, filmmaking, and more — these Global Thinkers are bound by the belief that art serves a higher purpose. They have challenged the Islamic State with verses, staged apocalyptic scenes to warn of the dangers of pollution, bent the constraints of theatrical genres to illuminate new creative pathways, and built a distorted theme park that scrutinized the failures of Western culture. If all the world’s a stage, these individuals have trained spotlights on pressing issues and viewpoints that demand more of the global audience’s attention. meet the artists HEALERS Healers Many of these Global Thinkers racked up firsts: developing some of the first tools to combat Ebola, devising the first successful method to keep transplant hearts viable without putting them on ice, and replicating human organs so that, for the first time, animals might not be needed for medical testing. Other Global Thinkers, meanwhile, went back to basics — or even ancient history: digging in the dirt to find new antibiotics, for instance, and working to revive the woolly mammoth. Yet they were all on a shared quest to protect and improve the world’s health. meet the healers STEWARDS Stewards From the Vatican’s pulpit to Australia’s Aboriginal communities, the halls of the United Nations to the rice fields of Vietnam, these Global Thinkers wielded influence across diverse locales in hopes of...