FP This Week: Our editor’s dispatch from COP27

Plus, a landmark essay on the cult of Modi. [Foreign Policy This Week]( November 07, 2022 | [View in browser]( To access all the benefits of an FP subscription, [sign in]( or [subscribe](. Thanks for reading. “The clock is ticking,” said U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres in a speech kicking off this year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP27. “We are in the fight of our lives—and we’re losing.” I’m in Sharm el-Sheikh this week, as more than a hundred world leaders convene at this Red Sea resort town in Egypt to discuss how to manage the climate crisis. More than 40,000 people are attending this year, and one imagines the delegates are driven by ambition, hope, and a desire for change. But when you listen to the speeches from world leaders here, it can feel as if you’ve heard it all before. The clock, after all, has been ticking for decades. The very fact that there is a COP27 means that we’ve been here 26 times before. Climate conferences have come to follow a pattern: Rich countries call for decarbonization; poor countries ask for funding to do so; lukewarm agreements are arrived at; the minimal promises made are rarely kept. And this year, the leaders of three of the four most populous countries—China, India, and Indonesia—are not even attending. Is it all doom and gloom? Yes and no. For starters, the movement to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius has likely failed. We’re more than halfway there, and the trend lines don’t look great. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth continuing to fight to reduce emissions and prevent things from getting even worse. Simultaneously, two other issues are likely to get significant airtime in Sharm el-Sheikh this week in a way that wasn’t politically feasible in the past. The first of these is adaptation: Climate change is already devastating the world, whether it’s flooding in Pakistan or typhoons in the Americas, and countries need to build resilience to deal with the world’s reality. The second is the idea of dealing with our carbon legacy. While efforts must be made to limit new emissions, we need to fund measures to capture the immense amounts of carbon already in the atmosphere. Both these ideas once seemed as if they would get in the way of efforts to reduce emissions. The mood has now changed; the world needs an “all of the above” approach. As always, it’ll come down to the money: how to finance these projects, how to unlock public- private partnerships, and, perhaps most of all, how to ensure leaders deliver on the things they promise.—Ravi Agrawal, FP editor in chief P.S. If you’re at COP27, a series of public and private events hosted by Foreign Policy kicks off tomorrow. Panels feature leaders, experts and advocates working at the intersection of foreign policy and climate change. On the ground in Sharm el-Sheikh? Consider [joining us](. --------------------------------------------------------------- New and Noteworthy - Meet Iran’s Gen Z: With a rise in repression, the selection of a hard-line government, and a rotten economy that benefits only the well-connected elite, those in power in Iran are telling Iranian youth that their lives don’t matter. Frustrated and angry with the status quo, Iran’s Generation Z is shaking up the aging clerical establishment to a degree not seen since the country’s 1979 revolution. [Read “Meet Iran’s Gen Z: the Driving Force Behind the Protests.”]( - U.S. Midterms: If, as predicted, Republicans gain control of the U.S. Congress, the consequences will be felt all over the world. Will U.S. support for Ukraine continue apace? Will a beleaguered President Joe Biden get tougher on China and Saudi Arabia? Executive editor Amelia Lester posed these and other questions to FP’s team of reporters on FP Live. [Read a condensed transcript of the conversation]( - The Taiwan Question: Since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine this year, there has been plenty of analysis of the conflict’s possible lessons for future wars, including implications for a potential military confrontation between the United States and China over Taiwan. Yet military planners and decision-makers are better served by focusing on the supposed lessons from Russia’s war about what they should avoid. [Read “6 Wrong Lessons for Taiwan From the War in Ukraine.”]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Exercise Your Mind The Ethiopian federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front signed a truce on Wednesday after two years of war. Which country helped mediate the negotiations? - Rwanda - South Africa - Zimbabwe - Ghana You can find the answer to this question at the end of this email. [Click here]( to take the rest of our weekly news quiz—and [sign up]( to get notified when new editions are available. --------------------------------------------------------------- Most Popular on FP - [The Obvious Climate Strategy Nobody Will Talk About]( by Ted Nordhaus, Vijaya Ramachandran, and Patrick Brown - [What China’s Past Can Tell Us About Xi’s Future]( by Howard W. French - [The U.N. (as We Know It) Won’t Survive Russia’s War in Ukraine]( by James Traub - [Pakistan’s Military Is Afraid of Imran Khan]( by Azeem Ibrahim - [Inside the Drug Trade in the Americas]( by FP Contributors --------------------------------------------------------------- Long Read: The Cult of Modi “India claims to be the largest democracy in the world, and its ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), claims to be the largest political organization in the world (with a membership base [even greater]( than that of the Chinese Communist Party). Since May 2014, both the BJP and the government have been in thrall to the wishes—and occasionally the whims—of a single individual, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. An extraordinary personality cult has been constructed around Modi, its manifestations visible in state as well as party propaganda, in eulogies in the press, in adulatory invocations of his apparently transformative leadership by India’s leading entrepreneurs, celebrities, and sports stars. This essay seeks to place the cult of Modi in comparative and cultural context. It will show how it arose, the hold it has over the Indian imagination, and its consequences for the country’s political and social future…” [Continue reading on Foreign Policy]( This essay was written by Ramachandra Guha, a historian and biographer and the author of books including Environmentalism: A Global History and India After Gandhi. Image Credit: Matthieu Bourel illustration for Foreign Policy --------------------------------------------------------------- From Around FP - Negotiating a Criminal Justice Bill Across Party Lines: Last week on our podcast [The Negotiators]( we spoke to Jessica Jackson, a lawyer and one of the key advocates for the First Step Act, a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill passed during Donald Trump’s presidency. Jackson and political commentator Van Jones co-founded the group #Cut50, which helped advocate for the legislation. Listen on [Apple Podcasts](, [Spotify](, or wherever you get your podcasts. - Just Announced: Join Foreign Policy on Dec. 1 for the [fourth annual Her Power Summit]( where we will convene leaders, experts, and change-makers across policy, business, and civil society working to defend women’s rights and ensure greater equity and inclusion around the world. Prepare for this event by [signing up]( for a timely discussion in partnership with the Population Institute on Nov. 15, which will consider how strengthening investments in women and girls is central to achieving greater security and prosperity for communities around the world. Are you interested in learning more about FP Analytics’ cutting-edge research services, hosting an FP Virtual Dialogue event, or building a podcast with FP Studios? [Explore partnership opportunities]( Answer: 2) South Africa --------------------------------------------------------------- Keep up with the world without stopping yours. Download the Foreign Policy app to create a personalized feed based on your interests, save articles for future (or offline) reading, and listen to FP podcasts all in one place. [Install for free.]( FOLLOW FP ON This email was sent to {EMAIL} because you are subscribed to the FP This Week newsletter. Want a friend to receive this newsletter? [Forward it]( now. 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