This February, we at Foreign Policy Digest have focused on the global problem of corruption, defined by Transparency International (TI) as “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain.” Unfortunately, such abuse infiltrates all manner of activities, from national elections to international investment, from petty bribes for public officials to the funneling of millions of dollars of aid to anonymous bank accounts. As TI explains, “In the worst cases, corruption costs lives. In countless other cases, it costs their freedom, health, or money. It has dire global consequences, trapping millions in poverty and misery, while breeding social, economic and political unrest.”

Our feature articles this month examine the various forms corruption takes, the costs it imposes, and the efforts employed to counter its crippling effects.

This month, as we embark on a new decade filled with both great opportunity and uncertainty, Foreign Policy Digest has chosen the theme of “Hope” for its January 2010 issue. Specifically, we have chosen to examine the ways in which nations and individuals across global regions continue to find reasons for optimism in what at first sight often appear to be the least likely of places. In so doing, we hope to bring attention to the easy-to-overlook results of the collective labors of so many nameless men and women across the world who continue to give us reason to hope for a better world.

Foreign Policy Digest is pleased to present the following interview with Monika Kalra Varma, the Director of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. Ms. Varma sat down with Adam Benz, Foreign Policy Digest's Editor-in-Chief, to discuss ways in which the U.S. and international community can best assist Haiti with the country's current humanitarian crisis and in its longterm goals of building a better future for the Haitian people. 

Foreign Policy Digest is pleased to present the following interview with Monika Kalra Varma, the Director of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. Ms. Varma sat down with Adam Benz, Foreign Policy Digest's Editor-in-Chief, to discuss ways in which the U.S. and international community can best assist Haiti with the country's current humanitarian crisis and in its longterm goals of building a better future for the Haitian people.