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The Fix: How Nations Survive and Thrive in a World

in Decline
by Jonathan Tepperman
Reviewed by G. John Ikenberry
Get the news you want from Penguin Random House

September 20, 2016We all know the bad news. The heady promise of the Arab Spring has given
way to repression, civil war, and an epic refugee crisis. Economic growth is sputtering. Income
inequality is rising around the world. And the threat of the self-declared Islamic State and other
extremist groups keeps spreading. We are living in an age of unprecedented, irreversible declineor
so we're constantly being told.
The FIX: How Nations Survive and Thrive in a World in Decline, the new book by Foreign
Affairs Managing Editor Jonathan Tepperman, presents a very different picture. The bookon
sale September 20 by Tim Duggan Booksreveals the often-overlooked good news stories, offering a
provocative, unconventional take on the answers hiding in plain sight. It identifies ten pervasive and
seemingly impossible challengesincluding immigration reform, economic stagnation, political
gridlock, corruption, and Islamic terrorismand shows that, contrary to the general consensus,
each of these problems has a solution, and not just a theoretical one. . . . Theyve all been tried, and
they work. The trick is knowing where to look for them.
In his close analysis of government initiatives as diverse as Brazil's Bolsa Famlia program,
Indonesia's campaign against extremism, Canada's early embrace of multiculturalism, and Mayor
Michael Bloomberg's reform of the New York Police Department, Tepperman isolates the universally
applicable measures that can boost and buttress equality, incomes, cooperation, and cohesion in
wildly diverse societies. He flips conventional political wisdom on its head, showing, for example,
how much the U.S. Congress could learn about compromise and conciliation from its counterpart in
Mexico.
Tepperman has traveled the world to write this book, conducting more than a hundred interviews
with the heads of state and other innovators responsible for these unexpected success stories. His
access and expertise make THE FIX a work of unusual insight, focused on the people and leadership
lessons behind the policies. Meticulously researched and deeply reported, it presents practical advice
for aspiring problem-solvers of all stripes, and stands as a necessary corrective to the hand-wringing
and grim prognostication that dominates the news these days, making a data-driven case for
optimism in a time of crushing pessimism.
Abandoning hope certainly is tempting, especially at a moment when so many things seem to be
going wrong with the world, Tepperman writes. Fortunately, for us, its also unnecessary.
You may also view a video trailer for THE FIX and Teppermans recent TED Talk about the risky
politics of progress. Plus, an interview with Foreign Affairs about the book.
For review copies or to schedule an interview with Tepperman, please contact Zachary Hastings
Hooper, 202.531.2512 or zhh@caliboguecomms.com.

We hear every day about all the perils and problems we face. Along comes this
wonderful, intelligent, well-written book that tells us about all the solutions. Traveling
around the world, Tepperman has found countries that took on big challenges, from
inequality to immigration, and found innovative solutions. This book will inform and
enlighten youand cheer you up. Fareed Zakaria, author of The Post-American World
If you care about understanding the world or improving it, this book is not to be
missed. It may very well change the face of leadership. Adam Grant, author of Originals:
How Non-Conformists Move the World
It is easy to look at the world today and see nothing but a spiral of disorder, dysfunction, and decline.
In this wonderfully engaging book, Teppermanthe managing editor of this magazinetours the
world looking for political success stories that cut against this gloomy outlook. The book identifies
ten common but particularly difficult problems, including inequality, immigration, civil war,
corruption, and political gridlock, and argues that they are fixable when leaders act boldly. For
each problem, Tepperman finds a free-thinking and experimental leader (or leaders) who defied the
odds and achieved success. In the early years of this century, for example, President Luiz Inacio Lula
da Silva of Brazil developed a ground-breaking poverty-fighting program, Bolsa Famlia, that gave
small monthly grants to mothers to feed and educate their families. And for the past two decades, the
democratic leaders of post-Suharto Indonesia have steered their country toward a moderate form
of politics that has undercut Islamist radicalism. From his fascinating travelogue, Tepperman offers
lessons for a world in trouble: leaders need to think outside the box, embrace the possibilities that
crises present, and respect systems of checks and balances. The pragmatic reform tradition
that the book illuminates is apparently still alive.

AWARDS
Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year AwardLONGLIST 2016
PRAISE
Longlisted for the 2016 Financial Times Business Book of the Year
An indispensable handbook. . . . Smart and agile. . . . The timing of this book could not be better. . . . Tepperman goes into impressive detail
in each case study and delivers assessments in clear, pared-down prose. Michael Hirsh, The New York Times Book Review
Persuasive. . . . The success of Canadian multiculturalism provides just one of 10 engagingly written case studies in Jonathan Teppermans
book. . . . The Fix makes an acute point in its attempt to recover a lost sense of optimism. The Financial Times
A readable and fascinating book. . . . Tepperman provides a refreshing and timely challenge to the idea that any of these problems are
insurmountable. Simon Johnson, Finance & Development
An enjoyable and informative book. . . . Tepperman does a wonderful job of illustrating that government leaders can achieve great things if
they put their minds to it. The Washington Monthly

Just when it looks like the worlds problems couldnt get much worse, The Fix cuts through the gloom like a ray of sunshine. With storytelling
reminiscent of Michael Lewis and a surgeons eye for detail, Tepperman takes us on an eye-opening tour of the planets local villages, cabinet
rooms, and presidential palaceswhere a few outstanding leaders have made real strides toward solving colossal economic and political
challenges. If you care about understanding the world or improving it, this book is not to be missed. It may very well change the face of
leadership. Adam Grant, author of Originals
Readers looking for good news will love this book. Tepperman makes a compelling case, in lively and personal prose, that strong leaders
willing to forsake political orthodoxy for good ideas can actually solve the toughest problems the world faces. Governments from Brazil to
Canada to Indonesia have successfully tackled problems ranging from inequality to immigration to radical Islam. All is not lost! AnneMarie Slaughter, author of Unfinished Business
The Fix is a refreshing and readable new way of looking at the world. Tepperman combines old-fashioned reporting, storytelling, and social
science to create a roadmap for solving todays great problems, from radicalism to inequality to political paralysis. Anyone disheartened by
the current state of affairs should read this original, super-smart, and eye-opening book. Charles Duhigg, author of Smarter Faster
Better
We hear every day about all the perils and problems we face. Along comes this wonderful, intelligent, well-written book that tells us about all
the solutions. Traveling around the world, Tepperman has found countries that took on big challenges, from inequality to immigration, and
found innovative solutions. This book will inform and enlighten youand cheer you up. Fareed Zakaria, author of The Post-American
World
The Fix is the book weve been waiting for, one that tackles the seemingly insurmountable problems of our timefrom inequality to partisan
gridlock to terrorism. Best of all, it offers solutions. By showing how countries around the world have overcome these problems, The Fixbrings
hope when we need it most. Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive
Despair no more. In this original and engaging book, Tepperman takes on the declinist conventional wisdom with insight and vigor. There are
answers out there, he argues: all we need to do is look around, and learn. A wise and timely book. Jon Meacham, author of Destiny and
Power

BOOK REVIEW
Here Are 10 Practical Solutions to the Worlds Big Problems
By MICHAEL HIRSHSEPT. 29, 2016
The timing of this book could not be better. Big Think has run into a ditch. No one appears to agree on fundamental ideas about
governing anymore, and were not even sure what were arguing about. The grand ideological debates of the 20th and early 21st
centuries capitalism versus socialism, democracy versus authoritarianism today seem too broad, tired and pointless, and little
has come along to replace them. Globalization, the economic paradigm of our era, has become an epithet in the mouths of
insurgent politicians exploiting middle-class discontent on both right and left (that would be you, Donald Trump and Bernie
Sanders). The people in power on both sides of the aisle and the Atlantic, the so-called establishment, still seem surprised by the
magnitude of the backlash by Trump, by Sanders, by Brexit, by the deepening anger and confused about how to respond. And
with no one pointing a way through the paralysis, either in Washington or Western capitals like Brussels, democracy itself has
seemed to curdle, especially with the Arab Spring degenerating into something close to civilizational collapse.
We are in other words utterly adrift, ideologically speaking. Its hardly a surprise the vacuum of ideas is being filled, in the political
arena, by atavistic impulses like nationalism, racism and xenophobia.

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PRIVACY POLICY
Jonathan Teppermans smart and agile answer to this gathering darkness, as he calls it, is to take a giant step back from the
larger, paralyzed debate. In The Fix: How Nations Survive and Thrive in a World in Decline, Tepperman sets aside Big Think to
serve up a smorgasbord of small think: practical, microcosmic solutions to big problems in sometimes surprising places from
Brazil to Botswana to New York City. Tepperman, the managing editor of Foreign Affairs, offers what he calls a data-driven case
for optimism at a time when most of us have glumly concluded that our governments are broken and our domestic and
international problems are insurmountable. He divides his good news book into chapters on what he describes as the Terrible
Ten problems: inequality, immigration, Islamic extremism, civil war, corruption, the resource curse, energy, the middle-income trap (the difficulty countries have in making the leap from developmental success to wealthy-nation status) and two kinds
of political gridlock: whats not working worldwide, and American-style. Then he travels to 10 places around the world to highlight
successful local or national solutions to these problems.
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Almost to a tale, they are stories of gutsy political pragmatism in the midst of crisis, often involving battlefield conversions by
unusually adaptable and able leaders unfettered by ideological handcuffs. In Brazil, the business community and economists
were initially horrified when Lula da Silva, a rough-hewn labor leader who had experienced extreme poverty as a child, was elected
president. But the rabble-rouser metamorphosed into the Great Conciliator, Tepperman writes, and to address Brazils terrible
income inequality Lula launched Bolsa Famlia, an innovative and relatively inexpensive cash-transfer program that didnt just
give people handouts but required counterpart responsibilities, including government demands to use some of the money to
send ones kids to school and ensure they are immunized and get regular checkups (along with their mothers). Lula ended up
winning over even conservatives in his country and dramatically reducing poverty, leading the former World Bank expert Nancy
Birdsall to conclude that Bolsa Famlia is as close as you can come to a magic bullet in development. More than 60 countries sent
experts to Brazil to study the program, and then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg based his Opportunity NYC program on Lulas idea.
Tepperman devotes a separate chapter to Bloombergs own innovative approach to breaking through Washington gridlock to
secure his prime-target city in the face of terrorist threats. Elected two months after 9/11, Bloomberg had cause to despair over
Washingtons ineptitude in counterterrorism. His response was to work around the federal government and do something no
modern American city had ever attempted: try to defend itself, by itself, Tepperman writes. Bloomberg reappointed a nononsense career N.Y.P.D. officer, Ray Kelly, as police commissioner, and Kelly rose to the challenge, becoming the citys secretary
of defense, head of the C.I.A. and ... chief architect all rolled into one, in the words of the New York University urban studies
professor Mitchell Moss. Kelly in turn hired David Cohen, a C.I.A. veteran who created a raft of new response teams and used his
knowledge of Washingtons byzantine ways to force the feds into sharing intelligence. Ignoring the Justice Departments qualms,
Kelly sent officers to 11 foreign cities to foster cop-to-cop cooperation, and deployed 100 more to muscle their way onto the federal Joint Terrorism Task Force to demand full access to F.B.I. files.
Under Bloombergs brash leadership, this all happened with admirable swiftness and efficiency: By 2002 the Police Department
had 60 fluent Arabic speakers on staff, almost double the number the F.B.I. could claim three years later, Tepperman writes. And

by the time Bloomberg left office in 2013, the F.B.I., C.I.A., Secret Service and Defense Intelligence Agency had all asked New York
for advice.
Tepperman finds successful leadership stories in some unlikely places. Among them is Mexico, which despite its reputation north
of the border (especially this election season) for runaway corruption and drug violence has begun to recover under President
Enrique Pea Nieto, who impressively exploited the despair of Mexicos political elites to forge unprecedented cooperation. In just
the first 18 months after his July 2012 election, Pea Nieto managed to bust open Mexicos smothering monopolies and
antiquated energy sector, restructure the countrys education system and modernize its tax and banking laws, Tepperman writes
(though he may have lost some of that political capital after his widely criticized August meeting with Donald Trump). Across the
world in Botswana, the cleaner than a hounds tooth Seretse Khama lifted his country beyond its dependence on the resource
curse of diamonds, building what was considered, for a time, one of the best-governed countries in the developing world a
system so structured against corruption that it is, for now, resisting the alleged abuses of his far less capable son, Ian Khama.
Though the book is not long, Tepperman goes into impressive detail in each case study and delivers his assessments in clear,
pared-down prose, careful to describe most of his success stories as experiments that could still fail. The Fix is no clip job either:
Tepperman spent considerable time flying around the globe for his own research, including interviews with Lula, Rwandas Paul
Kagame, Indonesias Joko Widodo and other leaders.
Perhaps the biggest question about Teppermans thesis is one he addresses but doesnt fully answer: whether many of these
programs are readily transferable to other places, or are unique to the political culture whence they sprang. In the end, for
example, Bloombergs version of Bolsa Famlia failed to gain traction in New York, and there are indications it may work better in
rural than in urban areas. And its somewhat easier to embrace large-scale immigration if youre Canada (another case study
Tepperman looks at), and you enjoy the worlds second-largest state by landmass (after Russia) with something like one-tenth the
population of the United States. Perhaps what scholars call the Canadian exception its avoidance of anti-immigrant backlashes has as much to do with these peculiar conditions as anything its leaders have done. Teppermans answer to the energy/climate problem is also not terribly persuasive: He cites the shale revolution as a rare American success story (these days
anyway), but that seems more an example of geological luck and greed than inspired leadership. Tepperman may also be too
sanguine about some of his political heroes: Brazils Lula is under investigation for graft, and his handpicked successor has just
been impeached.
But to answer these larger questions adequately, perhaps what we need most is a renewal of Big Think a deeper reconsideration
of the outdated ideologies of our day. In the meantime, Tepperman has produced an indispensable handbook on ways to work
around the problem.
Michael Hirsh is the national editor of Politico Magazine and the author of Capital Offense: How Washingtons Wise Men Turned Americas
Future Over to Wall Street.

KIRKUS REVIEW
Foreign Affairs managing editor Tepperman (co-editor: Iran and the Bomb: Solving the Persian Puzzle, 2012, etc.) offers a stirring account of the
achievements of risk-taking political leaders.
Based on more than 100 interviews and the authors deep understanding of international affairs, this welcome book makes a data-driven case for optimism
at a moment of gathering darkness by exploring how leaders in nations from Brazil and Canada to South Korea and Indonesia have successfully tackled
major world problems, including inequality, immigration, corruption, civil war, Islamic extremism, and others. Whats remarkable is Teppermans ability to
identify and tell the complex stories of places where realistic, pragmatic, and determined leadership at the top has triumphed over staggering challenges. In
Rwanda, where 1 million people died in civil warfare between the Hutu majority and the Tutsi minority, President Paul Kagame used local community
tribunals to foster reconciliation based on compromise. In Mexico, President Enrique Pea Nieto convinced three warring political parties to overcome
their differences and govern again. In Singapore, former Prime Minister Harry Lee created good-governance initiatives to battle serious corruption,
including a tool kit to detect wrongdoing. Perhaps most fascinating is the market-friendly cash-transfer program begun under former President Luiz Incio
Lula da Silva in Brazil, which brought some 40 million people into the middle class between 2003 and 2011. Least expected among nations overcoming
political gridlock is New York City, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg circumvented post9/11 federal inertia and built a formidable intelligence and
counterterrorism apparatus. In each instance, writes the author, government leaders ranging from repressive rulers to liberal democrats embraced crisis as
an opportunity for action. Aiming for less than perfection, they expected to make mistakes, gave no faction everything it wanted, and succeeded. While
recognizing the unique aspects of each nations experience, Tepperman finds lessons that can serve as templates elsewhere. Many readers will be astonished
to realize that these success storiesall rendered at length in polished prosehave been lurking amid excessive doom-and-gloom headlines.

An important and unusually engrossing book that merits wide attention.

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