Seven habits of successful nations: some unlikely places around the world are tackling some of the world's toughest challenges and winning.

• Author: Kenny, Charles
• Position: The Fix: How Nations Survice and Thrive in a World in Decline - Book review

The Fix: How Nations Survice and Thrive in a World in Decline

by Jonathan Tepperman

Tim Duggan Books, 320 pp.

Jonathan Tepperman, managing editor of Foreign Affairs, is hardly sanguine about the state of the world. He points to "the slow-motion disintegration of Westphalian nation-states in multiple parts of the world" and "a growing weakness at the heart of the liberal, rules-based global order." But he hasn't given up hope. The Fix: How Nations Survive and Thrive in a World in Decline sees Tepperman take a tour around successful interventions to deal with ten of the "toughest and most persistent challenges states have faced in the modern era," put in place by "a tiny band of freethinking, often underrated leaders," many of whom he interviewed for the book. The Fix suggests that such successes could be replicated, if other world leaders were willing to be as brave and freethinking as their colleagues.

Tepperman's enjoyable and informative book demonstrates the power of politicians to make the world a better place. It should be a welcome tonic for those who no longer believe that governments can do anything right anymore. But, if anything, the book is not positive enough. The Fix presents its case studies as exceptions to the norm of a world in decline. Instead, they should be considered fine illustrations of why we are seeing such widespread and unprecedented global progress.

The Fix begins with a grim recounting of recent miseries, from Iraq's disintegration and Russia's annexation of the Crimea to the global financial crisis and the near collapse of the Eurozone project. It quotes General Martin Dempsey, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, suggesting it is "the most dangerous time" in his life--impressive for a man born during the Korean War who lived through the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the attacks on the Twin Towers. Tepperman suggests that our present travails stem from the failure of leaders to address ten big problems: inequality, immigration, Islamic extremism, civil war, corruption, the resource curse, energy extraction, the middle-income trap, and gridlock (twice). And he argues that "while the details of all of the troubles currently wracking the world vary, they share an underlying cause: the failure of politicians to lead."

The Fix provides scant justification for why these problems are the big ten planetary concerns, and some of them don't belong on the list (climate and threats to global health are obvious additions, and below are suggestions for some that might be cut). Nor does the text really make the case that their solution would bring stability to the Eurozone or an end to Russian adventurism in the Ukraine. But the opening discussion is a convenient appetizer for the (succulent) meat of the book: chapters recounting successful attempts to foster peace, security, economic growth, and equality alongside multiculturalism and openness.

The first case study Tepperman presents involves Bolsa Familia (Family Grant), a Brazilian antipoverty program that gives cash payments to the poorest families in the country on the condition that their children be vaccinated...