FP's Most Popular Articles of 2012

It's been a tumultous year in the world, from the seemingly never-ending U.S. presidential campaign to the ongoing chaos in the Arab world to the rising tension in the fast-changing Pacific. And Foreign Policy has covered all of it. Here's what interested you most:

Grand Ayatollah or Grand Old Party?: In an election year, interest in all things political was bound to flare, but we were shocked by the huge reaction to this quiz. We asked readers to decide who said it: Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei or U.S. Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum. While Santorum was unsuccessful in his bid to be the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, he certainly won a place in the FP record books. 

Why Do They Hate Us?: For FP's inaugural Sex Issue, Mona Eltahawy wrote a searing indictment of misogyny in the Middle East. Coming just as it became clear that religious conservatives would be the immediate winners of the Arab Spring, Eltahawy's article hit a nerve, sparking a passionate debate over the role of women in the new Middle Eastern politics -- and around the world.

Israel's Secret Staging Ground: Mark Perry reported that U.S. officials believed that the Israeli government had quietly gained access to airfields in Azerbaijan -- strategic assets it would find extremely useful in the event of a strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

False Flag: Before his March blockbuster "Israel's Secret Staging Ground," Perry had already attracted attention with his reporting on an Israeli plot that sounded ripped from the pages of an Ian Fleming novel.

The Revenge of Wen Jiabao: 2012 was a year of big changes for China's political leadership, with new cadres filling the ranks of the elite Politburo Standing Committee in October, and a scandalous dismissal of former Politburo member Bo Xilai in March. John Garnaut's unique insight took readers behind the scenes of Premier Wen Jiabao's public critique of longtime rival Bo Xilai, and into the shadowy history of these two men and the China both claimed to represent.