The Year in People

A look back on the year’s most influential and newsworthy people in America and around the world.

It’s been a particularly busy year, with big stories emerging in politics, the economy, and international affairs. I originally was just going to do a Top 10 People of the Year list, but there got to be so many people that I decided to split it up into the two lists you see below. Some of these are predictable, some not so much. Discuss.

Top 10 American Newsmakers of the Year

1. BARACK OBAMA, President-Elect of the United States of America

Duh. His campaign will be a model for future political operations for years to come, his victory was an historic landmark, and he is probably the most influential President-Elect in modern history. Enough said.

2. BEN BERNANKE, Chairman of the Federal Reserve; and HENRY PAULSON, Secretary of the Treasury

The biggest story this year outside the election has, of course, been the steadily declining economy. The framers of that story at its most critical moments were Ben Bernanke and Henry Paulson. While their navigation through the crisis has been less than sterling, they have been the ones holding the reins on this side of the Atlantic (but see Gordon Brown, below).

3. DAVID PETRAEUS, Commander of US Central Command

The story to come out of this year’s improvements in Iraq should not merely be the increase in troop levels. Rather, it should be COIN – the military’s shorthand term for counterinsurgency. The centerpiece of counterinsurgency is to peel off persuadable elements of the insurgency, teaming with them to fight the more hard-core elements. No man was more responsible for implementing this strategy in Iraq than General Petraeus – and no man outside of the Pentagon is in a better position to carry the lessons learned over to Afghanistan.

4. SUSAN RICE, UN Ambassador-designate and former Obama foreign policy adviser; and BRENT SCOWCROFT, former National Security Adviser

Rice and Scowcroft are far from ideological twins: the first is a liberal internationalist strongly committed to strengthening international institutions and promoting human rights; the second is a hardheaded Republican realist. But they share an antipathy toward the neoconservatives who gained control of George W. Bush’s foreign policy, and they represent Barack Obama’s dueling foreign policy sympathies: Rice is reportedly Obama’s most trusted foreign policy adviser, while the only Republicans whom Obama has given a voice in his administration are those with close ties to Scowcroft.

5. HILLARY CLINTON, Secretary of State-designate and former Democratic presidential candidate

Hillary Clinton’s story is an epically sad one. There is little doubt she is a talented and qualified figure, but she was forced to compete against a political phenomenon running a brutally efficient campaign, all while she was surrounded by incompetents and buffoons (including her husband). Even worse, the degree to which she broke barriers has been hampered by a viciously unfair media machine capable of seeing her only as monster or machine – anything but a history-making woman.

6. GAY AMERICANS

The results of Prop 8 make it hard to remember that 2008 was actually a pretty good year for the LGBT community: two state supreme courts recognized a right to same-sex marriage; restrictions on HIV-positive immigrants were lifted; and majorities were strengthened in support of ENDA and overturning Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Oh, and we came the closest we’ve ever come to a successful vote on marriage equality. But the real story is the aftermath of the Prop 8 vote: the gay community has been nationally mobilized and is now in a better position to effect change than it ever has been.

7. STEVE JOBS, Chairman and CEO of Apple, Inc.; and ERIC SCHMIDT, Chairman and CEO of Google, Inc.

The iPhone, the G1, Google Chrome, the new Macbooks. Apple and Google remain the frontrunners in technological innovation.

8. DAVID AXELROD & DAVID PLOUFFE, former senior Obama campaign operatives

The men behind the political arm of the Obama campaign shouldn’t be overrated. The key to their success was not their innovative use of the Internet, their fundraising prowess, or their impressive branding. It was their candidate. But those other things will become the hallmark of future political campaigns, and that’s no small feat.

9. SARAH PALIN, Governor of Alaska and former Republican Vice Presidential candidate

That Sarah Palin is probably the most popular Republican in the country says all that needs to be said about the current state of the Republican Party.

10. RACHEL MADDOW, host of MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show

This was the year America learned that progressives can succeed on television, with Rachel Maddow taking the crown as Queen of Cable News. But she’s not significant just because she’s liberal. She’s also got a damn good show that is smart, substantive, and entertaining. At a time when cable news is almost universally noise, from Hannity to O’Reilly to Olbermann, Maddow demonstrates that you don’t have to shout to have an entertaining news show.

Honorable Mentions: Nancy Pelosi; Tina Fey; Ron Paul; Michelle, Malia and Sasha Obama; Nate Silver

Top 10 Global Newsmakers of the Year

1. GORDON BROWN, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

In any other year, the Prime Minister of the UK would not top this list. But when the financial crisis hit, it was Gordon Brown’s plan to inject capital into the struggling financial institutions that the rest of the world ended up copying. Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke’s original plan to buy up bad assets was abandoned in the wake of Brown’s actions, leaving Paul Krugman to ask: “Has Gordon Brown saved the world financial system?”

2. ASIF ALI ZARDARI, President of Pakistan

His state is on the verge of collapse and has found itself at the center of more than one international crisis. Barack Obama argued military strikes against the state might be appropriate in certain circumstances; al-Qaeda operatives are occupying its northwest territory; and the terrorist attacks in India have heightened the already high tensions between the two states. Whether Zardari is able to hold his country together is the most important international relations question of the coming years.

3. HU JINTAO, President of China

The Beijing Olympics, China’s massive stimulus plan, and the weight of America’s national debt have caused American awareness of China’s influence to grow. And the line is being drawn between those who view China’s emergence as an opportunity and those who view it as a source of inevitable conflict.

4. NOURI AL-MALIKI, Prime Minister of Iraq

One of the most fascinating stories of the year was the unfolding of negotiations over the Status of Forces Agreement between the U.S. and Iraq. Nouri al-Maliki played a strong hand surprisingly well, and the result was a SOFA that largely resolved the debate over American forces in Iraq without the incoming President ever having to make a decision.

5. THE SOMALI PIRATES

Every part of the Somali pirate story is representative of a new international system. A big part of Somalia’s brokenness is due to the United States’ support of Ethiopia’s invasion – a lesson in the limits of American power. The result is a failed state in which pirates are able to amass arms and roam the high seas – a lesson in the increasing influence of non-state actors. And the emerging solution is an international coalition organized through the UN to better patrol the region by air, land and sea – a lesson in the need for multilateralism.

6. ALI KHAMENEI, Supreme Leader of Iran; and MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, President of Iran

Iran’s influence has ebbed over the course of the year, as its economy has crumbled and as Barack Obama’s election has already begun to undermine its international standing. That decrease in influence should probably be seen as encouraging, but it could also end up making the situation all the more volatile if Iran begins to feel backed into a corner – and if Israel begins to perceive a greater threat.

7. LUIS MORENO-OCAMPO, prosecutor of the International Criminal Court

It’s been a busy year for the ICC, throwing its weight around in Sudan, Uganda, and the former Yugoslavia. As the ICC becomes more active, its record will either strengthen or undermine the case for using international institutions to address the world’s problems. So far, it’s looking pretty good.

8. ROBERT MUGABE, President of Zimbabwe

Dictatorships are generally bad. They’re especially bad when the dictator implements a lot of really bad policy that cripples the economy. And they’re even worse when there’s a glimmer of hope that the dictator is losing power in a slowly democratizing country, only to have the dictator hold onto power through violent repression of the opposition.

9. VLADIMIR PUTIN, Prime Minister of Russia

Russia isn’t as important as many think, but its very lack of importance is making it a thorn in the world’s side. All things considered, Putin’s attempts to assert himself on the world stage should be among the easier crises the United States faces internationally – but only if we don’t adopt a provocative, conflict-oriented approach to things.

10. REVOLUTIONARY ARMED FORCES OF COLOMBIA – PEOPLE’S ARMY (FARC)

The tensions in South America don’t generally hold the same kind of threat-of-global-chaos that exists in the Middle East or South Asia. But this year FARC’s hostage-taking shenanigans heightened tensions among Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador, making clear that this is another hotspot the world needs to keep its eye on.

Honorable Mentions: Omar al-Bashir, Mikheil Saakashvili, the Guantanamo prisoners, Stephen Harper, Joseph Kony