New York calls itself the capital of the world, and unlike some of the city’s claims to greatness, this one has the ring of truth: If something is happening out there, chances are it’s affecting someone right here. In this issue, a kind of international edition, we asked fellow New Yorkers if we could excerpt their texts and e-mails and conversations with friends and family in the Middle East and North Africa. We conducted global sidewalk polls, followed worried diplomats, and commissioned a graphic dispatch on life in shell-shocked Tokyo. As residents of one world capital, we also like to venture out to others, and because we tend to view those cities through the same lens with which we view our own, we’re inaugurating a new, occasional feature in the magazine—a different kind of travel guide—that will reside in “The Strategist.” It’s called “The Urbanist’s Paris.” Or Cairo. Or Bangkok. Or, coming soon, in honor of Rahm, “The Urbanist’s Chicago.” These are snapshots of life in other cities right now, reported by locals we trust. If in reading them you find yourself thinking of New York, that’s the point. We capital dwellers have a lot in common. read more [+]