From the Publisher

By Elizabeth P. Valk

COVERING THE NEW WORLD ORDER IS A CHALLENGE FOR any news organization, but we at TIME, with the largest foreign-bureau network of any global newsmagazine, meet it eagerly each week. As old empires crumble and new nations emerge, we have expanded our coverage accordingly, opening two new bureaus in the past four months alone. "The pace of change is so dramatic," says deputy chief of correspondents Paul A. Witteman, "that it is more important than ever to have people strategically placed to observe and report on major developments."

From his new vantage point in Berlin, correspondent Daniel Benjamin lives at the nexus of the most dramatic changes in postwar Europe. "The tensions between East and West swirl around you here with a power that one has difficulty imagining anywhere else," he says. James Wilde, who opened our Istanbul bureau in January, is positioned to monitor Turkey's increasingly vital strategic role in Europe and the Persian Gulf, as well as its relationships with the emerging Islamic republics.

Some changes call for bolstering existing bureau strength, especially in Moscow, where journalist Yuri Zarakhovich, a Russian citizen, has just joined our reportorial team on a full-time basis. "Yuri brings us much closer to the news," says Moscow bureau chief John Kohan, "and consistently provides TIME with an invaluable insider's view of life here."

The news will also change for Jef Penberthy, who for nearly six years has served as editor of TIME Australia. Next month Penberthy leaves Melbourne to become our bureau chief in New Delhi, assuming responsibility for the coverage of an extraordinarily dynamic and diverse region. "This vast sweep of south Asia is an enormously challenging story," says Penberthy.

Witteman oversees our peripatetic foreign correspondents from New York City, staying in daily contact by phone and computerized messages. No slouch at travel himself, Witteman has logged 30,000 miles since assuming his position last August, even finding time to run our coverage and report on the Winter Olympics in Albertville. "The resilience of my colleagues abroad is a trait I admire," says the former Detroit and San Francisco bureau chief. "In the U.S. you rarely have to worry about phones not working or planes being grounded because of chronic fuel shortages. For many foreign correspondents, that's merely part of daily life." And so is the exciting pace of global change, which our journalists, here and abroad, chronicle each week.