These Are The Foreign Policy Winners Of 2017

The 2017 news roller-coaster did not just hit the United States. From North Korea's missiles to Russia's maneuvers to the fall of one of Africa's longest-serving leaders, major events have come to a head this year, each posing challenges to the world order and the new U.S. administration.

Here, NPR international correspondents take a look at some of the global figures who finished a tumultuous year on top.

Xi Jinping

The presidency of Donald Trump — marked by a systematic retreat of US leadership from the global stage — has been the gift that keeps on giving to Xi Jinping, a leader bent on exporting the products, policies and political ideology of China's Communist Party. On his first day in office, President Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, ceding a region that makes up two-thirds of global economic growth — and its regulatory framework — to the world's second-largest economy. Trump's vow in June to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Accord similarly handed the reins of global climate policy strongest leaders.