**Article 4: The Fine Print That Keeps the World Spinning (and Occasionally Imploding)** GENEVA—Tucked between the glossy brochures of global governance lies Article 4, that unassuming clause in the International Treaty on [Insert Acronym Here] which diplomats invoke at 3 a.m. when the can has been kicked so far down the road it’s technically in…
Andy Beshear: The Mild-Mannered Governor Who Accidentally Became a Global Barometer for Sanity By the time the rest of the planet noticed, Andy Beshear had already spent three calm years governing Kentucky—a state internationally famous for bourbon, horse racing, and a stubborn refusal to pronounce its own name correctly. In most countries, a second-term governor…
Hungary vs Portugal: The Quiet Balkanization of European Soft Power Bylines from the Danube to the Tagus, by someone who’s run out of passport pages and patience On the surface, the latest diplomatic joust between Budapest and Lisbon looks like a spat about EU recovery funds, some footnotes on judicial independence, and an energetic argument…
The Empire Strikes Back (With a 404 Error): How gov.uk Quietly Became the World’s Most Influential Government Website —————————————————————————————————————— LONDON—While Washington spends its evenings rage-tweeting and Brussels labors to keep 27 toddlers from scribbling on the Treaty of Rome, a modest domain ending in “.uk” has been busy colonising the planet with ruthless efficiency. gov.uk—once…
The Fabian Society: How a Bunch of Victorian Londoners Still Decide Whether Your Bus Fare Goes Up By the time the barista in Manila finishes spelling your name wrong, a 140-year-old British think tank has already nudged three governments toward slightly higher VAT. Welcome to the enduring afterlife of the Fabian Society—an organization whose members…
Eric Tarpinian-Jachym and the Passport Paradox: When One Man’s Identity Crisis Becomes the World’s Problem By Dave’s Locker Global Affairs Desk Geneva, Switzerland – Somewhere in the fluorescent-lit catacombs beneath the Palais des Nations, an intern with a master’s in multilateral studies and a minor in artisanal coffee just stamped the latest iteration of a…
Justice Secretary: A Title That Travels Poorly By Our Correspondent Somewhere Slightly Safer Than Where You Are The phrase “Justice Secretary” sounds like a job invented by a wishful-thinking focus group: a bureaucrat who keeps justice in a filing cabinet, dusts it off for photo-ops, and quietly mails it to the wrong address when no…
