Rylan Clark and the Strange, Borderless Afterlife of British Camp By Our Correspondent in a Marriott Lounge Somewhere Over the Atlantic Somewhere between the croissant basket and the CNN ticker announcing yet another currency nosedive, the hotel television flickered to a clip of Rylan Clark—yes, that Rylan, the one whose teeth once outshone the Blackpool…
**The Land of a Thousand Hills and a Million Narratives: Rwanda’s Global Rebrand** KIGALI—Picture a country that managed to go from genocide to green-washed Davos darling in less than three decades—a sort of national phoenix routine performed without the luxury of a tranquil afterlife. Welcome to Rwanda, the ultimate case study in how to monetize…
**The Unlikely Diplomat: How Jason Crow Became the World’s Most Unwilling International Symbol** While most Americans couldn’t pick Jason Crow out of a lineup, the former Army Ranger turned Congressman from Colorado has accidentally become the poster child for democratic backsliding in the world’s most self-congratulatory democracy. It’s a bit like being voted “Most Likely…
**Pop-Punk Diplomacy: How Avril Lavigne Became an Accidental Geopolitical Pawn in the Great Canadian Culture War** In the grand theater of international relations, where nuclear treaties are negotiated over canapés and trade wars erupt over dairy subsidies, one might not expect a Canadian pop-punk princess to emerge as a figure of geopolitical significance. Yet here…
**The Accidental Diplomat: How a Virginia Congresswoman Became the World’s Accidental Weathervane** Abigail Spanberger, the CIA-turned-Congresswoman from Virginia, has become something of an international Rorschach test—everyone sees in her what they desperately want to believe about America’s future. To European diplomats sipping espresso in Brussels cafés, she’s proof that rational Americans still exist somewhere between…
**Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan: When Cricket Diplomacy Meets Geopolitical Reality** In the grand theater of international relations, nothing quite captures humanity’s capacity for simultaneous cooperation and competition like watching two nations battle it out over a leather ball while their governments navigate the delicate dance of diplomacy. Such is the case with Sri Lanka versus…
**The Global Intelligence Bazaar: Where Everyone’s Buying What You’re Selling** In the grand marketplace of human paranoia, intelligence has become the hottest commodity—right after bottled water and the illusion of privacy. From the shadowy corridors of Langley to the fluorescent-lit basements of Tehran, the world’s spies are working overtime to discover what everyone already knows:…
**The World’s Favorite Reality Show: Why Trump’s Poll Numbers Still Matter (Even If You’d Rather They Didn’t)** While Americans obsess over their former president’s approval ratings with the fervor of teenagers checking Instagram likes, the rest of us watch from the cheap seats of this tragicomedy, popcorn in hand, wondering when the intermission might finally…
**The Septuagenarian Elephant in Every Room: How One Man’s Birth Certificate Became a Global Geopolitical Flashpoint** While most 77-year-olds argue with pigeons in the park about breadcrumb subsidies, Donald J. Trump has transformed his golden years into what international observers diplomatically call “a fascinating case study in geriatric geopolitics.” From Tokyo trading floors to Berlin…
**The Fleet-Footed Philosopher: How Dina Asher-Smith Became the World’s Most Reluctant Ambassador for British Decline** *From our International Desk* LONDON—In an era when Britain’s global influence increasingly resembles a faded empire selling nostalgia by the pound, Dina Asher-Smith runs counterclockwise to national trajectory. While her homeland negotiates trade deals with the enthusiasm of a jilted…
Glenn Close, the woman who has made a career of staring into the abyss until the abyss politely asks for an autograph, turns out to be our most reliable global barometer of how spectacularly we’re failing as a species. From her perch in whatever time zone currently hosts the nearest film festival jury, she has…
**The United Nations: Humanity’s Most Ambitious Group Project That Refuses to End** In the grand theater of international relations, where nations perform an eternal ballet of cooperation and competition, the United Nations stands as perhaps humanity’s most expensive and elaborate piece of performance art. Born from the ashes of World War II—because nothing motivates international…
