Interpol was created to help police agencies pursue criminals across borders, but what happens when governments use that same system to pursue political enemies? At the center of the controversy is…
What happens when a country discovers that sovereignty itself may be one of its most valuable exports? Tuvalu offered an early glimpse when its accidental possession of the internet suffix .tv became…
What if citizenship—the legal bond between a person and a country—could be acquired partly through investment? Around the world, citizenship-by-investment programs have allowed wealthy applicants to…
Across the high seas, an unseen corporate architecture has dismantled the bedrock of international maritime law to establish a borderless shadow empire. Through the weaponization of open ship…
Analysis found 171 sanctioned vessels near UK waters between June 1 and August 26, with shadow traffic through the Channel almost daily. After the Smyrtos was boarded over a deregistered Cameroon…
Express kidnappings, once predominantly associated with Latin American criminal networks, have undergone rapid tactical adaptation and experienced a marked increase in South Africa, where…
In 2012, the Argentine naval training ship ARA Libertad sailed into Ghana and became trapped in an extraordinary battle between sovereign power and private finance. A creditor pursuing Argentina over…
In The Ambassador, Mads Brügger buys a diplomatic title and hidden cameras his way into the Central African Republic to expose how easily state authority can be purchased. This piece connects that…
Richard M. Perloff is a scholar of persuasion and political communication perceptions and effects. The author of academic textbooks on persuasion and political communication, as well as theoretical…
