In my opinion, New Zealand is the security pinnacle of all societies in all of human history. I cannot think of any other country that faced fewer internal or external security threats, had less corruption, had a better quality of life for the majority of its population, or had such a responsive, transparent and democratic government. In my book, NZ is an epic win. Given this, it is easy to feel exasperated with poor unstable [...]

Nigeria – Africa’s most populous country – is well known for being a political enigma. Every year when the state failure warnings come out, Nigeria is always coloured a bright red. ‘Why doesn’t Nigeria collapse?’ has become a compelling question for political scientists. The lifeblood that keeps the Nigerian government running is oil revenue. However over the past decade Nigeria’s major oil producing states in the Niger Delta have been gnawed at by one of [...]

Imagine that you are an operator at a nuclear power plant, and you receive an alert that toxic gases have leaked and are on their way to the cafeteria, where the gases will imminently and certainly kill all five people inside. You have the power to flick a switch and divert the gases to an office with a single person working. Would you flick the switch? Now imagine that you are tramping the Tongariro Crossing. [...]