This issue’s theme is all about how to engineer the perfect parliament. Monocle has surveyed the globe and come up with a master plan for a well-run chamber full of lively debate.

At any time in history there are countries on the way in or out – breakaway states eager for independence or now clamouring to be reassimilated into their former motherlands. This is the current crop of nations in waiting…

Zimbabwe will see a violent election, Africa will begin to reject the IMF's prescriptions and all eyes will be on the new leader of the African Union.

Somaliland does democracy (while the rest of the world denies the country's existence), Yemen's president claims he's been a crime-fighting success (while his country goes into meltdown), and it's back to school in Gaza …

Nothing represents the shifting sands of global politics better than the African Union’s gleaming new HQ in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. A gift from the Chinese, it’s proof of the Asian giant’s growing clout. But the Germans are…

With their country in the midst of economic ruin, thousands of Portuguese nationals are heading to skills-starved Angola in search of lucrative jobs. It may be boosting the former colony’s economy, but is everyone going to…

They’re sunny, beautiful and safe but Portugal doesn’t seem to know what to do with them. Maybe it’s time to start recognising the potential of the Azores.

They may not have come top in Monocle’s chart but the cities ranked 11 to 20 are still all great places to live. They didn’t make the first 10 because some lacked a real metropolitan buzz, while others failed to deliver on…