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Political leaders are a competitive breed. Their attention is easily captured by international league tables, pitting their country against others on one metric or another. The Global Innovation Index by the World Intellectual Property Organisation is one such measure. It aims to identify the world’s most innovative countries, drawing on more than 70 indicators, such as patents, high-tech exports and research spending. Because many of its indicators are adjusted for population or economic size, even small places have a fighting chance of climbing up the table. This year
a tiny European country topped the league again—and one of the world’s most celebrated sources of innovation dropped out of the top ten. | 
