The year's best stories

Oxford University Press’s word of 2023 was “rizz,” which the publisher defines as “someone’s ability to attract another person through style, charm, or attractiveness”—a shortened version of charisma.

Oxford University Press’s word of 2023 was “rizz,” which the publisher defines as “someone’s ability to attract another person through style, charm, or attractiveness”—a shortened version of charisma.

But geopolitics entered the world of buzzwords, too, and delivered a string of expressions that found enthusiastic use in the corridors of power and think tanks, not to mention the real world. There was the ubiquitous “de-risking,” but also “AIS gaps,” “subsea infrastructure,” and “maritime terrorism,” which similarly became words that the well-informed citizen should know.

The runner-up to rizz in Oxford University Press’s selection was reportedly “Swiftie,” and such is Taylor Swift’s global power that Swifties include British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. But not even the American megastar has managed to divert the world’s attention away from the dark geopolitical clouds in the Black Sea and the Taiwan Strait, or at the Finnish border.

Indeed, in 2023, geopolitics came to dominate the news agenda. The year began with the swearing-in of Brazil’s returning president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and the subsequent storming of government buildings by supporters of the outgoing—and defeated—Jair Bolsonaro. Lula’s return to power and his swift outreach to........

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