In today’s lawless world, political assassination is the new growth industry – and anyone, famous or not, is a potential victim. Government-sanctioned killings are proliferating, with Russia, Israel, Iran and India leading the pack. While lone gunmen and crazed zealots still pose random threats, state-organised, premeditated assassination plots are being normalised and popularised. Murder Inc is going global with a licence to kill. The assassination business was mostly a superpower monopoly during the cold war. US- and Soviet-directed operations targeted high-profile figures such as Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Chile’s Salvador Allende and Yugoslavia’s Josip Broz Tito. Some “hits” were more notorious...