As Monocle notches up two years, we take a look back at where we started and unveil some subtle tweaks to our brand for volume 03. We’ve always celebrated small businesses that manufacture at home and in an ever-more homogeneous world, local firms and quirky far-flung regions seem more precious than ever. It’s a year when people who care about craft and quality can win.

For the first in a new series on outposts of opportunity we visit Stanley, capital of the Falkland Islands, the British territory best known for sheep and its 1982 war with Argentina. Now oil and tourists are making this outcrop a place to watch.

As Copenhagen gears up to host the United Nations Climate Change conference COP15 later this year, Monocle meets Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and talks about Denmark’s identity, global security and the impact of the ‘cartoon crisis’.

We take a look at Silivo Berlusconi's motorcade, and some surprising differences between the Finns and the Swedes.

Monocle's view from Washington column discovers White House technology is far from trailblazing. Plus, a crack-down on cattle rustling in Brazil, eco wrangles in El Salvador, and urban chicken farming.

North Korea's election (no great surprises expected), Malaysia's big river clean-up, and mixed feelings over Tokyo's plans to spruce up the Kabukicho district

A fitness centre in Iraq? Entrepreneurial folly or viable business adventure? Ibrahim Abdullatif has no doubts: “Iraqi Kurdistan is the place to invest,” says the 31-year-old businessman who has opened the Fitness Health Centre in his home town, Dohuk, near the Turkish border.

Syndey's new take on speed dating - it involves tightrope-walking and clowning - plus witchcraft in Papua New Guinea, and political isolation in Fuji.

The conventional wisdom is that under the Obama administration, the transatlantic relationship will flourish anew, along with a substantial improvement of French-US relations. On 3 April, the 60th Anniversary Summit of Nato on the French-German border at Strasbourg and Kehl is slated to be the crowning point of the new rapprochement. It would be hard not to improve on George W Bush’s abysmal legacy; furthermore, Obama and Sarkozy appear to get along well, personally and politically. However, it is not going to be as easy as many expect, and for a simple reason: what is most important for Obama is not what is most important for Sarkozy.

In 2007, the Brazilian government launched a crack down on the drug gangs in Rio’s slums and thousands were killed. Now the city’s civil police have a new weapon: the ‘Huey II’ helicopter gunship. Monocle looks at the use of military hardware in a civilian battle.

Our new series, national icons, is about people who rise above politics to become symbols of a country’s strengths. First we meet May Arida who has kept Lebanon’s Baalbek festival alive despite wars and threats. She also happens to be our Beirut correspondent’s granny.

Kunming is an unpolluted, diverse city that offers a high quality of life. Infrastructure projects, including new train routes and an international airport, are providing links with south Asia, boosting trade. It’s even enlisted the help of the Swiss to clean up its water system. The economic crisis may have reached China, but Kunming is in a position to buck the trend.

The car industry is in global disarray. So can the makers of affordable, greener scooters overtake the punch-drunk auto makers? At Honda’s HQ they are planning a two-wheeled revolution.

Why vineyards could be a wise investment, the pioneering Japanese store Lawson, and a Q&A with the president of the Geneva Motor Show.

Russian Railways get a little help from Spain, Lufthsana passengers get a new Welcome Lounge, and Monocle gets excited about a new guide to Lebanon.

This month we start a new series that decodes the DNA of success – of anything. First up is a San Francisco food store that has become an urban sensation.

LA’s KCRW sounds like the future of radio. Small, perfectly formed and with an influence that travels far beyond its American HQ, the station breaks bands and sets the soundtrack for Hollywood’s films and its residents while also changing listening habits across the world.

Israeli-born artist Oscar Bronner set up the daily newspaper Der Standard to fill a gap for non-partisan journalism in Austria – and because he couldn’t find a paper to read. It is now the country’s second best-selling quality paper, at over 75,000 copies a day.

Film: A war-time Danish thriller and Pete Postlewaite in a climate change drama-doc. Books: A Bosnian refugee's memoir of being a teenager in Britain and a troubled love story played out in rural Dorset, plus a true account of the "Monster of Florence". Art: Retrospective of Andreas Gursky in Stockholm and Buckminster Fuller in Chicago. Music: Swedish synth-pop, English sing-songwriter scattiness and American folk aristocracy. Column: Culture editor Robert Bound writes the first in a series of arts musings. This month: can culture console in a time of crisis?

Akershus University Hospital was created by CF Møller on the principle that good design makes you feel better. Well lit and easy to navigate, it is fitted with bespoke, locally crafted furniture, and state-of-the-art healthcare technology.

Japanese architect Yasuhiro Yamashita talks us through his aluminium housing project, plus a new landmark in Ljubljana and the traditional Japanese washi paper finding new markets.

Taking place in the shadow of a retail slowdown, this year’s Pitti Immagine Uomo nevertheless managed to have an air of solidarity and optimism – the bright and playful clothing on show bucking the usual greys and neutrals of ‘recession chic’.

Due to scheduling conflict, the watch season started a bit earlier in Geneva. The Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH) is a grand tour of blue-chip brands and this year saw an august upstart in the form of Ralph Lauren’s unveiling.

The new shoemaker with old-fashioned values, hand-embroidered dresses from Mexico and Peru, a new take on desert boots, and Adidas's latest diffusion.

The transition from winter to spring wardrobe should be a reasonable and seamless exercise. But the stripping of layers can throw up all kinds of insecurities. Monocle creates six looks for easy seasonal switch.

Our monthly guide to what's hot in the shops. This month: the latest Panasonic Lumix camera, typeface Top Trumps, hand-me-down canvas bags, a Lebanese cookbook and an Italian Lemonade.

While Berlin Mitte may have become a victim of its own popularity, stray off the well-trodden tourist route and you’ll find the charming back street of Gipsstrasse. Full of independent shops, ateliers, galleries and cafés, it should be a template for the rest of the capital.

Formerly a light bulb manufacturer, Shotoku began making hand-blown glassware in the 1950s. Today its ultra-thin Usuhari glasses are the toast of the town. And it still continues to innovate.

The best quality of life in Cairo is not to be found in its glitzy but homogeneous satellite towns but in the old-fashioned charm of El Korba. Founded early last century by a Belgian baron, it combines Islamic and Art-Deco architecture with good local shops and a strong sense of community.

While in Dubai for the UAE’s first Arab Women Leadership Forum, 34-year-old TV-show host Muna Abu Sulayman met with Monocle for her ‘last meal’. The Saudi citizen chose Saladicious, a restaurant in the Jumeirah district.

As we celebrate Monocle’s second anniversary, we have a special birthday wish. We spend a lot time in the air and reckon it’s time for real change. So if you are listening, dear airline CEO, we’d really love for our journeys to be a bit more enjoyable, please.

Syria is moving away from the staunch socialist principles that dominated the country for decades. President Bashar al Assad has created a new merchant class and forged business links with neighbour Turkey. Nowhere has benefited more than the city of Aleppo.