World Leaders Posing with Model Cities

The leaders of the free (and not-so-free) world love themselves a good city model. Whether they're taking credit for a development they likely had nothing to do with or trying to feign interest in a facility they probably don't care about, city models can be a prime minister's (or a president's, or a queen's) best friend. These 25 world leaders and heads of state from today and the recent past show how looking at small-scale models of big city projects can create the impression that they actually have some semblance of control over how their domain is built and developed.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy looks over a model of proposed construction in Issy-Les-Moulineaux, a suburb of Paris on February 13, 2012. The sashed mayor of the town is also there, as is the Paris police prefect. Photo credit: Reuters/Eric Feferberg