Guernsey's Bailiff believes the island should seek to be more distant from the control of the UK Government.

BBC: Call for greater distance from UK for Channel Islands

How can countries yield control to distant bodies but ensure bureaucrats remain responsive to local dynamics?

FORBES: Europe's Debt Crisis Is No Failing Of Federalism

Banks and governments alike would struggle to give up control to a distant banking regulator that might, for instance, tell national champions to reduce their exposures to domestic housing markets or make fewer loans to small businesses in order to cut risk.

ECONOMIST: The euro crisis

Such documents are normally distant in tone, but this one can barely control a seething frustration at how Huawei deflected its efforts to get at the most basic kind of information about the company: who runs it, how decisions are made, its history, financial arrangements, and especially, its relationship to the Chinese government.

FORBES: Huawei To US: 'Butt Out Of Our Business'

In the distant (and even the not-so-distant) historical past, these systems of motivation and control were largely in sync.

WSJ: What's Wrong With the Teenage Mind?

To preserve Mojave Desert tortoises, it is essential to control native ravens, whose numbers have been boosted by distant landfill sites.

WSJ: Ecology and Change: Nature Has No 'Balance' for Us to Keep | Mind & Matter

Tower closures would not necessarily result in airport closures, because some aircraft can land without air traffic control help, and those that need controller help can communicate with more distant FAA facilities.

CNN: Airports can make case to keep their control towers open

Spaniards are far from proud of their military record over the past century and have no yearning for the more distant days when the conquistadores took South America or when swathes of Europe were under Spanish control.

ECONOMIST: Wary Spaniards