As a handful twenty-somethings attempt to gain state offices in Mississippi and other states this election season, a 26-year-old is the head of state of his own country.

Jigme Khesar Namgyal Wangchuck is the new King in Bhutan, a small, mountainous landlocked country in Asia with a population of 2.2 million people. Namgyal took over Bhutan in December 2006 from his father, who abdicated the throne so his son could take over.

Namgyal has studied at Phillips Academy, Andover, the Cushing Academy and Wheaton College before graduating from Magdalen College, Oxford University, United Kingdom, where he completed the Foreign Service Program and an M. Phil. in Politics.

He is committed to turning his country into a democracy. For the first time in their life Bhutanese will elect representatives to parliament in a vote likely to be held before July 2008.

Bhutan is one of the four countries in the world with which the United States has neither an extradition treaty or diplomatic relations. But according to the State Department, "the two governments have informal and cordial relations."