The Correction Window: When Governance Worked — and What Made It Possible

Under what structural conditions has governance historically worked? Three domains — banking after the 2008 global financial crisis, pharmaceutical regulation, and nuclear verification — reveal three elements that made enforcement real rather than performative: consequences for misrepresentation, halt authority, and independent verification with access. Drawing on the 2003 Uzbekistan correspondent account reform, Basel III stress-testing, FDA approval gates, and the IAEA inspection regime, this essay examines when correction was still possible — and why that window is closing faster for AI than for any previous domain. Essay 7 of the series Beyond Control: Theory of Limits of AI Governance by Oybek Khodjaev (INVEXI LLC, Tashkent, Uzbekistan). Full text: https://okhodjaev.com/essays/the-correction-window/