The original intent of the hierarchical namespace was to distribute name space authority along existing administrative boundaries. At the top-level this was/is

The original intent of the hierarchical namespace was to distribute name space authority along existing administrative boundaries. At the top-level this was/is accomplished via the two-letter country code domains. The support/creation of generic top-level domains (com, net, org, edu originally and .info, .biz and so on afterwards) was a mistake in that there is no way for these top-level domains to map to any real-world administrative boundary. Administration and adjudication of these domains requires a a complex web of international agreements, legal frameworks, and a fair amount of hand-waiving. It is a mess and will always be a mess as far as I can tell. I don't see how the genie can be put back in the bottle but we would have been much better off if all names had been within the two-letter country code namespace.