By the end of the twentieth century, a new model of nationhood emerged which relied on markets. While not inherently malign, this new constitutional order has the potential to be a destabilising force in US politics.
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Over a two year period, the Soviet leader’s authority was slowly sliced away until his only choice was to resign with dignity in 1991. While the West may have thought this bloodless coup a blessing at the time, it didn’t turn out that way.
From Kandinsky to Klee, the Nazi party deemed entire swathes of artistic movements as worthless and degenerate. The English city Leicester provided a home to these Central European masterpieces. These exhibitions forged a peaceful bridge between communities and provided the city’s inhabitants with much needed respite from their hardships.
The Holy Roman Empire was neither a nation state nor indeed a conventional empire. Instead, its inhabitants were unified through a web of legal rights.
The funeral of Queen Elizabeth II was a chance for Britons to reflect upon their national identity and consider how their nation has transformed over the past seventy years. It also marked the beginning of a new period of uncertainty.
Isolationist thinking and exceptionalism is on the rise and our global culture is the poorer for it. Our civilisations thrive when in conversation with each other: ideas are exchanged and self-reflection is promoted.
With something of a tedious regularity, furious debates flare up among political scientists over the value of Thucydides to their theories of international relations. If the Athenian historian is so disproportionately cited and sparred over, it is because his work is often the lone classical text shoehorned into contemporary international relations curricula. This is regrettable, for there are many ancient historians from whom modern-day students could glean much insight and wisdom. Polybius provides one such example.
What sort of humanist thinking should we be pursuing in the age of smart machines? Is humanism compatible with AI? Or do humans need to think of smart digital tech as a species threat?
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev had the singular misfortune of living long enough to watch some of his most important achievements reversed by his myopic successors. But he did accomplish something great. He gave Russia a chance, a chance since stupidly squandered.
Since the Industrial Revolution, technology has greatly enhanced humanity’s capacity to shape the world through manufacturing and finance. However, these technological developments also have the potential to exacerbate crises and stoke division.
While the foundations of computing may have been laid by the likes of Babbage and Lovelace, it was John von Neumann’s report on the EDVAC system which transformed abstract musings into a canonical blueprint for the stored-program computer.
They are more than just reminders of the universe’s origins. Meteorites have been a commodity for investors, a demonstration of the cultural capital of museums, and prized items for collectors the world over.
The axiom ‘adapt or die’ is never more true than in war. The Ukrainian army’s willingness to modify its approach has been integral to its survival. The ability of other nations to learn the importance of adaptation will likely dictate the outcome of future conflicts.
Secret intelligence is ultimately a tool of statecraft. How leaders use this tool and how others respond, depends on whether their policy goals and strategic beliefs are geared towards peace or conflict.
While many social media users shrug their shoulders at the thought of tech companies selling their data, the transmission is unlikely to stop there. With China’s new data protection laws, Beijing could have access to the sensitive information of billions of smartphone owners.
Intelligence services and their governments once sought to create a clear line between confidential information and common knowledge. Now, with the rise of brazen attacks and increasing PR concerns, these boundaries are blurred.
Intelligence in war is as much a product of common sense as of technical brilliance. It must be understood and applied wisely to be of any use.
Putin’s justifications for invading Ukraine uncannily reflect the motivations of one of Russian literature’s most famous antiheroes, Dostoevsky’s Rodion Raskolnikov. Both believe themselves to be unconstrained by conventional morality.
Rather than protecting individual data privacy, the fate of democracy in our networked age might depend on establishing a new, radically transparent contract of trust between government and citizens. Estonia is leading the way.
Thanks to cold war, hot war, and the revived quest of many nations for a degree of industrial self-sufficiency, free market globalisation has peaked for the foreseeable future.
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