Essays

Long-form writing from leading scholars and commentators on history, statecraft, warfare, philosophy and culture.

President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia at the White House.
essays

Armenia, Azerbaijan and the unfinished peace

After two military defeats and the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia is betting on peace with Azerbaijan and a future beyond Russia.

Thomas de Waal June 3, 2026
A large billboard with Iranian propaganda regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
essays

How Iran could survive the war but lose the peace

A shattered economy and an unbending hostility to Israel could prove far more dangerous to the Islamic Republic's survival than the war itself.

Meir Javedanfar June 2, 2026
Scene from a fresco in Uppsala Cathedral depicting Gustav I Vasa, King of Sweden (r. 1523-1560).
essays

Sweden’s age of conquests

In the 16th century, Sweden’s rulers forged a fiscal-military state capable of projecting power across the Baltic Sea, launching a quest for empire that combined national glory wit..

Mats Hallenberg May 28, 2026
Kourou, French Guiana. Credit: Alpha Stock
essays

Europe is an American power — it just doesn’t know it

Five centuries of shared history reveal the Americas as an extension of Europe. Yet today's European leaders cannot formulate a strategy to advance their own interests there.

Joshua Treviño May 27, 2026
An early 20th century American cartoon on the Monroe Doctrine.
essays

The return of the Western Question

The last decade, marked by a growing transatlantic rift and Britain's exit from the European Union, has upended longstanding political settlements in both Western Europe and the We..

Brendan Simms May 20, 2026
The statue of Raja Rammohan Roy in front of Bristol Cathedral.
essays

The death of Bengali liberalism

Bengal's 200-year-old tradition of cosmopolitan liberalism – shaped by British imperialism – is coming to an end, giving way to a reactionary political imagination.

Sumantra Maitra May 19, 2026
The Laskett Gardens, Herefordshire, UK
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Roy Strong, the man for all seasons

The Laskett in Herefordshire is a testament to Strong’s almost Proustian devotion to memory, a highly personalised landscape full of ideas and follies that evoke sentiments or plac..

Clive Aslet May 15, 2026
The Voynich Manuscript.
essays

The quixotic quest for an a priori language

Dreamers and philosophers have long been seduced by the idea of a universal symbolic system capable of expressing all human thought.

Jared Marcel Pollen May 14, 2026
A poster advertising the Canadian Pacific Railway
essays

Canada’s story and the art of middle-power politics

At the heart of John A. Macdonald’s vision for Canada was the realisation that national power depended on productive capacity, a lesson European leaders would do well to remember.

David Cowan May 13, 2026

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