Essays

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

The British War Office's 1940 'Dig for Victory' poster.
essays

Digging for victory

Dig for Victory, a wartime propaganda operation that tapped into the national psyche, encouraged Britons to grow produce at home. With food security worse than it was in the 1930s,..

Clive Aslet December 16, 2025
A British recruitment poster from 1915
essays

The power of the citizen-soldier

Britain has a long history of reservists defending the country in times of crisis. Reviving this tradition is among the most effective ways to secure Europe from Russian aggression..

Gary Sheffield December 12, 2025
Ulysees Deriding Polyphemus by JMW Turner.
essays

The world of the Odyssey

Homer's great epic is, above all, a palimpsest of the Hellenic art of living well.

Paul Cartledge December 11, 2025
A giant Syrian flag at the Damascene Sword monument in Damascus' Umayyad Square.
essays

A new Syria struggles to be born

A year after the fall of the Assad regime, Syria's new government confronts domestic challenges and geopolitical hazards.

Shiraz Maher December 10, 2025
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers remarks during a face-to-face meeting with Russian war correspondents and pro-Kremlin bloggers.
essays

Moscow’s war bloggers and the grammar of dissent

The future of authoritarian information control depends on the cultivation of its critics.

Ksenia Rundin December 9, 2025
The charge of the Danites during the 1838 Mormon War.
essays

When the Mormons had a military

Joseph Smith commanded men in morality, history and religion, drawing thousands of followers to his church, but a lack of strategic insight doomed the Mormon militias that fought f..

Katherine Bayford December 9, 2025
The Battle of Bayonne, the last major battle of the Peninsular War.
essays

The Canningite tradition

As the world returns to 19th-century multipolarity, George Canning’s approach to British foreign policy offers timeless lessons. Great powers must protect the interests of small na..

David Cowan December 5, 2025
A nuclear power plant in Bavaria, circa 1985.
essays

Germany’s new old nuclear dilemma

When it comes to nuclear weapons, the concerns that West Germany's first chancellor wrestled with during the Cold War have not disappeared – they have simply re-emerged in new form..

Marina E. Henke December 4, 2025
A container terminal at Lianyungang Port in Jiangsu Province.
essays

How Europe can harness its economic power

Squeezed between the mercantilist policies of the United States and China, Europe's governments must confront the economic paradox that threatens to undermine the foundations of th..

Michael Pettis and Enrico Fardella December 3, 2025

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