Essays

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

Relatives put up images of missing persons in Mexico City. Credit: Frank Nowikowski
essays

A new age of US-Mexican interdependence

The US and Mexico have intensified their joint efforts to take down the cartels – and the stakes could not be higher.

Joseph Ledford November 27, 2025
A military parade held in Beijing and attended by Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un, arranged to celebrate the end of the Second World War.
essays

The New Cold War is here

As China consolidates an ideological and strategic bloc with Russia, Iran and North Korea, it seeks nuclear parity with the United States, technological and economic autonomy, and ..

David Roche November 26, 2025
An Orthodox Church in Estonia.
essays

Arvo Pärt’s path from profane to sacred

By turning his compositions into prayers, the Estonian composer revived classical music’s ability to touch the transcendent.

Guy Stagg November 21, 2025
A photo of the defendants at the Nuremberg Trial in 1946.
essays

The long shadow of the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials

In the courtrooms of Nuremberg and Tokyo, the victorious Allies declared that civilisation must not merely win wars but also judge them, leaving a legal and moral legacy that persi..

Iain MacGregor November 19, 2025
Pieter Bruegel's The Tower of Babel.
essays

On the uses of a legendary past

The philosopher Michael Oakeshott reminds us that historical myth-making is at the heart of politics.

Daniel Skeffington November 18, 2025
A dual Japanese and English keyboard.
essays

Japan’s LLM language barrier

The nature of the Japanese language presents fascinating challenges to the development of artificial intelligence.

Christopher Harding November 18, 2025
An anti-American mural painting along the wall of the former US embassy in Tehran, Iran.
essays

Inside the mind of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard

The annual conferences held by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps reveal a worldview that is dependent on continued confrontation with the West.

Kasra Aarabi and Saeid Golkar November 17, 2025
Gustav Stresemann, Austen Chamberlain, and Aristide Briand - the architects of the Locarno Pact - in 1926.
essays

The Locarno Pact’s enduring legacy

The Locarno Pact of 1925 provided the foundations for a more just, durable and peaceful European order. Although its early promise was snuffed out by the global crisis of the 1930s..

Patrick O. Cohrs November 12, 2025
A satire on London's first traffic light.
essays

How the traffic light changed the world

The traffic lights of today have come a long way from the mechanical, gas-powered device first unveiled in London almost 160 years ago. But will they survive in a world of driverle..

Keith Lowe November 11, 2025

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