Essays

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

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
Vice President Richard Nixon discusses his trip to the Far East with President Dwight D. Eisenhower. 3 November, 1953.
essays

The key to grand strategy

A close examination of the history of statecraft reveals that grand strategy works best when competing ideas collide, and rigorous processes challenge prevailing orthodoxies.

William D. James November 7, 2025
Memorial of Sultan Mehmed II the Conqueror, Fatih Park, Istanbul.
essays

Turkey’s return to great power status

A resurgent Turkey is returning to its Ottoman roots as an essential and influential buffer in the Eurasian balance of power.

Sumantra Maitra November 6, 2025
A 1929 map of the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland, portraying their agricultural products and fisheries.
essays

Ireland’s David and the British Goliath

Trade wars are never solely about economics, as the Anglo-Irish tariff war of the 1930s reminds us.

Duncan Weldon November 5, 2025
Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC, circa 1918.
essays

Wonder and worry: dealing with uncertainty in contemporary history

If we live in a time of great worries, we also live in a time of great wonders, where the problems that plagued humanity from the beginning of recorded time have been improved beyo..

Francis J. Gavin October 30, 2025
A golden image of a Nobel Prize decorates the front of the Science Museum in Singapore
essays

How not to win the Nobel Peace Prize

President Trump's quest for the prestigious prize is unlikely to succeed for one simple reason: they are often awarded to unentitled ‘underdogs’ who express a selfless vision of a ..

Peter Caddick-Adams October 30, 2025

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