Essays

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

Women guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) at a training camp, September 1992.
essays

The roots of Kurdish discontent

A failed rebellion led by a Kurdish holy man a century ago still looms large over tensions between the Turkish government and its country’s largest minority.

William Gourlay October 9, 2025
A mine in Mauritania.
essays

Why the West is missing out on Africa’s minerals

As the AI revolution continues to gather pace, Western nations need to rethink their relations with African governments. If they do not, China and Russia will win the geopolitical ..

Paul Josephson and Viktoriya Zakrevskaya October 8, 2025
A painting displaying the splendour of the Neapolitan fleet.
essays

The Risorgimento myth

Many perceive Italy as a country divided between an economically prosperous North and an impoverished, agrarian South. The origins of this divergence lie in a 19th-century ‘black l..

Gerald Warner October 7, 2025
A 16th-century map of Eastern Europe, showing the lands of Poland, Lithuania, Hungary and Muscovy.
essays

The birth of Eastern Europe

The pioneering work of a 16th-century Polish geographer radically transformed Renaissance understandings of Europe's eastern frontiers, paving the way for Russia's later inclusion ..

David Chaffetz October 2, 2025
Tokyo cityscape.
essays

Japan between the Great Powers

Japan’s longtime-ruling party has survived potentially fatal setbacks before. But recovering from the current political crisis and navigating a new era of Great Power competition w..

John Nilsson-Wright October 1, 2025
Burt Lancaster and Claudia Cardinale in The Leopard, 1963.
essays

Luchino Visconti’s civilisation

The films of the great Italian director Luchino Visconti are meditations on how the present still bears the marks of things thought lost.

Ioannes Chountis de Fabbri September 29, 2025
A 1960s map of the Manchuria-U.S.S.R. border.
essays

Russia’s age of contraction

Beijing has not forgotten the territories seized by Russia during its age of imperial expansion. As Russian power continues to decline, China's determination to reclaim those lost ..

Daniel Peris September 25, 2025
The Battle of Sluys (1340) depicted in a 15th-century manuscript of Jean Froissart's chronicles.
essays

How seapower shaped the Hundred Years War

During the 14th and 15th centuries, seapower played a crucial role in deciding the fortunes of English and French kings. The painful lessons of England's ultimate defeat would shap..

Jonathan Sumption September 24, 2025
Michael Caine in The Ipcress File.
essays

Len Deighton’s spycraft

Len Deighton produced novels that were packed with excitement and suspense but also infused with moral complexity and psychological insight.

Malcolm Forbes September 22, 2025

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