Essays

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

The European Union flag on a concrete wall.
essays

Must Europe always take every opportunity to miss an opportunity?

The Trump administration may finally force European leaders to achieve the elusive goal of political union. The tragedy may be that they have left it too late to act.

Brendan Simms and Lukas Schmelter April 1, 2025
A painting by Frank H. Mason illustrating some of the Royal Navy Fleet in 1940.
essays

Paul Kennedy in conversation on the rise of a new era of great power competition

What will geopolitics look like in 2050? Paul Lay and Charlie Laderman sat down with the distinguished British historian Paul Kennedy. Kennedy offers his reflections on the end of ..

Engelsberg Ideas March 27, 2025
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with US President Donald Trump and US Vice President JD Vance in the Oval Office of the White House.
essays

Regime change and the breaking of alliances

Classical realists remind us that America's global power has depended on durable alliances and enlightened leadership. Responsible leaders do not use their strength to humiliate pa..

David Priess March 25, 2025
Pencils at the Koh-i-Noor Hardtmuth factory.
essays

Interest rates, mankind’s greatest invention

Interest rates perform a huge variety of roles that are essential to the operation of a market economy. A world of continuously manipulated interest rates puts the achievements of ..

Edward Chancellor March 20, 2025
Print of Hungary from the Nuremberg Chronicle.
essays

Europe’s last Latin kingdom

From the late Middle Ages, Latin came under sustained siege by the proponents of vernacular languages. And yet, in Hungary the language remained in everyday use well into the 19th-..

Luka Ivan Jukic March 18, 2025
King Richard II of England resigning his crown and abdicating the throne to Henry of Bolingbroke (later, Henry IV of England).
essays

The tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV

The tragic tale of two Plantagenet cousins warns us that political structures and norms are neither immutable nor eternal.

Helen Castor March 13, 2025
Detail from a tapestry showing John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, at the Battle of Blenheim (1704).
essays

The making of an 18th-century peace deal

In the early eighteenth century, a victorious but war-weary Britain sought a peace with France based on a hard-headed, unsentimental approach to its own national interests. The res..

George Owers March 7, 2025
Promotional image for Peep Show Series 3.
essays

The subtle art of English comedy

English comedy is alchemical, a tradition that can absorb and ameliorate contemporary debates over social class and national identity. It even promises the renewal of mystery amid ..

Alastair Benn March 6, 2025
Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a speech in Tiananmen Square in Beijing on 1 October, 2019
essays

Xi Jinping’s moment of truth

After completing his political ascent, President Xi must now confront his greatest challenge yet: transforming China's deteriorating economy without loosening the Communist Party's..

Jonathan Fenby March 4, 2025

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