Essays

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

The Qasr Al-Farid tomb in Saudi Arabia.
essays

The struggle for Saudi Arabia’s buried past

Saudi Arabia's expensive investment in its future has come with a concurrent focus on its archaeological past but its ambitions risk eradicating the remnants of centuries of pre-Is..

Andrea Valentino August 15, 2024
The Ukrainian flag and Motherland monument on the right bank of Dnipro river.
essays

The making of modern Ukraine

The deep divergence between Ukrainian and Russian identity in the last decade illustrates the power of historical narrative to shape societies and should remind the West that liber..

Jade McGlynn August 13, 2024
Still from the 1954 film, Godzilla, King of the monsters.
essays

Japan’s time of monsters

Godzilla has become an enduring allegory for Japan's complex post-war history, from the horrors of Hiroshima to economic miracles and environmental disasters.

Christopher Harding August 9, 2024
An engraving of the Hanseatic city of Wismar.
essays

The medieval world’s Baltic connection

Markets and merchants wove a complex web of trade, cultural exchange and economic innovation across the medieval Baltic and beyond.

David Abulafia August 6, 2024
Ukrania quae et Terra Cosaccorum cum vicinis Walachiae, Moldoviae, by Johann Baptiste Homann (1664–1724), 1720.
essays

Inside Russia’s forever war against Ukraine

An often-overlooked fact about the current Russo-Ukrainian War is that over the centuries Russia has waged several wars to try to conquer Crimea and the Donbas area.

Gudrun Persson August 1, 2024
'The Pandemonium' by John Martin, 1854.
essays

Poetry, prose and the battle for Paradise Lost

When first published, John Milton's Paradise Lost ignited criticism and controversy for its lack of rhyming poetry and it became part of a battle for the soul of English literature..

Josh Mcloughlin July 30, 2024
Chinese and American flags flying over the area around Tiananmen Square, 2002.
essays

Imagining the endgame of the US-China rivalry

The United States' strategy towards China is premised on an unending rivalry. Yet strategic competitions do end and America needs to imagine how its conflict with China might one d..

Michael J. Mazarr July 23, 2024
The Westbury Horse by Eric Ravilious, 1939.
essays

Evelyn Waugh and Anthony Powell – visions of a vanished Britain

Evelyn Waugh and Anthony Powells' visions of modernity differed in crucial respects, but taken together their work offers a vivid chronicle of Britain's secularising society caught..

Gerald Warner July 18, 2024
Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and members of his Politburo with Polish premier Wojciech Jaruzelski.
essays

The gerontology of power

From the 1970s onwards, the Soviet Union and Russia were debilitated by old, feeble and inept leaders. American risks following the same path.

Vladislav Zubok July 16, 2024

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